aiptasia removal

[byrself]

my roomate has some rocks out of his tank with aiptasia on them, how can he get rid of them off the rocks? dip them is super saltwater? will that help? thanks.

 

[byrself]

<img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />

 

[cap'n pete]

This probably depends on how big they are. If they are still somewhat small, a peppermint shrimp or two should do the trick within a week. Peppermints tend to stay away from larger aiptasia however. There is a method of putting boiling water in a syringe or turkey baster and squirting directly on the aiptasia. Problem with that is getting a good enough squirter that will not melt when you put the hot water in it. I suppose if you had a needle syringe or a "flavor injector" you could try injecting fresh water into them.

 

[fshhub]

peppermint shrimp SOMETIMES work, but when they do, they work well, they may alsoe eat polyps and or feather dusters instead (trust me)
another alternative si berghia, a type of nudibranch, that only eats aptaisia and nothing else at all, only advantage is once the aptaisia are gone, they need another home, or will starve to death
then there is also kalkwasser or pickling lime, mix a paste and inject it right into their mouths, works well, i had the besst luck with this method
HTH and good luck

 

[ryano]

I did pepermints for a couple of months and nothing. Never could get a bergia nudi so I put in a Copperbanded Butterfly. Saw nothing happen for about 4 weeks then poof! every aptasia was gone. It's now been about 2 months and the CBB is hungry but hasn't bothered anything else yet.

 

[birdy]

My pepermint shrimp took care of the aiptasia in my tank and they leave my feather duster alone, I don't have any corals yet (waiting on a metal halide), so I will have to see if they pick on anything else, so far I have been very happy with my pepermint shrimp.

 

[blondenaso1]

I had three in my 20gal I just setup. One was pretty decent in size too. I added two pepperment shrimp and the day after the aptasia were gone. I'll keep an I on those peps, I didn't know they munched on other stuff.

 

[byrself]

the problem is that he let the aiptasia spread and get bigger, now he wants to get rid of them...he tried the injecting idea, seems to like that... i think it's worked so far.
i got a peppermint in my tank, and i noticed all my small ones i see are gone. i'm hoping it stays on top of it before it gets out of hand. thanks for the help, especially fshhub, my roomate is considering the nudibranch idea if nothing else works out..

 

[adrian]

In the past I have had pretty good success injecting large Aptasia with kalkwasser via a syringe with a needle, sometimes I had to hit them twice, but you can watch them melt. Of course you ahve to be carefull not to inject too much. I would try a couple of peps, they will also help to keep them from coming back. HTH

 

[thehat]

You can poke the center of them with a long pin and they will die I have gotten rid of a couple that way. I also have squirted them directly with calcium and that got rid of a couple.

 

[pyro383]

I had a bunch and picked up 2 peppermints, now I have 3 big ones left. They are kinda of cool, especially when eating brine though, could I keep them? They shouldn't spread and if they did, the shrimp would get them? If I do need to get rid of them, could I just rip them out (I know if I do that they would regrow but be small enough for the shrimp).