Aiptasia on frag plug

Jwheld

New member
Just got my first corals, finally getting some color in the tank! I realized there looks to be aiptasia on one of the frag plugs. If I pull it out and scrap it off, is that good enough? Any other suggestions? I'm not quite read to glue the frag yet so I was thinking of keeping it on the plug until I find the perfect spot.

Thanks in advance!
 
Should be, also might not hurt to take the frag off the plug if at all possible, but scraping it off should do just fine. Do it outside the tank, fragments of it could spread inside the tank and take hold otherwise.
 
Pop or cut the frag off of the plug. If you want the frag on a plug, glue it to a new one. If you let aiptasia become established in the tank, you will have them for the rest of the tank's life. Some people are ok with this and view dealing with aiptasia as just a fact of life, either part of routine maintenance or employing biologic control methods (butterfly fish, filefish, peppermint shrimp, etc.). However, if you can avoid introducing them into your system, you'll never appreciate the amount of time/aggravation you have saved yourself. i have aiptasia and mojanos in my system and while it is not the end of the world, it's a definitely a pain.

Matt
 
I had a couple Aiptasias in my tank for months. Then last weekend I used Red Sea Aiptasia-X and killed them for good. The stuff worked great. Do a search on youtube to see how it works.
 
when I get a plug that has aiptasia on it I will usually use lighter on it and burn the aiptasia off. Good luck

I've burned them as well, they make a satisfying little pop sound when you heat them up enough, that's when you know you've got it.
 
In the past I have also used a syringe with Kalkwaser in it and injected the aptasia. Kills them almost immediately. I agree with the above though, removing frags from plugs and dipping them has just started for me and I saw a great different in the hitchhikers I was able to get rid of by doing that.
 
Dipping doesn't always kill Aiptasia. I dipped and used a turkey baster on the coral that brought Aiptasia into my system for about 30 minutes.
 
I use kali if I can't take the water out of my DT. I would take the frag out, use syringe and treat that area where that bugger is with hydrogen peroxide. Let it sizzle a few minutes, rinse with tank water and put it back where it should.
 
I used to have a ton of aiptasia. Used Red Sea Aiptasia-X but didn't work, after few days they came back.

Luckily, I get a Coperbanded Butterfly, he works very well. Now my tank is very clean. But someone told me, if he goes away the aiptasias will come back because the some aiptasias still hide in rocks that he can't reach. The Peppermint Shrimp is better, it will kill 100%

A reefer here shows how make a solution (but not try yet):
- 100ml RO water
- 1 coffee spoon of sodium hydroxide
- 2 coffee spoons of calcium hydroxide
 
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Took the frag off the plug... My noob mistake lead to a cracked skelatal structure (hammer coral). Put it back in the tank and after a couple hours the polyps started to come out. I don't think I damaged any tissues so I'm hopeful after reading some similar stories with happy endings.
 
I had a couple Aiptasias in my tank for months. Then last weekend I used Red Sea Aiptasia-X and killed them for good. The stuff worked great. Do a search on youtube to see how it works.

If you catch them right away and young this might work, but I've found most of the time what appears dead and gone often has several small ones pop up in it's place weeks later.

I don't like plugs, so I would have removed it too, but if scraped I'd scrape and scrub a good bit more than you assume is needed, it only takes the tiniest amount to come back
 
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