Removing aptasia without hurting zoas

[Caliburst]

Thats what someone else told me- they come back FAST. Like I said, I had one come in on a coral and I clipped off the entire section of rock it was attached to. It never came back. After a couple of week, someone reassured me that I was in the clear.
Im going to take in the zoas, quarantine them, and get to work. Im getting nice stuff, nothing 'special' but large colonies of watermelons, dragon eyes, radioactive greens, etc. Fairly common stuff but nice none the less and they are all good size colonies. Im starting up a CAD Pro 39G and Id like to put them in there for a little more color.

Maiden is among the best of all time.
Up your irons!

 

[Caliburst]

You aren't fighting a losing battle they do reproduce fast but if you knock them out a few at a time eventually you'll have won.

I was planning to do 2/3 at a time, then come back and do 2/3 more a little later when they re-open. There may be dozens of them so it may take a few days... but as soon as a couple go down, the others in the neighborhood will retract so its prob the only way its going to work.

now- what about the others that I may not be able to see? Just nuke the big ones and wait to see if others emerge in absence of the big ones?

Im hearing mixed things about Joe's juice. Seems like aiptasia-X is a better product. No? Isnt it just citric acid in Joe's juice?
If the citric acid cannot hurt the zoas, why not dip the whole rock in lemon juice?

 

[DeepFreeze]

I am fighting an outbreak myself. I have had a few for a while and just treated them with Aptasia X, but that would only kill those I could see. I am now using a syringe with lemon juice injected into the base of each one I can see. I also have some peppermint shrimp to help with those I can't see. The lemon juice does the job pretty quick.

 

[sivert55]

raccoon butterflies will destroy both aiptasia and mojanos.
but they'll also pick at zoas.
last time my dad's tank had an infestation, we took the rock out and baked it in the desert sun for a week. no more anemones.
Took the rock about 3 months to get some coraline and algae growth on it again. Now, you can't even tell it was ever nuked.

 

[Friday Night]

Frag/save what you can of the good zoas left glue it to another rock (pest free) thier hardy and multiply fast depending on what kind.. and start over fresh..

 

[NaClH2O Getaway]

Joes Juice is kalk solution. Similar to injecting with kalkwaser (concentrated calcium). What happens is you get it right in the mouth and it reacts by closing around it then the solution cystalizes and kills it from the inside. Once that happens it falls to the ground and is done. I'm imagining aptasia x is a similar product and I can not speak for whether it is better or worse because I only tried the Joes and I never needed anything else.

I will tell you that zapping them a few at a time is advisable if going with a Kalk based treatment because the calcium raises the PH in the tank slightly so doing too many at once may cause a spike in PH

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

When you stab them or squish them, it just creates more of them. Get a needle with a syringe and inject them with boiling water.

 

[Caliburst]

well gentlemen, this is what I decided to do. Last night, I sat for some time with a pair of clippers. I began cutting rocks in half and threw out the infested sections. I cut off generous amounts too.. In the end, I sacrificed a lot of zoas but I felt it was the easier way to go. I am not monitoring the colonies carefully to see if any new seedlings decide to sprout up. I picked up some Joes juice from a friend (free!:dance and I will give them a blast if any show back up.
He gave me a regular needle/syringe. I assume that this stuff is concentrated enough that I do not need any special type of 'applicator'.

 

[Caliburst]

Will this work on invasive species of mushroom too that become unruly?

 

[NaClH2O Getaway]

I've never tried it on any mushrooms.. the good thing about trying it for free is you have nothing to lose good luck with everything

keep rockin
\m/

 

[Paul B]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1808040

You could try this.

 

[ECU stew]

I've used joes juice directly on a rock covered in green button polyps. I picked it up and inserted the tip directly into the aiptasia and filled it up, no harm done to the polyps. Now if you cover the polyps with it they will melt, but if you're careful it will work. I have used joes on majano's too and it only took one dose.

 

[StrongMN]

Peppermint shrimp > all. I have two and love them. they took care of that problem and keep the tank really clean.

-Justin

 

[Caliburst]

Re: Removing aptasia without hurting zoas

As an update- it's been a full week and I only saw one sprout up since. I squirted it with joes juice and it shrivelled up and disappeared.

 

[Caliburst]

In retrospect, I could have saved a lot of zoas by using joes juice from the beginning, because it did work, but it was MUCH easier just to break the rocks apart and throw out the infested pieces. I sacrificed a lot of good zoas. I also could have sliced them off and plugged them but I just didnt want to be bothered. My feeling was that zoas grow back quickly enough that it wasnt the end of the world to lose some.

Thanks for everyones advice. Joes juice caused the majano to shrivel right up and then literally disappear. I know it has had mixed reviews, but I would recommend the product.