!Aiptasia Everywhere!

mr.crabs

Member
My buddy is out of town for the week and asked me take care of his tank. When I saw it yesterday it is being over run by Aiptasia. I know that his water quality is bad, but until it is corrected I was wondering if anyone out there has used a method to get rid of them.
 

ebeckels

Active Member
how bad is the water quality? Is there anything in there living? Peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia and that's how I keep it under control...actually non-existent. If you don't want to do the peppermint shrimp then i suggest u do a search here on aiptasia...many other methods are used and it's not too difficult.
 
I heard that if you mix up a batch of kalk mix, and take a siringe and fill it up, you can inject small amounts into the aiptasia and that will kill it. I don't know if this definatly works since luckily I never had that problem. HTH. :D
 

mr.crabs

Member
He has two damsels, snails and crabs, some corals and mushrooms,and about 50lbs of LR in a 29gal tank. Filtration is a canister filter and he doesn't have a protein skimmer yet.
 

zipperfish

Member
I have tried both ways mentioned in the replies above and the peppermint shrimp worked the best but if you're just sitting the tank i wouldn;t do a thing
 

q

Member
If you inject them make sure you use a turkey baster to suck up the goop. I had some spread in my tank and I think this is the reason why. I had some on my spray bar but by copperband butterfly keeps them in check.
 
HEY Q!!! is that copperband in a reef tank?? if so, how big is he? how big is your tank?? does he behave himself??? I've been wanting to get one in my reef for sooooo long now, but just haven't gotten my balls up to do it yet!!
 

q

Member
lordofthereef: It is about 3 inches now. I had to wook at getting it to feed but it is feeding well now. One of the foods it likes is live clam so I will not be having any clams in the tank ;) . I have a couple of LPS and an SPS along with some shrooms. I will be stocking the tank this summer so the variety of corals will increase to test it's pallet. In the book I have though the clams and zooanthids are the primary snack foods. I do not wish to have any more soft corals other than a colt and finger leather which should be fine. It deosn't list LPS or SPS as targets so I should be fine with that. I would not recommend it if you have button polyps or similar corals.
I had to save a snail last night from being eaten. It had fallen over and was on it's back getting picked at by the CBB.
Hope it helps. If you want to know more later just ask in may/june sometime. Here is a link to a pic of it in my tank.
<a href="http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/plato19788791/vwp?.dir=/Fish+pics&.dnm=Right+Corner.gif&.src=bc&.view=l&.done=http%3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/plato19788791/lst%3f%26.dir=/Fish%2bpics" target="_blank">http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/plato19788791/vwp?.dir=/Fish+pics&.dnm=Right+Corner.gif&.src=bc&.view=l&.done=http%3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/plato19788791/lst%3f%26.dir=/Fish%2bpics</a> %26.src=bc%26.view=l
Now I just have the gamble of adding a pigmy angle fish.
 
1

10k

Guest
I currently am using a larger Copperband in my 125g and I actually have to grow Aptasia in another tank just to keep the sucker fed well. He cleaned up hundreds in a matter of days and then would'nt eat any food offered(frozen or live). I have yet to see him bother any corals and I am extremely happy with the purchase. I would definately recommend using the Copperband to anyone. :)
 
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