Dealing With Lots of Aiptasia

[Etcool]

So tonight while looking at my tank I found a bunch of little white looking things with tentacles growing on my LR. After research I am sad to say that I was right and I believe they are Aiptasia.

The tank is a brand new JBJ 28G that has only had LR in it since Saturday. I bought 31 lbs. of cured live rock from a LFS and put it in my tank Saturday night.

This video shows one piece of my rock that has a few of them growing on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrhf0-V6tnI

So I know that I can treat this chemically by injecting products around them to kill them but they are very small and there are Tons of them on my rock. I don’t know if I could even find all of them to kill.

Second I know peppermint shrimp can sometimes eat small Aiptasia and that would work great but I have not even finished my nitrogen cycle yet so the shrimp will not work right now.

So will I just have to try to find all of them to inject or is there any better way out there? Any ideas at all are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and help

P.S. I don't know why two videos show up but they are both the same thing.

 

[Don7]

You can keep injecting them. I had the same problem a few years back and that got rid of them. Shouldn't be hard to find them cuz if I'm not mistaken they like light. I know you probably have hundreds of them but you can "crop dust" them. They're hungry little monsters and will grab it.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

since there is nothing growing on your rock you could scrub them...this may not get rid of them completely but if you keep their size down until your cycle is up you can get some pepermints to finish the job

 

[Etcool]

since there is nothing growing on your rock you could scrub them...this may not get rid of them completely but if you keep their size down until your cycle is up you can get some pepermints to finish the job

That’s a good idea, I just don't think trying to spot treat all of these will work that great mainly because I could not find all of them.

 

[yetee]

If you are going to try and scrub them do not do it in the tank. they will spred like wild fire if you do. I am guessing there is nothing in the tank right now since you are cycling. I would either crop dust them or pull the rocks out that have it and do what you want to do then rinse them off really well and then put it back in the tank.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Peppermint Shrimp and Copperband Butterfly's which are used by people to control Aiptasia are really not the best idea. It is much better to just used kalkwasser in a syringe and squirt a small amount on to the oral disk. This is cheaper and guaranteed. Peppermints and Copperbands are hit and miss, some eat them others don't. Peppermints in general don't even glance at the large ones.

 

[Etcool]

Well I have like literally 20+ small ones that I can see, so I don’t know how well finding each one to squirt a paste on will work. Is that the only way to chemically treat them if nothing else is in the tank?

 

[ryshark]

Here is my .02 cents on what has and hasn't been said already.
Don't scrape the rock, like yetee said, you will be spreading them all over. I didn't know crop dusting them would work, to me that would make a mess and wouldn't kill off the big ones. I would get some type of Joes Juice or AiptasiaX etc and inject which ever ones I saw. Then when the tank is cycled I would get a bunch of peppermint shrimp depending on your tank size. The peppermint shrimp may be hit or miss, so thats why you get a bunch of them.....this way your odds increase on getting some that do eat it. However, they do typically only eat the small aiptasia, so inject the big ones. I have either 5 or 6 peppermint shrimp in my 180-gallon.
The only time I was truly Aiptasia Free was when I had a Copperband. However, even though he was eating Mysis and bloodworms he still died after about 5-months. For this reason I would not recommend a Copperband. But for getting rid of every single Aiptasia, he was awesome. I never did see him eat one but all the aiptasia disappeared after adding him.
If you are not going to have coral then there are other much hardier and more of a sure thing to eat aiptasia butterflys out there. For instance a Racoon Butterfly. If you are going to be FOWLR then dont even sweat it until the cycle is over then add a Raccoon Butterfly and he will eat them all and keep the tank aiptasia free and you won't need peppermint shrimp either.
BUT, having coral is lots of fun, so be certain you don't want a reef tank before adding a Racoon because I hear they are very hard to catch.
EDIT- I just realized this is in the "REEF" Forum and not the "FOWLR" Forum. Forget what I said about adding a racoon... I'm going to bed now. Good night.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice ryshark.

 

[Etcool]

Haha, well the plan right now is to have fish and a CUC for a while, until I get the feel of SW then maybe add some beginner corals later. So do all butterflyfish eat Aiptasia? I have only heard of coperbands eating them but then again I have not read much about butterflies. Could I keep fish and invertebrates with a Raccoon Butterfly, just no corals, or do they attack inverts as well?

 

[ryshark]

Haha, well the plan right now is to have fish and a CUC for a while, until I get the feel of SW then maybe add some beginner corals later. So do all butterflyfish eat Aiptasia? I have only heard of coperbands eating them but then again I have not read much about butterflies. Could I keep fish and invertebrates with a Raccoon Butterfly, just no corals, or do they attack inverts as well?

Not all butterflies eat aiptasia. You can have other inverts, the raccs will eat coral and feather dusters.

