Aiptasia Infestation

[Ricordia]

Hello all,

I have a bad aiptasia infestation, literraly hundreds of the buggers in my 150 gallon reef. Peppermint shrimp do not last more than a week in my tank, I suspect my very large brittle star is eating them like candy.

I've heard that CBB's are fragile, difficult fish to keep, but I was very successful keeping an Achilles Tang for several years (he was squished by my large squamosa, got too cocky and started nibbling the mantle ) which I hear is supposed to be almost impossible to keep. With that in mind, should I try to aquire a CBB for aiptasia control?

Is there anything else I should try? I'm very reluctant to try chemicals, but willing to be convinced if there's good reason to go that route. I'm getting desperate!

Ricordia

 

[ChrisRD]

The boiling kalk thing and peppermints have always worked for me, but if you have lots of them that could take some time... :wink:

I've never tried a CBB for aptasia control, but maybe if we move this into the GRD (I'll leave a copy in the NRF as well) you'll get some feedback from someone who has...

And BTW... :welcome:

 

[Anonymous]

I tried joes juice with some luck. I was not able to get them in a single pass. I had good luck with peps until my BTA ate them.

 

[Ricordia]

The boiling kalk thing and peppermints have always worked for me, but if you have lots of them that could take some time...

I tried injecting kalk back when the infestation first started and there were only a few aiptasia; as soon as I injected them they'd spew out their spawn. about a week later, there were at least three times as many in the tank as there were before I injected them (although the ones I injected were gone), so I never treid it again. The kalk wasn't boiling, but I don't see how that would make a difference.

And BTW... :welcome:

Thanks!

Ricordia

 

[ddold]

I've had better luck with Joe's Juice than anything else. The peppermint shrimp seem to make better food for other things than they do at actual aiptasia control. My father in law always used CBB to control it and never had problems during the 80's when he had tanks.

 

[ChrisRD]

I tried injecting kalk back when the infestation first started and there were only a few aiptasia; as soon as I injected them they'd spew out their spawn. about a week later, there were at least three times as many in the tank as there were before I injected them (although the ones I injected were gone), so I never treid it again. The kalk wasn't boiling, but I don't see how that would make a difference.

FWIW, I don't inject, I just squirt it on. It looks like a slurry underwater and I coat the aptasia good and leave a blob over the area where it resides. I turn pumps off so it sits on the spot for a while. I've gotten far better results if I boil it in a microwave right before I squirt it on, as opposed to using it at room temps. Using that technique I've had about a 99% kill rate, but that's JME, YMMV...

 

[liquid]

Is there anything else I should try?

My recipe:

• * Take an old Selcon squirt bottle and put 2 mL of Selcon liquid in it
  * Fill the bottle 1/4-1/3 full of kalkwasser powder
  * Fill the remainder of the bottle with RO/DI water

Now shake the bottle.

Suck up about 0.5-1 mL of the slurry and squirt it right on the oral disk of the Aiptasia. It initially thinks its food since the Selcon is in the solution but it realizes it too late. At that point it's sucked an amount of the kalk paste inside and then it's death from there.

I've been using this every night for the last 3-4 nights to wipe out my infestation. I'll kalk them right before lights out and by the next morning they are a stump. By the evening the bristleworms are making short work of the remainder of the tissue.

Don't nuke them too fast as dying Aiptasia will pollute the water column.

Shane

 

[Ricordia]

Individual eradication is out of the question, there's just too many of them and they are stuck in places I could never reach with an applicator. Here's a picture I just took to help illustrate the magnitude of the problem.

Warning, extremely shocking reef tank image, about 200k in size, do not open if you are faint of heart:
The Shame

Ricowan

 

[Anonymous]

I can't tell from that picture what you have in your tank i.e. corals and other inhabitants but instead of investing in a Chelmon rostratus a better alternative would be a Chaetodon lunula (Racoon Butterfly) these will quickly eradicate your problem, are much easier to get to accept other foods and tend to be healthier and easier to keep though they are not coral or other anemone safe.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[craig45]

Whoa! Wondering how long the infestation took to get this far (photo)? I have two Aiptasia, but they don't seem to be spreading, and my wife think they are "cute"! Been meaning to try Peppermint Shrimp, but the supply at my LFS don't look too healthy.

