Safest way to get rid of aiptisia

[junglejim83]

I sorta had an aiptisia explosion in my tank. What do you think is the best way to go to get rid of them.. I've heard spraying them with some Kalk, but i'm afraid to screw up the pH. Then there's peppermint shrimp, weill i have to worry about them eating my corals, Leathers, GSp XEnia, zoos,capanella, shrooms) and i hear they are hit or miss some times, and then i heard mentio awhile back of filling a syringe with boiling water and spraying them, i just havent heard if this method works and some of the aiptisia are really close to my corals

Jim

[Satchmo]

Hey Jim. I mix up kalk with tank water till it's pretty thick. Then I inject the bastards with a small syringe. Has worked everytime for me. The small amount of kalk I'm using for this doesn't make a difference in water chemistry.

[Metznreef]

stick them sob's with a syringe filled with hydrogine peroxide. if you see a lot of bubbles coming out of them, you know that they are dead;)

[Mnesarchus]

Originally posted by Metznreef

stick them sob's with a syringe filled with hydrogine peroxide. if you see a lot of bubbles coming out of them, you know that they are dead;)

 

Can you actually use Hydrogen Peroxide?

[printerdown01]

Yeah, you have to actually inject... not just spray... I use pepps. I have had 4 of them in my nano (one died -attacked-, 2 were returned to the store, and one now resides in the tank). I had ONE pep that ate my teeny baby shrooms, no problems with the others. They add did a great job on my aptasia. Just make sure you actually get peps and not camel backs! Although I have never put them in a tank with zoanthids! If you have yellow polyps, either don't use the pep or find a temporary home for the yellow polyps!

[BustytheSnowMaam]

I think yellow polyps must be tasty, my crabs liked them too. Anyhow, I used the boiling water method and the only result was a population explosion- if any part of the anemone remains it will reproduce, I think all the little pieces of it that will float around after you zap it with whatever can make more anemones.

 

I'm with Printerdown, use a peppermint shrimp. If you make absolutely sure you have a genuine peppermint, you shouldn't have any problems. There is another shrimp who looks exactly like it but has a longer rostrum (not a camel shrimp, yet another kind) and will eat corals.

Tasha

[J-Bass]

Chem-Marin makes this stuff called Stop Aptasia, might wanna give that a try?

[Brianc_4]

Kalk it!!

[Crakeur]

Originally posted by J-Bass

Chem-Marin makes this stuff called Stop Aptasia, might wanna give that a try?

 

I have a bottle and a syringe and it works very well. if the pest is hard to reach, a squirt around it will kill it and not harm the tank.

[zamboniman]

If they are growing in little holes (like they usually do). Get them to retract and then plug the hole with a little dab of that putty stuff for attaching SPS.

[Metznreef]

i would love a pep but my dottybac will kill it. it eats ghost shrimp and most of the peps around here aren't much bigger.

[Dave ESPI]

obviously SOMEONE DIDNT DO A SEARCH !

ugh will the Aiptasia post dead horse beating PLEASE DIE ! ugh.

 

Ya can also add a SCATaphaguous Argus, the seem to like eating them and dont mess with my corals.

I simply also take some kalkwasser ( pickling Lime) and mix a pste and add it with a pippette right on top of the head of the aiptasia. It makes them melt and the head dies. when it does, the peps move in and blamo! no more promlemo

[printerdown01]

Metznreef, has a point with plugging the hole. I filled a pocket with sand and then smashed it down with a pebble that had a bunch of coralline growth (hard to explain but it capped the hole nicely, and packed the sand down). The little bugger [my appology for the Britts on this site, my use of the word "bugger" is totally G rated ] is gone now! I would bet that something like epoxy stick would work pretty well, especially when they are still small!

[BustytheSnowMaam]

Except, in my case, the anemone just found a new hole to stick its ugly head out of.

 

Does anyone have experience with majano anemones?

 

Tasha

[Brianc_4]

majano anemones, pretty damn close to aiptasia.Some people say that bi-colors will eat them, and I have also heard of some copperbands eating them, but its kind of like chemo to cancer, the cure could be more detrimental to your corals than the anemone. Angelfish of the genus Centropyge, Apolemichthys and Pomacanthus all munch on these anemones. Unfortunately, not much help in a nano. I would try the ole kalk injection, same as aiptasia.

[nmduke2001]

Just so I am clear, to get rid of this guy I can use a syringe (not medical, but plastic) filled with a kalk paste and squirt it directly on it (hopefully getting some in it's mouth). As it retreats, I squeeze more into the hole? Will this effect the water quality in a 12 gallon tank? I have heard about taking the piece of rock out of the tank and doing it outside of the tank. Any thoughts? I want to do this tonight, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.