 

[melosu58]

Read this

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "Aiptasia Removal Methods"

 

[yetee]

Here is my .02 cents on what has and hasn't been said already.
Don't scrape the rock, like yetee said, you will be spreading them all over. I didn't know crop dusting them would work, to me that would make a mess and wouldn't kill off the big ones.

Sorry I should have been more specific in what I said, what I meant by "crop dusting" was basically get as many as you can see and if there are big clumps of them just cover the whole clump. I guess crop dusting would be just spraying it above the rock they are on which probably wont work too well haha.

 

[lekker11]

peppermint should work

I used two peppermint shrimp in my 75 gallon tank and they did the job in a matter of a few weeks.

 

[Mitchell0605]

To completely sum up:
The cheapest way is squirting Klakwasser on to the oral disk from a syringe.
The natural way (also the easiest and most expensive) is to buy some Peppermints or a Copperband or a Raccoon Butterfly.

 

[cabezon]

I would nuke those rocks. take them out back, hose them off, then put them on the grill for a few hours at 375. then hose them again, after they cooled.

 

[cmor1701d]

I realize this is a new tank. I would have a word with the LFS that sold that LR.
There is another method that's used to get rid of algae by starving it of nutrients called "cooking LR". And that does not mean baking in a 350 degree oven till crispy, though that too will work, but will leave you with base rock. It really is meant for rock that is much older, having been in a tank for years. It is designed to "refresh" the rock. Here's how you do it.

Cooking Live Rock (from a RC thread)
The first step to this is commitment.
You have to be willing to remove your rock from the tank.
It doesn't have to be all at once, but I feel if you are going to do this do it all. In stages if that is easier but make sure that all of it gets done.
The new environment you are creating for your rock is to take it from an algal driven to a bacterial driven system.
In order to this, the rock needs to be in total darkness to retard and eventually kill the algae's on the rock and to give the bacteria time to do the job.
So basically you need tubs to hold the rock.
Equipment needed.
1. Dedication.
2. Tubs to cook rock in. And an equal amount of tubs to hold the rock during waterchanges.
3. A few powerheads.
4. Plenty of buckets.
5. A smug feeling of superiority that you are taking it to "the next level."
Here are the steps.
1. Get into your head and accept the fact you will be making lots of salt water if you aren't lucky enough to have access to filtered NSW.
2. Explain to significant other what is going on so they don't flip out. This process can take up to 2 months. Prepare them in advance so he/she can mark it on the calendar and that they won't nag about it until that date arrives.
3. Setup a tub(s) where the rock is to be cooked. Garages are great for this (may need a heater for the tub.
4. Make up enough water to fill tub(s) about halfway and around 5-7 buckets about 60% full.
5. Remove all the rock you want to cook at this stage. (The rock can be removed piece by piece until you are done.) I suggest shutting off the circulation beforehand to minimize dust storms.
6. Take the first piece of rock and dunk it, swish it, very, very well in the first bucket. Then do it again in the 2nd bucket, then the third.
7. Place rock in the tub.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 to every piece of rock you want to cook at this time. The reason I suggested 5-7 buckets of water will be evident quickly...as the water quickly turnsq brown.
9. Place powerhead(s) in the tub and plug in. Position at least one powerhead so that it agitates the surface of the water pretty well. This is to keep the water oxygenated. You can use an air pump for additional oxygenation if you wish.
9. Cover the tub. Remember, we want total darkness.
10. Empty out buckets, restart circulation on main tank.
11. Wait.
12. During the first couple of weeks it is recommended to do a swishing and dunking of the rocks twice a week.
What this entails is to make up enough water to fill up those buckets and the tub the rock is in.
First, lay out your empty tub(s) and fill buckets the same as before.
Then, uncover tub with the rock in it. Take a rock and swish it in the tub it's in to knock any easy to get off junk.
Then, swish it thru the 3 buckets again, and place in the empty tub..
Repeat for all your rocks.
Then empty the tub that all the rocks were cooking in, take it outside and rinse it out with a hose.
Place tub back where it was, fill with new saltwater, add rocks and powerheads, and cover.
Wait again until the next water change.
You will be utterly amazed at how much sand, silt, detrius is at the bottom of the tub and every bucket. It is amazing.

 

[cabezon]

yeah but he's trying to kill Aiptasia

 

[cmor1701d]

Cooking the rock will kill the pest anemone. It will starve to death in the absence of light and nutrients.
"They are photosynthetic, but will eat things that are small enough for them to catch"
Put them in an environment with no light and no nutrients and see what happens. Trust me. If you have too many to kill with kalk or Joes's Juice, this will kill the pest and keep the LR live.

 

[jcmelski]

I guess this will also work on hydroids. I think I have some on my LR. I thought they were small feather dusters until I read a post about them. thanks cmor for the tip. Could a skimmer be added to the tub(s)?