Drastic Measures?

[yakiwb2]

Two years ago I bought a small mushroom frag for my 58 gal tank. I had just purchased a 175k pendant and was looking foward to filling my tank with corals. On the mushroom frag was 6 or 7 brown anemone's...aptasia. I new at the time that I had to get rid of these as I had heard they multiplied quickly, and became a nuisance.

Well it's been two years, and I am now the not so proud owner of close to two hundred of these little #$%#. I HATE THEM. I have tried everything. Boiling them, burying them in the sand, pouring calcium on them. You name it, I've probably done it.

My brother and his pal ( fellow aquarists) are thinking drastic measures...ie starting from scratch...new sand, tank scrubbing, and boiling the live rock(which will kill it I'm sure). Is there anything else I can try before these drastic measures? PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU GUYS, ANY IDEAS!!!

 

[Anonymous]

get half a dozen pepermint shrimp. They'll mow down those little aptasia bastages in a few weeks. It's a much cheaper solution than starting over!

I had a bunch in my frag tank and they took care of them in a week or so. I'm tempted to put one of them into my fuge for a couple of days, to see if they'll get rid of them in there as well.

B

 

[daveyakiwchuk]

Sometimes you have to accept defeat..... Your brother and friend seem to have the right idea!

 

[Anonymous]

I'd go with a herd of pep's as well. Like Bingo said, 6 should do it.

Louey

 

[taikonaut]

These ideas are too dramatic, and not worth the hassle for a few hundred buggers. Besides the peppermint shrimp (cf. camel shrimp), I will resuggest you the kalkwassor method. You may want to explained about the "calcium" method to see if you did it properly if the ppt shrim does not work. 6 shrimp should be fine, and they may be able to clear the tank up in about a month. Worth the wait.

 

[Anonymous]

Nay, not camel shrimp. The "peppermints" must be Lysmata wurdemanni. MUST be that species. Don't feed them, they will eat the Aiptasia.

 

[reefann]

As sea maiden said, you need to be sure to buy "true" peppermints or that method will not work.
Good luck
JJ
_________________
Mercedes Benz W154

 

[taikonaut]

I don't know about you English speaking people, but when I use "cf," I ususally use it to point out the difference (confere, compare in Latin). I did not meant that ppt shrmp is camel shrimp.

 

[Anonymous]

......

 

[Supergenius74]

1 little peppermint worked for me. Took a while 3-4 months but he got em. and now i can only count 2 aptasia in the whole tank (55gal) he hasn't touched my other corals, button polyps, mushrooms, star polyps and he is quite fun to watch in the tank. He has nearly tripled in size since i got him 6 months ago.

 

[Eryl Flynn]

www.joesjuice.com

Give it a try, stuff works the little Aptasia love the taste of it, but it kills them. I killed off 2 in my tank with it, I figured wasting time and messing around would put me in a bad spot.

 

[yakiwb2]

Sounds like I need to get the peppermint shrimp. I only have a couple concerns....one is that I have a 3 inch tomato clown, will he have the shrimp for dinner? And will the little peppermint shrimp eat even the large aptasia(some are two inches) or should I use some chemicals for the big guys. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Anonymous]

The big guys might be too much for him. If the clown is especially territorial, then I'd consider putting him in a "time out" tank just to be safe. However, I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[rjrobert]

I second Joe's Juice. I tried playing with these things for a while. Joe's Juice worked awesome!! It;s better than Kalk because you don't have to inject it. You can feed them on there mouths.

 

[DeChamp]

I've heard that the Joe's Juice is having some good results with killing them!