Aptasia!!! please help!

reefie

reefie

New Member
I'm somewhat new to saltwater and have begun seeing some baby aptasias showing up in my tank. I saw a little colony on a rock, so I removed the rock and thought that these were all I had, and that I was fiine. Then I saw that little crops of green star polyps were not opening - and then I noticed that aptasias were growing up b/w the polyps - thus probably why the GSP's were closed. I'm not sure what to do.
1. Should I try to pick out the aptasia's??
2. I've heard that copperbands eat aptasia - will they pick it out of b/w green star polyps?
3. Does anyhing else eat aptasia?
4. What should I do to prevent this in the future?
THANKS!
 
pbienkiewi

pbienkiewi

Member
I bought 5 peppermint shrimp. I cut back on the feedings so the shrimp get hungry enough to eat the apistia. They took care of my problem. They would scurry around my 55gal tank at night. I only have about 6 left from a good 24+.
 
brandan

brandan

Member
Originally Posted by dr gonzo
will peppermint shimp eat anycorals or inverts?
No, not to my knowledge. They are a very peaceful shrimp
 
reefie

reefie

New Member
My aptasia are very, very small - in little clusters of 4-5 in places, and then just singles in other places. They all just showed up all of a sudden - probably around 20 of them.
 
reefie

reefie

New Member
And when you say "cut back on feeding", what do you mean? I feed every other day - and I don't want to starve my corals/fish...
 
grumpygils

grumpygils

Active Member
Not all p shrimp will eat aptasia. There are many look alikes sold as P shrimp. I found that only a copperband butterfly will do it.
Mc
 
nigerbang

nigerbang

Active Member
Originally Posted by grumpygils
Not all p shrimp will eat aptasia. There are many look alikes sold as P shrimp. I found that only a copperband butterfly will do it.
Mc

Should also be noted that Copperbands are not the hardiest of fish...
 
reefie

reefie

New Member
my LFS has a copperband in their coral tank which is eating their aptasia. They are going to sell it to me today if they can get it out. Guess this would be a good option since it is already eating their aptasia?
 
nigerbang

nigerbang

Active Member
Originally Posted by Reefie
my LFS has a copperband in their coral tank which is eating their aptasia. They are going to sell it to me today if they can get it out. Guess this would be a good option since it is already eating their aptasia?
Is not 100% certain that it will....The stress of the move might make it go on Hunger Strike....Copperbands are a specialized fish that dont do well in most tanks...
 
curlsoc

curlsoc

Member
I had one as a hitchiker on some LR and used Aiptasia Control on it Sunday, worked like a charm. Thing melted before my eyes. Still have the rock in quarentine in a bucket to make sure it dosen't come back or any more show up. Hopefully I caught it before more appear.
 
ncacura

ncacura

Member
Just get a couple peppermint shrimp, they're cheap and hardy......they shouldn't die on you and they'll almost definitiely take care of your aptasia problem as long as the aptasia aren't huge. There's also a aptasia stopper out there it's literally called "STOP Aptasia" which my LFS reccommends. I'd also note that my LFS never medicates anything because he doesn't like adding potentially harmful chemicals to the tanks. He wouldn't reccommend it if it didn't work. Good Luck. Aptasia sucks, haha.
 
mushroomss

mushroomss

Member
i dont know if i would use peppermint shrimp.If you have any feather dusters they will probably munch on them i know from first hand experience.Any they also eat alot of beneficial hitchikers.If you can get a syringe,Fill it full of calcium,And inject them with it and they will die.Its an easy method of getting rid of them.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by mushroomss
i dont know if i would use peppermint shrimp.If you have any feather dusters they will probably munch on them i know from first hand experience.Any they also eat alot of beneficial hitchikers.If you can get a syringe,Fill it full of calcium,And inject them with it and they will die.Its an easy method of getting rid of them.
What do you use mushroom? Do you fill the syringe with kalk? If so, how much do you dilute it?
 
trigger78

trigger78

Member
I bought 4 peps the other day and some "Aiptasia Control" by blue wave. The peps were a $30 treat for my fish. I couldnt believe it!!! My tomatoe and my seabe (sic) clowns both gobbled up the shrimp.
The Aiptasia control comes with a syringe and it is working so far i suppose. Not long enough for accurate results. But they are seaming to dye. Works pretty good.
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Well, I've gotten myself a copperband - what a Beautiful fish! I fed this evening, and it wasn't interested. But the clowns and damsel were all going crazy over the food. And then the little DAMSEL started picking on the copper! I can't believe that little stupid fish! So I took out the damsel. AND now the copper is going around scavengering the tank - picking in every little crack and cranny. Awesome - it's cleaning everything, it seems. And did I mention that they are just beautiful! Awesome...
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
I hade a few of these and some corn anemonees too. I used Kalkwasser powder mixed with water. I used the plastic measurer (it is used to measure .5ml water) that came with one of the test kits. Put it right up to its mouth and slowly squirt out the kalk. It closes up around the tip and bingo! I've got ya. Keep going till its empty.
Now be warned doing this in the tank can get calk everywhere. IT tends to float around. Here is some tips:
1. Shut off the flow. LAst thing ypu need is water flow pushing the kalk over to your candycane coral.
2. Be ready with airline tubing. I create a syphin with the tubing to suckup the peices of kalk that float away. This can take awhile. It does make a mess.
3. Be ready with some fresh salt water to replace the water you syphon off.
4. rinse-repeat. If you got them you will get them again. Thats why they are the pest that they are. Have fun - You didn't think that keeping a salt water tank was going to be easy!
 
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