Tonight's the night: Mitch vs Aiptasia Part I

[bighabeeb]

Alright. Got my tank. Got no fish. Got some inverts and that's it. Got some aiptasia. It's time to put the hammer down.

So, here's what I'm thinking. I've got basically 3 rocks that are somewhat infested...my plan is to try Joe's juice on one, aiptasia X on one, lemon juice on a third (this, of course, assumes that my LFS has Joes and aip X).

Any other solutions anybody would like to see tried? Might be interesting to see the side by side comparison.

Plan is: turn the pumps off , dive in with a syringe of each, and go to town on the little bastards. Leave the pumps off for 20 minutes, then put 'em back on. Tomorrow, PWC. Sound about right?

If anyone has other things they want tried for comparison, or any advice on the above plan, speak now or forever be patient until tomorrow when we see how many of the little bastich's are left.

 

[BallinCrew10]

I use aptasia-x and peppermint shrimp. Worked for me. I'm interested in your little experiment though.

 

[AquaRick]

I've heard good things about making some paste using kalk and smothering it on the aiptasia. Could be a good thing to try out maybe? Just a thought.

Props to you for taking on the challenge!

 

[bighabeeb]

I'm just so fed up with the **** things. Around a year and a half ago or so I had a copperbanded butterfly - he did a great job on the aiptasia, but of course died shortly thereafter because he wouldn't eat anything else...and unfortunately I couldn't catch him to get him out of the tank.

I've never worked with the kalk, but if I can get ahold of it I will: I've seen that same kalk/saltwater recipe in a few places so it may indeed be well worth giving a shot.

I'd really love to try the high powered laser approach I've seen in a few places, but I'm not ready to spend 300 bucks on one

 

[bighabeeb]

Regretfully the heavyweight battle of the century has been put off. Dude at the LFS, who knows my preference is to be chemical free, is lending me a copper banded butterfly to take out the aiptasia - and then to be returned when its done. David Copperband, as my son has named him, is in the tank and on the prowl.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Regretfully the heavyweight battle of the century has been put off. Dude at the LFS, who knows my preference is to be chemical free, is lending me a copper banded butterfly to take out the aiptasia - and then to be returned when its done. David Copperband, as my son has named him, is in the tank and on the prowl.

Copper banded butterfly for hire....I might buy one and put an ad in the paper lol.

 

[bighabeeb]

Copper banded butterfly for hire....I might buy one and put an ad in the paper lol.

I know they kick *** against aiptasia...but wouldnt buy one myself since I eventually want to get corals in there...

ALthough...suppose I could keep him in my qt...and lend him out....

 

[bighabeeb]

BTW, heres the CBB in his bag getting acclimated, along with a shot of the slowly recovering rock-scaped tank.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Very nice looking fish. Tanks also looking good.

 

[bighabeeb]

Very nice looking fish. Tanks also looking good.

Thanks - its getting there. I happen to love the dude at my LFS - he's helping me out once the aiptasia is back under control by giving me a couple of frags from his well aged display tank to get some coralline/bacteria flow really rocking again.

C'mon coppa, do your thing

 

[AquaRick]

Good luck Mitch! I'm rooting for the copper to kick that aptasia @#$@$@#$SF@#$@!!!!

 

[BallinCrew10]

Thanks - its getting there. I happen to love the dude at my LFS - he's helping me out once the aiptasia is back under control by giving me a couple of frags from his well aged display tank to get some coralline/bacteria flow really rocking again.

C'mon coppa, do your thing

Yea looking at my tank now is pretty depressing. Not even close to as much life as there used to be before the storm. You don't realize how many little critters are in your tank until they're all floating around dead. Lol my first thought when the power came back and I was scooping out net full after net full of pods was, "dang, I could've had a mandarin" haha. Mine too is slowly coming back though. My fish are back in and I'm gonna be adding some corals this weekend. Just sucks basically starting all over.

 

[bighabeeb]

Yea looking at my tank now is pretty depressing. Not even close to as much life as there used to be before the storm. You don't realize how many little critters are in your tank until they're all floating around dead. Lol my first thought when the power came back and I was scooping out net full after net full of pods was, "dang, I could've had a mandarin" haha. Mine too is slowly coming back though. My fish are back in and I'm gonna be adding some corals this weekend. Just sucks basically starting all over.

I was actually on the verge of breaking the whole **** thing down - while I didn't have corals before and ony a few fish, just seeing the dead fish and the lack of coralline and realizing that a lot of this stuff is going to be starting from scratch again....well....I was ready to bust it up and just run a big ol' cichlid tank again.

The one advantage to it is that I can have the copper banded in there taking out the aiptasia without worrying about him having to compete for food.

 

[boardsurfer]

I inherited my 125 about a year ago. It had about 150 aiptasia in it and I got 3 peppermint shrimp. No more aiptasia, and they are easy to keep fed.

 

[bighabeeb]

I inherited my 125 about a year ago. It had about 150 aiptasia in it and I got 3 peppermint shrimp. No more aiptasia, and they are easy to keep fed.

Pepps seem to be very hit or miss from everything I've read. I actually put 3 into my tank and they've shown no inclination to go anywhere near the aiptasia. They just do their thing, hanging upside down under the live rock and rocking back and forth.

I've even tried dropping the little things next to the aiptasia. They look at it, then trot back under the rock and resume dancing.

By far the strangest little buggers I've ever seen

 

[boardsurfer]

Sorry to hear that, I think I got lucky with mine...

 

[BallinCrew10]

As far as the pepps, you want the ones from the atlantic, it seems the larger pepps go after them a little better, they don't eat the larger aptasia so I hit those with aptasia-x. Even if all these criteria are met, some just don't go for it.

 

[bighabeeb]

Overall update: so far CBB is doing ok. He's picked at a bit of aiptasia (I can see that white stringy crap they leave behind when they've been housed), and seems to be making friends with my scarlet shrimp (scarlet was cleaning him off a little earlier).

Pepps are still around and doing their dance, but still won't touch the **** aiptasia!

Looks like I may have a little mini cycle going as I recover from all the death and destruction. Nitrates are up just a hair to 5ppm. Nitrites still at 0 for now, so that's a good thing. Phosphates, 0, calcium and kh just a hair lower then I like to keep them - but since I haven't been adding any kind of suplements that's also not shocking.