A little help with Aiptasia please?

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Paintguy
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A little help with Aiptasia please? Empty A little help with Aiptasia please?

Post  SEAF 2010-10-02, 01:24

Several weeks ago, I started noticing some brown anemones in my 20 long reef tank. I kept an eye on them and did some research until I was convinced they were Aiptasia. They are really small but spreading. The first colony I saw was about 15 or 20 of them... now increased to about 40. There is also a colony of 6 or 8 in another location. I ordered some Aiptasia Rx made by Blue Life and started treating the infestations. At first, I thought it was working, but after the medication dissipates in the water (in a few days) the pests are back with no noticeable decrease. That stuff is a worthless waste of money. Someone suggested squirting lemon juice on them with a syringe. I have considered taking the infested rocks out of the tank and drowning the infested portion in lemon juice. I even thought of taking my Dremel tool and cutting off the piece of rock where the colony is rooted. Any suggestions? Has anyone here ever eliminated these pests from their tank?
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Post  Paintguy 2010-10-02, 01:35

I surfed around a bit and found this interesting way to rid them... electricity. Check out the video on this page too.

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Post  Spyral 2010-10-02, 01:37

check this out.

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I have a few on a piece of live rock, but like the author of the piece I linked to, I tolerate them. They are far from rampant in my tank.
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Post  lilfishie 2010-10-03, 02:50

The easiest way I have dealt with aiptasia is a product called Aiptasia X. There is another type that is used the same but I dont remember what it is called. See your local Saltwater Fish store. They will have one or the other. Easy to use. Or you can make a kalkpaste with Kalkwasser.

Aiptasia will spread and it will sting and kill your corals.
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Post  SEAF 2010-10-07, 19:31

Well, I declared war on my aiptasia. After a lot of study and reading all of the comments I decided to try my own remedy. I had used a product called Aiptasia Rx and it accomplished nothing. I worked on the small colony first. I took out the piece of rock they were attached to and, with a syringe, squirted straight lemon juice right down the throat of each of those rascals. Then I yanked them off of the rock with a pair of pointed tweezers. I could only get them off by getting right down to where they were attached and breaking off the piece of rock to which they were fastened. Then I squirted more lemon juice on the spot and let it sit for a few minutes, after which I rinse that portion of the rock and put the whole piece back in my tank. I waited a few days and saw a couple of the tubes I missed the first time. Today I repeated the process on the small colony, removing those that I missed the first time. Then I attacked the large colony the same way. Took almost an hour to dig out all of the tubes in that colony, but I think I got all of them. Couple of my tiny spiney starfishes fell off the rock while I was working on it, so I scooped them up and put em back in the tank. Also had a small shrimplike creature that fell into the bowl I was working from. When I put him back in the tank, one of my Damsels ate him. (sigh) I tried to be careful not to harm a small crimson fan that was close to the colony. I'll post again in a few days to let you know how it turned out. Thanks to all who offered advice. Larry
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Post  SEAF 2010-10-19, 13:54

Well, it is a week and a half later and it appears that I have successfully eliminated the Aiptasia... at least for now!
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Post  SEAF 2011-03-02, 17:11

For those interested, I have more outbreaks of this pesky anemone... one in an area where I thought I had irradicated it. It seems like a miniature version of Aiptasia I have seen elsewhere. In a colony that is no bigger than a nickel there are dozens of these little polyps. I have four colonies in my tank currently and only one is encroaching on other livestock. These are green-stripe mushrooms that spread out and cover part of the anemone colony. There don't seem to be any ill effects from the close proximity. Perhaps mushrooms are immune? I bought a Peppermint Shrimp to help keep the population down, but I guess I am feeding too much for him to be interested in the anemone.

I did try the Aiptasia Rx compound on some larger aiptasia I found on a piece of liverock I was keeping in another tank. It got rid of the pest immediately and it never came back. I am really wondering if these small ones are aiptasia at all.
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Post  unconv-reefer 2011-03-02, 22:32

Best I've found is the copper bandedbutter fly fish, I have no more aptasia. Some people have problems keeping these alive after the fact as they need pods to survive. Thankfully mine has learned to eat the food I serve as well as eradicating the aptasia
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Post  lilfishie 2011-03-03, 00:24

Can you get pictures of these colonies?

I have also used kalkwasser and made a paiste with tank water and smothered them with it, but any aiptasia I get is like one here or there. Never had a colony of them pop up.
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Post  SEAF 2011-03-03, 02:29

It was really tough to get a decent picture of these things because they are so tiny. I have to put on my "ole man glasses" to even see them in the tank. I couldn't get a clear picture of the individual polyps. They are far enough away from the glass to make a clear picture impossible with my camera. Maybe I could make a glass bottom viewing box and take pictures from the top using the macro setting on the camera.

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In the first two pics, those black circles are maybe 3/8" in diameter. The colony is that brown patch in the center of the circle. There are 10-12 polyps in that colony. For size comparison, note the Green Clown Goby on top of the Green Striped Mushrooms to the left in picture #1. Then above the colony there is a large Turbo Snail in both pics.

The other colony is inside a half-inch circle and there are 30-40 polyps in that colony. When these polyps are in full bloom, they stand 1/8" high or less with super fine tentacles; about the thickness of spider webs.

I have four colonies total (one has only three polyps). Thus far, they don't seem to be causing any stress on the rest of the livestock. I think I am just going to tolerate them unless they become a problem.

I read up on the Copper Banded Butterfly. He would be a cool fish to have, but I think he would be competing with my Mandarin for food; especially since my tank is only a 20-long, I also have lots of tiny fan worms that are reported to be a favorite snack for the Butterfly.

Last edit:
Got one more picture of these critters. This is the colony of three. I zoomed in on them as far as possible. The hole where they are is 3/8" long, 1/8" wide and 1/8" deep. They are still not clear, but you might be able to get a better idea from this picture. The photo is about 8X magnification.

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Post  sidekicking 2011-03-03, 03:18

Umm pictures I are kinda blurry
but what worked for me was lemon juice and 2 peppermint shrimp
and its all gone now
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Post  SEAF 2011-03-03, 03:32

Yeah, sorry about the blurriness. Best I could do with what I have. These things are really tiny. I have thought about getting another peppermint shrimp, but my tank is already overcrowded. The lemon joice worked on one of the two colonies I treated, but I really don't want to take the rocks out of the tank again unless I absolutely have to.

For now, these critters don't seem to be a threat to anything else in the tank. I am just going to tolerate them.
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Post  unconv-reefer 2011-03-04, 11:18

Since they are so small, get the dry ph down, a syringe w/needle mix ph with water (works best hot) and inject it into them, they will explode, thus not leaving any fragment to re-grow.

This worked great for me until I re-arrnged the tank and had an explosion of them from moving buried rock
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Post  SEAF 2011-03-04, 16:20

I am still a bit of a novice here. What do you mean by "dry ph"?
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Post  unconv-reefer 2011-03-04, 16:31

It comes in a vial, it is PH down and dry granuals, I think by seachem but could be mistaken
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Post  SEAF 2011-03-04, 16:33

Okay, thanks for your help! Very Happy
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Post  unconv-reefer 2011-03-04, 16:36

Hope you are succesful, for the most part they really won't hurt your corals (unless SPS) but if you can stop them early so much the better.

FYI- if you try to pull by hand or don't get all of them the pieces that break off will grow a new one, that is why sometime when you try to eradicate them you end of with more than if you just left them alone.

One real way to kill them is by taking the rock out and run hot water over that spot, but you will kill everything else in that area
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