Need help with aiptasia fast!!!!

[emcmilla]

I have a problem with aiptasia in my tank. After doing tons of research I decided I would try using vinegar. Originally, I was going to use lemon juice, but read (even i threads on here) that it may be unsuccessful. Further, I read that vinegar seemed to have a higher success rate. Personally I would have rather added a peppermint shrimp but since I no longer live near a LFS that regularly gets SW stuff, this solution won't work right now. I do plan on getting one to keep the outbreak at bay, but have a feeling my cleaner shrimp will eat him.
Instead of injecting the aiptasia with the vinegar in the tank, I took the rocks out and put them in a separate container with tank water. I figure this way, if some of the aiptasia breaks off, it won't reproduce in the tank. I also wasn't crazy about putting vinegar, lemon juice, or really anything else directly in my DT.
Anyway, after squirting some vinegar into the aiptasia, I realized that the vinegar is not "white vinegar", but instead, "pickling vinegar". I just am worried that I may have poisoned the LR. Also, I did scrape the rest of the aiptasia off the rock, and figure that rinsing the rock in fresh SW will eliminate, or at least decrease the number of pieces that may regrow...
Sorry for being long winded, what I want to know is, (1) is pickling vinegar the same or as safe as white vinegar? (2) will rinsing the LR after scraping be enough to get the little pieces of aiptasia off?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dlondono]

Aptasia is common.
Once you have aptasia, you will always have it.

We call it a pest but its not that bad, worry about infections that kill fish over night.

Once you have aptasia it is best to use natural population control.

If you dont have LPS corals get a matted file fish.

If you have LPS, go to reeftopia.com, purchase 30 peppermint shrimp and watch aptasia dissappear for a year or two, in the display tank and assuming your tank can sustain inverts.

 

[emcmilla]

Thanks for the quick response Diego. I looked at reeftopia.com but cannot seem to figure out if they will ship to Canada. Do you know? Also, the reason I am really worried about them is that there are some that are getting pretty large and my fish clearly avoid those areas of the tank.

 

[Jrsdaddy]

Aiptasia X from Red Sea works pretty well. I had a few pop up in my tank which I happened to start with dry rock (scratches head) and I was able to nuke them with the Red Sea product.

 

[emcmilla]

Jrsdaddy - thanks for the response. I had considered purchasing aiptasia x but read mixed reviews about it suggesting that it created more aiptasias. Did you ever have any more?

 

[Jrsdaddy]

Fortunately I only had 3-4 pop up (that I know of) and did the treatment last week, so far so good but time will tell. I also heard great things about the peppermint shrimp but make sure they are from the Caribbean, camel shrimp which look almost identical won't touch the stuff

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I'm going to get one of these ..

Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish, Captive-Bred ORA® (Rudarius ercodes)

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3352+3353+3470&pcatid=3470

 

[emcmilla]

hmm. Interesting fish. Unfortunately, I imagine since I am having such a hard time getting something that is pretty common (peppermint shrimp), I may have an even more difficult time trying to find him.

 

[Misled]

Thread moved to the current forum

 

[rburns24]

-
Get some Berghia Nubranch. I have a 65 that was packed with those pests. Got 2
2months ago and they are almost gone . For a 150 I would get a half a dozen.
-

 

[CHizer]

I used the aiptasia x. It worked great for me. They were 99% gone by the time I bought a copperband butterfly. The last few were gone in a few days and I'm sure she doesn't let any new ones pop up.

 

[karimwassef]

I got a copperband. Wiped most of them out, but they are resilient so they pop up on the far wall in the shadows... he takes care of them and they keep him well fed.

 

[karimwassef]

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/AF56B235-A3DB-4F0C-90A2-91C8F5D3CFDE_zpsii5lu68z.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/AF56B235-A3DB-4F0C-90A2-91C8F5D3CFDE_zpsii5lu68z.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo AF56B235-A3DB-4F0C-90A2-91C8F5D3CFDE_zpsii5lu68z.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/5CF7F24C-7E44-412E-9B4E-6DB36F255556_zps8krhcz04.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/5CF7F24C-7E44-412E-9B4E-6DB36F255556_zps8krhcz04.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 5CF7F24C-7E44-412E-9B4E-6DB36F255556_zps8krhcz04.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/50233ED9-A555-4224-96C2-2BD48D9B54AD_zps67uhsmac.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/50233ED9-A555-4224-96C2-2BD48D9B54AD_zps67uhsmac.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 50233ED9-A555-4224-96C2-2BD48D9B54AD_zps67uhsmac.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/12A2FD24-5C28-4CD1-A1CC-F73873E4F7CE_zpsaspncrqb.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/12A2FD24-5C28-4CD1-A1CC-F73873E4F7CE_zpsaspncrqb.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 12A2FD24-5C28-4CD1-A1CC-F73873E4F7CE_zpsaspncrqb.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/F584A95F-14FF-4FD4-8790-013950EB6908_zps1xqk5gqt.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/F584A95F-14FF-4FD4-8790-013950EB6908_zps1xqk5gqt.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo F584A95F-14FF-4FD4-8790-013950EB6908_zps1xqk5gqt.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/436AB285-6E27-495D-8A81-BC951F1C71F3_zpsmqfrgve4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/436AB285-6E27-495D-8A81-BC951F1C71F3_zpsmqfrgve4.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 436AB285-6E27-495D-8A81-BC951F1C71F3_zpsmqfrgve4.jpg"/></a>

Oh - I love this fish

He has a great little personality too

 

[dg3147]

I have two, Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish, Captive-Bred ORA® (Rudarius ercodes) in my tank. Great fish! ....bu not aiptasia eaters (at least in my tank).

They say copperbands work well, but I have had no luck with mine. He was finicky eater at first. Finally got him eating mysis and blackworms.

 

[snorvich]

The only fish that will guarantee eradication is a raccoon butterfly fish. Copperbands work about 50% of the time but they have other issues.

 

[karimwassef]

maybe put it in a quarantine tank first with a rock covered in aiptasia? If it gets hungry enough, it should chow down.

I did that with peppermints and they got the message and starting ripping the aiptasia apart too. They just weren't fast enough given the size of my tank.

 

[ca1ore]

Aptasia X works fine if you have just a few, but once they start to really proliferate you have to go with a biological control. Most fish are hit or miss. Raccoon works well, as does the Asfur Angel, though the latter is expensive and unlikely to limit its tastes to just pest anemones.

 

[swhobbie1]

-
Get some Berghia Nubranch. I have a 65 that was packed with those pests. Got 2
2months ago and they are almost gone . For a 150 I would get a half a dozen.
-

do these go after larger aipstasia. I have 2 that are the size of a quarter but are in places i can't get to without busting coral

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Peppermint shrimp ate all of mine. I had well over 50 in my 30g. Within a week all was gone

 

[swhobbie1]

Peppermint shrimp ate all of mine. I had well over 50 in my 30g. Within a week all was gone

This may be bc there was nothing else to eat. I've had several peppermints and they never ate any aipstasia far as I could tell in my display