Killing aiptasia
- Thread starter tvasi
- Start date
first you can poke at the buggers to make them suffer :twisted:
seriously, blasting them with a hot concentrated kalk mix works about 50% of the time. they're quick to retract, however, if they think something's wrong.
i've had complete success with pep shrimp. however, i bought three, one huge one and two smaller ones. long story short, the biggest killed off the two other and was posing a threat to other creatures in my tank, so i got rid of him. in the future if the aiptasia ever make a come back, i'm just gonna buy one small pep and be done with it. don't 100% trust them anymore. HOWEVER, as mentioned, they'll do the job. Just make sure you get a Peppermint shrimp and NOT a camel. Camels prob wont do diddly squat :wink:
seriously, blasting them with a hot concentrated kalk mix works about 50% of the time. they're quick to retract, however, if they think something's wrong.
i've had complete success with pep shrimp. however, i bought three, one huge one and two smaller ones. long story short, the biggest killed off the two other and was posing a threat to other creatures in my tank, so i got rid of him. in the future if the aiptasia ever make a come back, i'm just gonna buy one small pep and be done with it. don't 100% trust them anymore. HOWEVER, as mentioned, they'll do the job. Just make sure you get a Peppermint shrimp and NOT a camel. Camels prob wont do diddly squat :wink:
I have good luck mixing up kalk with ro water to about the consistency of pudding. Then I turn the pumps off. Then, I suck some of the paste up in a piece of rigid air line tube attached to a several feet of flexible airline tubing.
I place the end of the rigid tubing over the aptaisia, then gently blow into the other end so the paste comes out slowly and completey covers the anemone. Make a pile of paste on it. I wait about an hour before turning the current back on. This actually leaves a hard crust of kalk on top after an hour or so.
I have had great success killing them this way, the only time it doesn't work well is if they are under a ledge and you can't pile on the paste.
Clean the tube out with vinegar or you will never be able to use it again.
I place the end of the rigid tubing over the aptaisia, then gently blow into the other end so the paste comes out slowly and completey covers the anemone. Make a pile of paste on it. I wait about an hour before turning the current back on. This actually leaves a hard crust of kalk on top after an hour or so.
I have had great success killing them this way, the only time it doesn't work well is if they are under a ledge and you can't pile on the paste.
Clean the tube out with vinegar or you will never be able to use it again.
I read somewhere to use lemon juice in a syringe. So I went to the pharmacy, and after the odd looks of why I wanted a syringe and explaining it to them, they just nodded stupidly and handed it to me, for a whoping 49 cents. I then used the concentrated lemon juice stuff for cooking, and held a air tube plugged up as a siphon in the water next to the tube. My wife controlled the siphon flow, and I would insert the needle and inject.
If you get it INTO the tube of the aptasia, its dead, end of story. The siphon lets you suck out the floating juice (will be white/cloudy, easy to see), so that it doesn't effect anything. We are talking such small amounts, it has no impact on pH.
Only problem is as the above said, they are quick to retract, so if you miss your first stab with the needle, wait until the next day.
One other trick, I sometimes give my tank some frozen mysis shrimp. I noticed one had managed to grab ahold of one of teh shrimp bits, and was really fat trying to absorb it. It was MUCh slower, and much larger target. If I get another that I have trouble stabbing, I'm going to try feeding it first. Sort of a last meal on death row I guess.
If you get it INTO the tube of the aptasia, its dead, end of story. The siphon lets you suck out the floating juice (will be white/cloudy, easy to see), so that it doesn't effect anything. We are talking such small amounts, it has no impact on pH.
Only problem is as the above said, they are quick to retract, so if you miss your first stab with the needle, wait until the next day.
One other trick, I sometimes give my tank some frozen mysis shrimp. I noticed one had managed to grab ahold of one of teh shrimp bits, and was really fat trying to absorb it. It was MUCh slower, and much larger target. If I get another that I have trouble stabbing, I'm going to try feeding it first. Sort of a last meal on death row I guess.
i just added two small peppermints on friday to see if they'd deal with the 10 small aptaisia that have recently appeared... as of this morning, there were 3 small aptaisia left. 
they currently seem to be OK with my scarlet cleaners and other critters, but i'm keeping my eyes peeled.
they currently seem to be OK with my scarlet cleaners and other critters, but i'm keeping my eyes peeled.
I have an aiptasia farm in my 20. The Peps I bought started to mow through them, but once they figured out the feeding schedule and where to hang out for a free meal, they have gotten lazy and don't touch the aiptasia. Chem marine makes a differesnt product called Stop Aiptasia. It works, but I only kill a few at a time to protect water quality.
Do NOT wait to see if the first one spreads. I just tore down my 10 nano that turned into a aiptasia farm from one import on a piece of liverock rubble...I tried injecting boiling water for a while, but couldn't keep up. There was finally probably about 50-70 of the buggers in the tank ranging from head-of-a-pin size to tennis ball size. I would frequently see tiny "babies" floating in the water column, looking for the next place to attach.
Postscript: I moved all the substrate and rock (both covered with the spawn of Satan) into an open plastic bucket, (the rock/sand etc. filled the bucket halfway) and about a half inch of residual water remained on top of the solids. Temperatures in Florida have gone well over 90, then into 70's at night. It has rained for a total of about 4 hours.
Still, about six of the bigger aiptasias remain alive in the half inch of rain-and salt water....Wow.
Postscript: I moved all the substrate and rock (both covered with the spawn of Satan) into an open plastic bucket, (the rock/sand etc. filled the bucket halfway) and about a half inch of residual water remained on top of the solids. Temperatures in Florida have gone well over 90, then into 70's at night. It has rained for a total of about 4 hours.
Still, about six of the bigger aiptasias remain alive in the half inch of rain-and salt water....Wow.
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