Aiptasia terminators

[Jollymon]

I know this has been covered a million times. Let's hear what you do to these nasties. I think I've tried them all, and yet there always seem to be one or two that survives to make me miserable. :x

[phistio]

i've had great results from my peppermint shrimp...they are a mated pair, and keep the tank clean...but it also helps, and should be said that i've got cured rock in my tank...

kalwasser injected into the stalk generally works well...

as well, some will say that B-fly's will eat them, but it's hit and miss...

[HoopsGuru]

Boiling water injected into the little SOB's....speaking of which, its time to get the needle... :evil:

[Brad]

There will always be one or two left in a tank
I take care of mine with kalwasser

[Pineapple House]

I've only had them once. Peperment shrimp, and ejecting them with calcium hydroxcide worked for me. I also used to have a copperband butterfly, which snacked on them for quite some time.

Nasty little buggers if you ask me :twisted:

PH =)

[Zack]

same here time to get the needle :twisted:

[foofighter]

I tried kalk, boiling water, hemo's, Miss Cleo, you name it. Never seemed to make a difference. 6 peppermint shrimp.......all gone in about a week.
Worked for me. :D

[Pineapple House]

http://users.midamer.net/smcsmc/fish_welcome.gif
To ReefLounge foofighter! Enjoy your stay at the site of fun, and frolics :wink:

PH =)

[Jollymon]

Some people report good luck with peppermints. I have always been leary of them because they eat sand bed infauna. Those with DSB, have you noticed this? My sandbed is 7 months old. I think it is populating pretty well.

[phistio]

i haven't noticed this...although, my sandbed isn't extremely mature either...i'm just now starting to see signs of healthy infauna, and worms in my sandbed...

but my peppermint's have grown 1/4 in size since i got them less than 3 moths ago...

[broadwave]

Copperband Butterfly and Peppermint shrimp...you can't go wrong.

As long as you feed regularly you won't have a prob with either of them.

Been there...done that!

[EastCoastClams]

Inject them with hydrochloric acid. Gone in seconds. If you use this method research it and be careful.

[Jollymon]

How careful? I haven't heard of this one before. How much acid do you use?

[EastCoastClams]

OK here is the deal.

Get a needle, (syringue) and load with Hydrochloric acid.
Put needle as close as you can(into Aiptasia) and squirt it with acid. They will melt.

You can buy the Acid at Home depot.

Carefully pour into a small safe container( Iused an old coffee cup)

Watchout for the fumes. Vented area to pour acid is best.

If the rock you are trying to eradicate the Aiptasia is easily removable from the tank, pull it and simply squirt the acid onto the infected( Aiptasia covered) area. After it melts, just scrape off.

After this I would take a turkey baister and squirt off the acid residue before putting rock back into tank.

If you cannot remove the infected rock. Get a hypodermic needle, and fill with acid. You can only do this maybe 2 or 3 times before acid starts to destroy the plastic syringe.

Then place the needle as close as you can get to the target and blast it.

The acid will have no ill effects on your sysetm as long as you do not do to much in one sitting.

I have about 400 gallons of water volume, so the acid posed zero problems.

If your system is small use small amounts, or take the rock out of the system, and then rinse with tank water before putting back into tank.

Best of luck, ask questions if you have any.

[Irisservice]

Does any one have a good photo of Aiptasia?

[Johnny]

After you use the acid in your tank I would also check the PH, it could be thrown off very fast by the acid

[carol]

never had them myself but here is a link
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_pages/faq_aiptasia.html

[Sean Smith]

Why is aiptasia bad? I have two that I can see.

Why can't I just weed them out?

:roll:

[surgeon67]

The proliferate like CRAZY, and sting other animals, including corals.

If you try to "weed " them, they just come back, and sometimes come back in multiples. There are long discussions that have taken place on how to get rid of them. I have a few that periodically come up. Usually there is one in the recesses of the rock that will reproduce periodically, no matter what you do.

Most of us hate them .

[pete_ra]

heres my photos, i got pepp shrimp, but its been a week and they are scared to come out and eat them it looks like, so i will inject them with boiling water soon. I tell you how they react!

[Sean Smith]

I've got three in the space of a week!

I tried to weed them out but they just withdrew every time I got near....

What does a Peppermint shrimp look like? Do they have a particular season? I've got a blood red shrimp and what I think is a cleaner shrimp.

[ReefBum]

heres my photos, i got pepp shrimp, but its been a week and they are scared to come out and eat them it looks like, so i will inject them with boiling water soon. I tell you how they react!

You won't see them during the day if you have a decent amount of rock or hiding places. They come out at night and do their handywork....like stealth bombers :mrgreen:

[surgeon67]

Lots have tried boiling water, tho I haven't heard of much success. Vinegar, acid, distilled water are other possibilities used with mixed success. Pep shrimps are promising, but mine never worked out (he disappeared and never showed up again).

I use Kalkwasser paste and glob it onto them. That's worked better for me than anything else.

Good luck

Do a search here for aiptasia and you'll get hundreds of matches, and lots of suggestions

[carol]

be careful using distilled water it may have been distilled in a copper kettle. could be potentially bad for your inverts(if you use alot of it) I suggest a kalk paste and a syringe stick the needle directly into the center and shoot. watch your ph and calcium too they might rise up some.