Aiptasia and lemon juice.

[AndySmithers]

On the advice of this forum yesterday I 'nuked' my largest aiptasia hitchhiker with an insulin syringe half full of lime juice (all I had in the refrigerator!).
Wow! Talk about instant death!
My question is just out of curiosity, does anyone know WHY a few cc of lime juice is SO toxic to the critter?

I'd tried putting peppermint shrimps in but they showed no interest in the pests. I tried the lemon juice trick out of desperation, not really expecting a dramatic result.

On a similar vein, I was reading an aquarium mag. last night and there was an article about how the reef hobby has changed over the past couple of decades. Apparently in the '70s success in breeding aiptasia was cause for CELEBRATION. How times change!

 

[reefrunner69]

does anyone know WHY a few cc of lime juice is SO toxic to the critter?

I'm almost certain it is the citric acid, it just melts them. I think you will get the same results with white distilled vinegar

Apparently in the '70s success in breeding aiptasia was cause for CELEBRATION. How times change!

LMAO, that is too darn funny

 

[Hara]

Anthony Calfo, in his book on coral propagation, actually advocates a second "refugium" for aiptasia....they are supposedly wonderful filter feeders.

I am wondering how in the heck to get them off my clams!
Seems I had a couple hitchhikers and now they are in plague proportions.
I used the lemon juice method and the aip lived but the nearby mushroom died..
kinda makes me a tad gunshy near the clams.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What if you just injected it with a nice big bubble of air? That should either pop it or mess it up real good inside.

 

[Hara]

if it were to "pop", I would imagine it would spread like crazy.

 

[reefrunner69]

if it were to "pop", I would imagine it would spread like crazy.

Agreed

 

[wseaton]

Aiptasia are good filter feeders, but they are also among the most toxic. Funniest thing I ever saw once was my coral banded shrimp attempting to 'steal' a piece of beef-heart that had drifted into large one. This same shrimp will steal food from any other type of anemone even while it's obvious he's getting stung, but after he brushed one of his antennae against the aiptasia he nearly did a back flip trying to get away from it. I imagine the same sensation for us is like peeing on an electric fence.

Once had a LR that sprouted so many tennis ball sized aiptasia I said @#$% it and simply boiled the rock to kill it all off. That ocrid smell is beyond description and haunts me to this day.

Aiptasia seems to not do as well in tanks with higher PH values, and if I don't feed my dwarf angels for a day or two they'll eat the smaller ones.