Serious Aptasia problems

[jjpelican]

I don't know what's going on but I have had several problems one after another, but thanks to the help of this site I still have a healthy tank.

I purchased a brain (Hard Coral), after a few days I noticed an aptasia on it. Several different stores had advice for me, some told me to pull it off other told me how to kill it with injecting calcium into it.

Well I tried to inject the calcium into it and it disapeered, but now from the looks of it, I have lots of these things growing everywhere in my tank (mostly on the left side in the live rock. For the most part 90% of them are very tiny, but I have noticed 1 or two big sized ones in a spot I can't really get to without wrecking the whole tank.

I did some research on it and everything recommends getting a peppermint shrimp and a copper banded butterfly, my problem is I am already overcrowded and my tang eats every shrimp I put in.

What can I do, will these things kill my fish also?

Also, I have noticed white spots on the glass in some spots, are these Aptasia eggs or something like that. I have noticed my Leopard Wrasse picks at the white spots on the glass.

 

[Anonymous]

They won't kill your fish. They will cover a lot of real estate if there's no predator in the tank to eat them. The white spots on the glass are not related to your Aiptasia.

Tangs do odd things but eating Shrimp is a new one for me. I discourage the Copperband unless you're an advanced hobbiest.

Here's a list of options in my opinion:

Peppermints
Berghia Nudibranch
Ophryotrocha Polychaetes
Boiling water
Kalk Paste
Joe's Juice
Propane Torch

 

[crod75]

Hey Guy,

Do you know of any places that sell the Ophryotrocha Polychaetes? I remember some posts a while back (last November) by someone called 'guano' that described an aiptasia eating worm. Is this the same type of worm that you are referring to? These sound almost too good to be true. Thanks for the help!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Guy,

Do you know of any places that sell the Ophryotrocha Polychaetes?

As far as I know Guano and I are the only people in the hobby propogating these worms. I am still determining what they are able to eat. Other than a few Aiptasia relatives they appear to be reef safe but I'm still working. We, Guano and I, will be publishing a paper in the near future as a joint effort. They are quite facinating. Unfortunately they are also excellent fish food and must be protected by an Aiptasia to survive.

 

[jjpelican]

hey Guy,
thanks for the response, could you please explain how some of those options work. I understand about the peppermint's but what about the boiling water and the other methods you mention?

 

[Anonymous]

Boiling Water - Boil RO/DI water, suck it up into a Turkey baster and baste the Aiptasia. This denatures all proteins which kills Aiptasia.

Kalk paste/Joe's Juice - mix a fairly thick slurry using Kalk powder and RO/DI water or just use straight Joe's Juice. Apply the slurry to the top of the Anemone. It will injest the mixture which usually causes fatal chemical imbalances insode the Anemone. This sometimes needs to be accomplished 2 or 3 times. Mixing Cyclop-eeze into the slurry helps a lot.

Torch - pull the rock out of the water and cook the Aiptasia.

 

[jjpelican]

by putting the boiling water into the water like that can it hurt the fish if they swim by. or can it hurt anything else in the tank.

 

[liquid]

Kalk paste/Joe's Juice

I usually add a bit of selcon to my kalkwasser/RODI slurry and then apply it to the oral disk of the aiptasia. The selcon tends to enhance the illusion that it's actually a food item that's being squirted at them so they tend to take it in readily. YMMV

Shane

 

[ChrisRD]

The method I've had the best kill rate with by far (nearly 100%) is boiling kalk slurry (microwave) squirted on from about 1/2" away. I generally leave a blob on the area for a few minutes (turn off pumps).

 

[Anonymous]

by putting the boiling water into the water like that can it hurt the fish if they swim by. or can it hurt anything else in the tank.

No, boiling water cool almost instantly once it mixes with the tank water. Get the tip of the turkey baster right on the Aiptasia to cook it.

 

[liquid]

FWIW, you get more kalkwasser dissolved in a cold solution as compared to a hot solution.

Shane