Craig

 

[liquid]

Individual eradication is out of the question

Honestly I think you could get rid of them with an applicator. It would take a while nuking 5-10 a night, but it can be done. Knock out the big ones first and go from there.

Shane

 

[Ricordia]

I can't tell from that picture what you have in your tank i.e. corals and other inhabitants but instead of investing in a Chelmon rostratus a better alternative would be a Chaetodon lunula (Racoon Butterfly) these will quickly eradicate your problem, are much easier to get to accept other foods and tend to be healthier and easier to keep though they are not coral or other anemone safe.

Currently:
2 skunk clowns
1 sunrise dottyback
1 blue damsel
1 mandarin goby
1 large green brittle star
1 medium sized red serpent star
1 tridacna
cabbage coral (don't remember species name, this was a hitch hiker that has grown like crazy)
various ricordia and mushrooms
lots of tiny feather dusters

All of my polyps and sps were overrun by the aiptasia, but I'd like to replace them once the aiptasia is gone. This is the first I've heard that a Racoon Butterfly would eat the aiptasia, but hey I'm willing to try it out! I have a good relationship with my LFS, I can take a fish back if it's healthy and I don't need/can't keep it anymore.

Ricordia

 

[Bojangles]

Whoa! Wondering how long the infestation took to get this far (photo)? I have two Aiptasia, but they don't seem to be spreading, and my wife think they are "cute"! Been meaning to try Peppermint Shrimp, but the supply at my LFS don't look too healthy.

Craig

I had peppermint before as well for about 5 months with moderate luck. He ate the small clear ones, but I have 4 large brown ones that have been in the tank almost a year now, have not spread and the shrimp wont touch em.

The LFS near my house "rents" CBB out and partially refunds you when you bring him back ir or when he gets the job done and you dont want him anymore if that is the case.

 

[ChrisRD]

The LFS near my house "rents" CBB out and partially refunds you when you bring him back ir or when he gets the job done and you dont want him anymore if that is the case.

Heh... ..."fin for hire"... :lol:

 

[Jolieve]

I really think, since some of these aiptasia are so large, that you could do a fair portion of the work by hand. The bigger ones are actually easier to kill with kalk paste. I don't use any special mixture. I just drop about a tablespoon of kalk into plastic bowl, nuke some water, mix the two until it has the consistency of elmer's glue, then suck it into a syringe from an old test kit and go hunting. For hunting, just drop a good sized blob of the stuff into the center of the aiptasia. Watch them turn white and dissolve, and you're done.

With as many as you have, I think you could kill maybe 10 of them in about five minutes. Wouldn't take much time, and it would help you feel like you are doing something about the problem while you are making your decision about the CBB. At the very least, you can use this to keep them away from your corals.

If I lived nearby, I'd offer to come help. I can see that this is a lot of work and might be a little overwhelming for you, but as I said, since some of these aiptasia are so big... it should be easy to get started.

Good luck!
J.

 

[shalegac]

you could always place the star in another container for awhile while some pep shrimp go to work.

 

[Chemical_Whore]

I dont know I kinda think his tank looks great, I would love to see those waving back and forth in my tank, what is so bad about these guys??

 

[Jolieve]

Chem... they sting and kill your corals, and if they don't do that, they grow so prolifically that they crowd them out before they can even get a foothold.

J.

 

[Ricordia]

you could always place the star in another container for awhile while some pep shrimp go to work.

I've actually tried getting him out of the tank, it's pretty hopeless. This guy is about 23 inches from tip to tip, and holds onto the rock like nothing else. He can eat an entire shrimp whole. He's really cool, almost like having an octopus, so I don't want to mess with him too much.

Ricordia

 

[Ricordia]

I dont know I kinda think his tank looks great, I would love to see those waving back and forth in my tank, what is so bad about these guys??

They killed off all of my SPS and polyps. Take a look at my tank a year ago to see what it was like before the infestation.

Ricordia