Kill aiptasia anemone

[o2bnh20]

I'm trying to rid my 20gal tank of these. I'm starting over on a new tank so all I have is live rock, some crabs and snails and some macro algae.I've tried the vinegar, didn't work, pepperming shrimp are too finickey.

If I turned the lights off will this kill them?

 

[acabgd]

No.

 

[o2bnh20]

yea, i've had the lights off for a week now. That has slowed them down some. They are mainley on the rock. What if I take the rock out of the water, put the rock in a empty 5gal reef salt bucket wrapp the rock in a wet cloth undershirt, no lights, and no water for a couple of days? The rock should be okay, think this might kill'em?

 

[OrionN]

Aptasia are as hardy as any animal in the LR. If what you did was effective for aptasia, it will kill 90%+ of the live in LR.
For just a few, I just take a blow torch to them. Blow torch will just kill around the aptasia but not the rest of the rock. You may have to do this a time or two because like me, you will miss some the first two or three times.

 

[ivan osornio]

I just kill all my aptesia last week and I did the same on my friends tank al you need it's kalkwasser and boiling water and a syringe!
I mix 3 spoons of kalkwasser on a cup of water mix it and let it sit for min get the syringe and turn off the pump of your tank get a little of the mix from the button of the cup were more thick and put some on top of the aptesia let it set there for about 5 to 10 min and by the next day they will be gone

 

[tassod]

Filefish works for me, I had them everywhere and withing a few days of adding this fish they are all now gone.

 

[msmith619]

Aptasia are tough! I controlled mine with a small, well-contained, nuclear blast. Now, I can't find my tank anymore, or my house!

 

[mnchartier]

Matted Filefish or Berghia Nudibranch. I had some a year ago and introduced Berghia and I have been clean since. It took about 3 months for all to be gone (time will depend on how many aptasia you have and the amount of Berghia you add). I did do a small experiment as I had a tank setup to culture more Berghia so I had people giving me their aptasia. I set some in a small tupperware container on my desk, no water changes, no food, and just day light and ambient light, they lived for 8 months before melting away.

You can also try Kalk paste, lemon juice or Joes Juice, personally if I used either of these I'd treat out of the tank.

 

[OrionN]

If you start early in the infestation, the torch work best for me. We have one of the butane cooking torch. That took care of my aptasia problem

 

[cali9dub]

Raccoon butterfly will destroy them !!

 

[Wryknow]

For a 20 gallon tank I would do peppermint shrimp combined with manual removal. A syringe with boiling water/kalk mixture works well ont the big ones that the pep shrimp tend to avoid. (Don't do too much at once as it will increae the Ph of your water.) If you get the big ones the shrimp will happily eat the small ones and keep the population under control.

 

[Mpup]

+1 to Kalkwasser, easy to do as well..

 

[Knots]

I remember someone once telling me hotsauce would work too in a syringe.

 

[jsrinc]

My research says peppermint shrimp and minimize feeding your fish is the best solution.....

 

[jsrinc]

And for manual, us Aptasia X and syringe

 

[jsrinc]

Good Luck....Aptasia is nasty

 

[azjohnny]

I had best luck with Berghia Nudibranch, if you use them you have to turn off any circulation pumps and run the return pump as slow as you can. They are delicate

http://www.saltyunderground.com/pro...id=70&osCsid=8e6ae9ad23edb37b67a6c57372fe6d6c

 

[Knots]

I would do a combination of a few simple tricks man.

First, with the bigger ones get a syringe with boiling hot water (don't melt the syringe) and inject it into the mouth of the larger Aptasia.

Second, if there are no other corals/animals on the live rock, give it a 15-20 fresh water dip (completely submerged). This will kill the smaller/weaker ones (if there is such a thing with Aptasia). It will not kill your live rock, but will kill any little critters that you have on it... so watch the bucket you put it in and scoop them out (if you want to hassle with keeping them).

 

[Knots]

Peppermint shrimp can/do eat them... but you have to be quick in my experience or Aptasia can spread to the rest of your rocks.