ARGH aptasia! #@$%*&

[supraeli]

so i was all excited about setting up a new nano-tank, picked out 10 pounds of prime cured beautiful live rock from the store aquarium concepts in hayward, ca.

stuck it in my tank, delighted in my new aquascaping, and carefully observed as the mysis shrimp and feather dusters slowly began to explore thier new surroundings.

but wait, whats that? a tiny clear anemone? about the size of a pinhead. it cant be! yes, aptasia. oh god.

over time, i began to notice the larger abundance of it, but they are all incredibly tiny - none are larger than the head of a screw when measuring from tentacle to tentacle diameter. i can see about 5 of them, but im sure there are more in the back of the aquascaping.

what do you guys recommend? should i try joes juice/kalk mix on such teeny aptasia? buy a peppermint shrimp and hope that it likes the taste of aptasia? or screw the rock, throw it away and start over with another stock of rock that hopefully doesnt have aptasia?

soo frustrating.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

You can squirt them with kalk paste, joe's juice, vinegar, lemon juice, or hot water.

I've used peppermint shrimps before. Works best if you quarantine the rock in a 5 gallon container with a couple shrimp. I've had them eat >1" tall aiptasias before. They eat the tentacles first and after the aiptasias can't sting them, they tear into the main body.

 

[Vincerama2]

peppermints do good work! One guy eradicated the aiptasias in my 10g nano!

I put two in my sump at home, it's anemone free. When the ones in my main tank died, the tank got overrun... (cuz my whole system is infested, they live in the overflow and everhything)

I've nee hoping they might propogate in my sump/fuge, but it might just be wishful thinking!


Also, don't toss the rock away. Just let it dry out for about a week or two. Put it in the sun, etc. then put it back in.

V

 

[UCanDoIt]

Peppermint shrimps did the job! Never came back even though my peppermints are long gone.

 

[TikiDan]

I just bought 3 pepermint shrimp for my tank, and they seem more interested in each other than eating any aptasia. they jsut hang out in the back left corner of the tank, just being lazy.

 

[UCanDoIt]

Are they peppermint shrimps or camel shrimps? Camel shrimps really don't do anything, but my peppermint shrimps cleaned out everything.

 

[TikiDan]

I made sure they were peps before I bought them, maybe they just need to get good and hungry before they start hunting.

 

[Foster]

Put the LR in a bomb fire - battling aips is a nightmare.

 

[Kinetic]

berghia nudi's are pretty good at battling aiptasia, all they eat is aiptasia. they look great too. I think saltyunderground dot come has them =)

 

[tropoasis]

Berghia's were available last week at the BAR meeting!

 

[supraeli]

yeah, berghias would have been nice, but since the last time i owned a lettuce nudibranch for 3 days before it was pureed through my pump, ive shyed away from nudibranchs.

either way, i picked up a single lone ranger peppermint shrimp... i shall cross my fingers and hope he is a courageous warrior... even if i havent seen him since i put him in because hes hidden somewhere...