Best way to eliminate aptasia?

[Mr. Ugly]

If you're taking the rock out of the tank, you can just soak it in some fresh water and let the aiptasias disintegrate from osmosis. Don't do a ton of rocks all at once or you can have problems with your nitrogen cycle.

As far as peppermint shrimp, I've had them take down aiptasias that were over 2" tall. Takes them a while. They snipped off the tentacles little by little until they could get at the body without getting stung.

 

[bee505]

I am also experiencing aptasia in my tank. I've been using Joe's Juice and the results have been 50/50. I am using the syringe that came with Joe's Juice. My problem with the syringe is when you get too close to the tentacles of the aptasia, the aptasia retracts. No luck so far, I'll try to look for a medical syringe.

 

[Eight]

I actually prefer the feeding/smothering technique with kalk paste rather than injecting with a medical syringe...

I find that the needle gets clogged too easily if you're using any thick sort of paste.

 

[GreshamH]

I actually prefer the feeding/smothering technique with kalk paste rather than injecting with a medical syringe...

I find that the needle gets clogged too easily if you're using any thick sort of paste.

Ditto. I only stab Manajos.

 

[VietNR1]

I've had huge success with a Copperband Butterfly. I've actually taken people's rocks and put them in my tank to feed the my copperband aptasias. Joes Juice and that stuff works but they've always come back. Between two peppermints and a copperband, nothing is left

 

[melly mel]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. I am going to pick up a couple peppermint shrimps for the rocks i cant get too and do the kalk paste or aptasia x for my frags/rocks that i can take out easily.

 

[robert4025]

How would you really like to annihilate the pest, Mel? We have Aiptaisa X, Joe's Juice, and Caribbean Peps in stock... :bigsmile:

 

[melly mel]

Thanks Robert, I'll be by sometime this weekend for some peppermints. Im still debating on just using kalk paste or pick up some a.x. I'll be brousing too! :bigsmile:

 

[tuberider]

To answer your question Rommel, the Aiptasia do not close up when approached with the syringe, you just go in there and stuff it down their throat, it actually works pretty good and I'm not a fan of most Aiptasia controls.

 

[melly mel]

Thanks Jeremy, I will start elimination this week! J)

 

[melly mel]

Well, looks like i got the bigger ones! I killed about a dozen or so his past weekend. Think i got a little bit of the kalk on one of my larger nuclear green zoa's...it has a brown spot on one side..dang it. Hopefully it recovers. Will work on more this weekend again. Btw, the salifert syringe worked perfectly!

 

[Matt_Wandell]

I agree with all the methods discussed so far. All have their drawbacks of course. I really hate the Aiptasia that decide to settle on a vertical surface of a large, virtually unremoveable rock in a Mantis Shrimp tank...

One thing we haven't tried (caveats duly noted) are the Seagrass Filefish, Acreichthys tomentosus, but they are reported to eat Aiptasia and leave most corals alone. As always, your mileage may vary.