Aiptasia Help Please !

[exile415]

I bought a cabbage leather coral and i found 3-4 anemone looking things. I just thought it was a bunch of baby feather dusters,then I find a post of aiptasia and i thought of the cabbage.
I took him to my QT which houses a clarkii clown,hermit crab and a coral banded shrimp.
I don't know what to do !!! please help me on this one. my other corals in my main tank look fine. is they're any other way I can kill these aiptasia QUICK. i need to put the cabbage leather as sooon as i can.
i've heard of peppermint shrimp, but i really don't want to wait. Is there any other methods or additves that will kill this pest. if so can you give me instructions on how to do it. I've also heaRd of "joe's juice" sounds like a milkshake to me. please help thanks
-ERIC

 

[thomas712]

A syringe and some kalkwasser will usually do the trick, but injecting them can be tricky.
I always approve of the natural way, like peppermint shrimp.

 

[mister t]

exile relax,, they won't hurt anything their just anemone's but you do want to get ride of them your lfs should have something to inject them with good luck

 

[jjlittle]

Joes juice has never failed me work awesome I have yet to treat one that has come back.

 

[sinner's girl]

I've heard injecting them boiling water. Pepermint shrimp do a GREAT job. If you have a big one, like we did, the thing may move and it might tank the shrimp a couple of days, but the shrimp got all ours.
When we moved I found a bag of syringes, I was about the panic (I mean why the heck would sinner have syringes?) then I remembered why.

 

[starkissed]

I just had this problem with a piece of live rock that I bought. The only two options that made since to me was a peperment shrimp and injecting them.... I deided to go the natural way (since I am new to the hoppy injecting them was a little scary) so I bought a peperment shrimp and tried him out first. It took him a few days, but he did the job .... he is very active and is doing a good job at keeping everthing even the fish clean... I would recomend trying the peperment shrimp!!

 

[exile415]

Problem is will the peppermint shrimps get beat up by my 2 cleaner shrimps or vice versa. I think i'll go the natural way with a peppermint shrimp. there near my cabbages and they're small. I hope that this peppermint shrimp will FIND these aiptasia. also are they reef safe ? I have 9 corals and 3 anemones. thanks for the help.

 

[rstiles]

I had the same problem if I used shrimp would have been eating,bough a copper banded butterfly,problen all gone - as a matter of fact I moved him from tank to tank till no more ,I though it might eat the feather dusters but it did'nt .

 

[clownme]

I got a peppermint shrimp on Thursday and all he's done is hide. How long before he "gets busy" and starts eating the aiptasia? :notsure:

 

[scotts]

IMO peppermints are the way to go. Just remember that they also get rid of the aiptasia that you cannot see or get to.
Clown, your peppermint shrimp is already at work. Let's put it this way I saw my peppermint shrimp for the first time in about 4 months on Saturday. You may say sure you bought the shrimp and you never see it, but I do not see any aiptasia either.
Scott

 

[shnabbles]

Peppermint shrimp is definenatly the way to go

Dont Copper Bannded butterflys eat aiptasia to? :notsure:
I read some where that someone injected their aiptasia with boiling water and it exploded sending little aiptasia particles everywhere which regrew into a forest of aiptasia...
Better off just to get the peppermint shrimp.

 

[jedi]

Originally Posted by Shnabbles
Peppermint shrimp is definenatly the way to go

Dont Copper Bannded butterflys eat aiptasia to? :notsure:
I read some where that someone injected their aiptasia with boiling water and it exploded sending little aiptasia particles everywhere which regrew into a forest of aiptasia...
Better off just to get the peppermint shrimp.

Going the natural way is always the best, the Peppermints will clean them up. As with all things in this hobby..BE PATIENT.
CopperBanded Butterfly will eat it to, but after it is dead they will starve to death and die.
Boiling water is hit or miss, if you must inject with something, do as suggested above and use Joes Juice.
just my opinion from my experience.
Jedi

 

[jj48]

I have this same problem and have been researching this site about it. Sorry to revive a month-old thread, but I have a couple of questions:
1. I have a CBS and several corals including a small hammer coral, xenia, and ricordia. Will the peppermint shrimp hurt any of those other corals? I have heard I could be hit or miss on the CBS causing troubles with another shrimp. Any comments or suggestions?
2. If the peppermint will not work with the above scenario, I will go with a copper banded butterfly. Someone mentioned that once the Aiptasia is gone, the butterfly will die. Is there nothing else I can feed the butterfly once he cleans it all out?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

 

[jedi]

I have a CBS, a Cleaner and 5 pepermints and they all get along great. And No pepermints will not bother any other corals. At least not that I am aware of.
The problem with a Copper banded, is what to feed it after the Aiptasia is gone. The majority of them die from starvation due ot lack of food. May have tried, few suceed.
Also just try zapping the little buggers (aiptasia) with a little "Joe's Juice" it will clear up alot of it. and let the pepermints have at the rest of them.
Jedi

 

[tnt]

I just used some Joe's Juice last week and was amazed. They disentigrated within minutes. It was very easy and is reef safe. They have free shipping for new customers on their website.

 

[jj48]

I bought five peppermints from this site over a month ago and they have not touched the first aiptasia until I killed them with kalkwasser, then they went to town. Now I am starting to have few pop back up (there are some that I cannot see somewhere I guess). So since the peppermints are not doing anything about the new ones, I am going to lfs today to buy a copperbanded butterfly.