Aiptasia Problem

[seth16]

This happen to fall right in a period when i have to move the tank anyways, so that may help with the whole thing, but over a period of less than 2 weeks, two little aiptasia that i saw in the back of my tank and didnt get to fast enough, turned into a nightmare, THOUSANDS of minute, baby anemones are everywhere and i just cannot buy as much JoesJuice that would be needed to take care of this. I have treid the vinegar/water thing and everything else, but on this large of scale, i conscidered placing all of my LR in a large container and shut it off from light completely. Would this work to kill off the infestation? My parameters are fine, i ddint get why they grew so fast, but then i remembered that i spoiled my fishies a lot this last week with food and seaweeds and treates, so i think the anemones had a feast aswell. I have to take down my tank anyways so my parents can put new carpet in the room, so i may be able to kill two birds with one stone (or tons of anemones). A couple aiptasia are on rocks with corals on it, but i am gogin to QT them and zap THOSE with JJ.

 

[saltysupply]

I had the same thing happen in mine, I can actually see them spawning, luckily Im doing a new build so nothing will come from the current tank except living coral....I wish there was an easier way to eradicate them

 

[sttaylor]

Turning off the lights will take forever to kill them. I don't know about complete blackness, but I have a dormant tank that has been sitting in a room with no tank lights and no flow for over 6 months and there are still aiptasia living in it.

Scott

 

[The_Browns]

Joe Juice: 100% so far. I took out 1 with once zap, then I noticed about 10 in a little group, took them all out with one zap. Works good for me.

 

[chrisstie]

Have you considered geting some berghia nudibranchs? Not sure if thats how you spell it right. They will eat them

 

[orb]

have you tried a CBB, or peppermint shrimp? a CBB would love a meal like that.

 

[a2fire2i]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11896614#post11896614 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by orb
have you tried a CBB, or peppermint shrimp? a CBB would love a meal like that.

I have two peppermint shrimp and they take care of my problems..

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

I asked the same thing awhile back...basically the best info I was given is

"Aiptasia are not photosynthetic, they dont need light to survive at all. They will adapt to almost ANY conditions, this is why they are labeled a PEST!"


mejano/aiptasia link

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

on the same note....they do say actually "cooking" the live rock for an extended time will however kill them....again just other info that was given to me...in the process of finding out now for sure

 

[saltysupply]

some people use blowtorches to kill them as well, thats just to much work though, Its best to have animals that prey on them like CBB or shrimp

 

[seth16]

Wow, i didnt even think about peppermint shrimp, i will try that then. Those arent too expensive either

 

[evega]

Joe juice should work. Also try a copperband butterfly fhis or peppermint shrimp will work but you need about 20 of them. I think that a copperband fish will work very well I have a friend that had a similar problem and he spend abour $40.00 in a fish and he did the job in about a 1 1/2 month after he runs out of aptsia he probably die because that is the only thing that he eats.

 

[orb]

my cbb took care of my aiptasia problem....and my featherdusters. it now eats frozen mysis. i think adding a cbb would be the quickest fix.

 

[seth16]

Ok, i didnt know what CBB was, and kind of just pretended i knew that acronym...but now that i know it is a copperband...ok...well, yeah, and i also have a featherduster problem too, so that works out great.

 

[thor32766]

cbbs are hit and miss to say the least. I had mine for over 2yrs (rip) he wouldnt even look twice at aptasia. CBBs arent for certains going to eat your aptasia. I would try peppermint first.

 

[kyelr]

Use the berghia nudibranch, there's a breeder out of St. Louis, Lisa Brown is her name - works incredibly well.

 

[orb]

lol....i guess everything in this hobby is hit or miss. i had 5 pep shrimp in my tank that didn't touch it. my problem was taken care of by my CBB.

if you can score some of the nudibranch's then that would be your best bet, as that's guaranteed. after they finish off your aiptasias they will starve, but you could sell them at that point....if you're able to find them in your tank. they're pretty tiny.

 

[Swirlygig]

What is so bad about feather dusters? I understand the stupid aiptasia problem however...just not a feather duster?

 

[orb]

no. i liked my featerdusters....they are but a memory now. i was just letting Seth know they would be eaten if he added the CBB. i thought they were pretty, and i think they filter feed, cleaning up the water.

Jeff, did you ever sell your big one?