Jestersix

Aptasia Kill Question

SoulFish

SoulFish

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Here's the deal, I have 4 aptasia on my live rock in my 40 breeder, I've been killing them with boiling water and a turkey baster. cheap and kills on contact, but I always seem to have another one or two pop up somewhere else.

I'm setting up a new 200 gallon reef, and would like to seed that tank with this live rock, but I DO NOT want to introduce aptasia to it. So I just restart on all the live rock again, by letting it bleach out in the sun, then go through the curing process in a trash can?

Or can I hand pick the rocks with no aptasia and use them? Or is there some kind of reef rinse I can use to kill the aptasia and not the benificial bacterial and other animals on the rock?
 
Aptasia will find a way. They will show up. Maybe not for a while, but eventually.
They are particularly good at sneaking in on purchased coral.
The only real way is pure dried dead rock, and a pristine system, FOREVER.
IMO : Probably not worth the hassle.

Instead:
1) Keep tight track on nutrients of course.
Good skimmer. Rinse frozen food.
2) Poison the big ones every couple months.
Never let them get big.
3) Get some peppermint shrimp.
They are good at getting the little ones. But don't seem to touch the big ones.

Key is the combination. Especially 2+3.
 
Peppermints will only go after small ones. Copperbands love to eat them as well but they are also hit n miss. Ive seen some go right after them while others just swim by. Joe's juice and Aptasia X ( pretty sure thats what its called ) works good but make sure you hit it dead center in the mouth. The way I did it was to pull the rock out of the tank and do it in a bucket. If you cant pull the rock its ok to do it in the tank
 
Peppermints will go after the big ones, you just have to make sure no other food is available to the shrimp - IME.

If you have a few occasional nems, look into the majano zapper.

In my home display I have a margined butterfly that eats the ap's but not the majanos.
 
pickling lime and a little water to form a paste. turn off all pumps. use a syringe with a needle point tip (old salifert test kit) and slowly squeeze the paste on to the aiptasia or majano. cost pennies plus your time. peppermints have worked for me in the past too, but i find that peppermints jump on my lps to pull food out of their mouths.

or pull the rock out and carefully chisel the base of the rock where aiptasia is attached leaving the aiptasia whole. results depend on the porousness of the rock.
 
Thales said:
Peppermints will go after the big ones, you just have to make sure no other food is available to the shrimp - IME.
Click to expand...

+1

You can also train your peppermints to recognize aiptasia as food by quarantining them in a small tank with only aiptasia rocks. After they get used to tearing into the aiptasias, you can put the shrimp into your display.

Had peps take down 2" tall aiptasias before. Ate the tentacles first. Pretty interesting to watch.

Copperband butterfly worked best for me in my 150. Took him a couple weeks before he started chowing down on them. Had the tank clean about 2 weeks after that.
 
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