Aiptasia removal!!!

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Heineken

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
148
Location
Los Angeles, CA
*SIGH* yes , yes, I have some too. Well at least I think I do. So now the question is, how do I get rid of it. I tried using one of those long pincher things used in aquariums to move around rock and stuff, but no luck. Are these guys like feather dusters in the sense that they have cat-like reflexes and quickly retract into the rock? One second it was there, and the next it was gone. I've been cycling my tank for almost a week now, being extremely observant of everything going on in the tank. Then all of a sudden there's this gigantic anemone looking thing in my tank. My first reaction was like, "Sweet, I got an anemone!" Then I realized that in a tank being cycled, the only anemone looking thing that could survive these water parameters must be aiptasia.

Well any pointers and tips I should follow in it's removal? My first set-back.....a lot earlier than I expected. Lucky me, huh??
 
Of you rip one off the rock, you will get a lot more of them. They can reproduce from a small fragment of the stalk that you will miss.

Use Joe's Juice

Works great.
 
just sit another rock on top of it so it can't get any light
 
joes Juice took care of the problem for me.
I only had a few Aiptasia and they are long gone
 
I'm an avid supporter of the peppermint shrimp. Joes juice works well but it is very tough to inject them without having them retract. My peppermint shrimp took care of about 10 aptasia overnight.

If you only have one joes juice will work fine but i'm gussing more will show up...they reproduce pretty fast
 
Seriously, Joes Juice. I got some yesterday, and literally in seconds my aipasia was gone. It ate the stuff, and then kinda just dissolved. It was so weird. :)

-j
 
My aptasia infestation was solved by the addition of a Racoon Butterflyfish.

This is not a reef safe fish, but in my 55 gal FOWLR tank, it is great. It ate all of the aptasia, big and small, within 3 days. The minute the racoon was loose in my tank, it began attacking the aptasia and did not stop until they were all gone. This fish is beautiful and friendly, and now eats Mysis shrimp and flake food heartily.

The Butterflyfish enjoyed eating aptasia so much that I am now growing some in another tank for it!
 
My tank is still cycling, and adding a pepp shrimp not an option at the moment. Are you guys suggesting I wait and let the tank cycle and when it's safe, and the shrimp in? I wanted to get it out of there asap, but if there's no harm in waiting, I guess I would rather take the more natural way by having the pepp shrimp eat them. 2 for a 90 gal sound good?
 
The longer you leave it in their the greater the chance it will spread.
I'd order the joes juice for 15 bucks. you'll have it in 5 days or less.
You will not regret it. Plus it's handy to have in case you spot them in the future.

it comes with a syringe making it simple to use.
 
I have no personal experience with Joes Juice - I've heard/read good things about it tho...

If it were me (and it was... at one time) I'd wait for the cycle to finish - you probably only have a week or two more. If you wanted to inject them with something closer to "natural" and kill them you could mix up a kalk paste, or lemon juice, or even HOT water and hit them with a syringe.

As for the # of Pepps. I put 5 in my 90, but you could easily go up to 10 - depends on how much $ you have to spend. They don't add much to your bio-load.

If possible, ask around other Reefers locally and find someone who has had success with Pepps, then buy from the same dealer/lfs that they used. Occasionally Pepps are mislabeled (actually camelback shrimp) and camelbacks won't help you at all.

Good luck with it - Aiptasia is a pain, but it is not the end of the world some folks make it out to be - This too shall pass.
 
If you are still cycling use Joe's Juice. I have also heard of people injecting lemon juice into these. No personal experience with this though. Get rid of them now, before you add anything to your tank.
 
I had about 15 aiptasia by the time my lr finished cycling, they seemed to be multiplying by the hour... added a peppermint shrimp along with my cleaning crew... within a week all were gone and haven't seen any since!
 
I had the same issue with mine. I waited until i could add livestock and added a pep. No matter how much they reproduce until the tank is done cycling the shrimp will eventually take car of all of them.
 
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