Fighting a losing battle, aiptasia explosion!!!!!

gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
I hope some one can help me here with a few pieces of advice. My tank has been over run with aiptasia and I have tried almost everything . I have used Joe's Juice, Aiptasia X, kalk paste, berghias, and peppermint shrimp from a LFS. All have failed! I think the kalk paste made my situation go from manageable to catastrophic. I just received peppermint shrimp from SWF and I was wondering how long I can go without feeding my fish. I have a maroon clown, coral beauty, royal gramma and a mandarin (I am not worried about the mandarin, he has pods). If I feed my fish will the peppermints stop eating the aiptasia? The other questions are has anyone had luck with peppermint shrimp from SWF and how much damage do the do to corals (the aiptasia is doing a great job of that already!). BTW my parameters are all spot on, I do not over feed, and I do 10% weekly water changes. Thanks in advance!!!
 
cableguy

cableguy

Member
Ive read that PM shrimps only eat the little ones. I would keep using Aiptasia X and if you have to move your rocks around and kill them one by one by flipping your rocks over. Just dont "hit" or poke them when you squirt it on them becuse they can release their spores.
I have killed about 50-75 of them but now I am down to like 1 or 2 that pop up here and there. It just takes time.
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
I have literally hundreds and I can not get to all of them. I would never be able to afford all the Aiptasia X it would take to kill them and when I used it before the explosion it did not work any better than the other methods. I still kill the monsters with kalk paste and I never poke them.
 
cableguy

cableguy

Member
If you can't kill them then you need to re-cure your rock. I dont know any other way to get rid of them.
 
S

smartorl

Guest
With Peppermints, it's hit or miss. Some will eat aiptasia and some won't, feeding or not feeding won't really matter from my experience. I had a couple of large ones I couldn't reach and my two peppermints, who were released into my tank at 6pm, had eradicated them all by 7am. I was pretty impressed.
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
berghia nudis *But to expect to pay $100-120
but once the aptasia is gone. And it will be!
It will starve. Much the same way a sea hare eats non stop till the algae is gone.
I got 5 peppermints, and not one time have i ever witnessed them eating my aptaisa.
Fortunately I have my aptasia problem under control. Yesterday I took out 5 in the DT.
I let them fill the sump, I don't care down there. They are a creature that gains momentum. So getting it nipped early is really the key. My last round of aptasia and joes juice was 4 months ago. So having to squirt 5 last night was of minimal effort in comparison.
 
A

allenk

Guest
I have given up on getting rid of it and now just try to manage it. When I do a water change, I use kalk paste to get as many of them as I can. This keeps them at bay to some extent. I would like to get some peppermint shrimp, but I have a coral banded shrimp and figure it would just kill any other shrimp I put in the tank. I am waiting until the CBP dies of old age, but he (she?) has been going for over 4 years with no sign of slowing down.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
HEY Gypsana....long time since you been here.....how's things?
Sorry about the aptasia.....My peppermint shrimp all came from SWF, and I have had good luck with them since I have NO aptasia...lol...I saw one or 2 and then none....
I have heard they will not eat the large ones though, so I am not sure what to tell you there....thing is when you get the shrimp, they are usually pretty small, so you may have to let them grow before they make any kind of difference
Joe's Juice worked for me on one large one I had in the 225, I see you say it didn't for you....hmmmm...
Have you tried lemon juice injected into the mouth?....that works for a lot of people
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
Thanks everyone for your advice. I do not think most understand the extent of my aiptasia problem. I did buy berghias even though I am poor and they can not eat the little jerks fast enough. I will see how the peppermint shrimp work. Mainly I wanted to know if I start feeding my fish will the peppermints just rely on that food, I only feed every three days. I may have to get rid of the tank anyhow and I really was hoping to get rid of the aiptasia soon if I have to sell my rock, it is worthless right now.

@ Meowzer, I have been busy trying not to lose my house, trying to find a job and now my hubbie is unemployed as well. Things are not going very well, but we will pull through some how. If I have to tear down my 90 I will do a small tank if a rental allows it. I will go crazy without one!
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
Also I think the kalk paste is part of the problem and I do not have the patience for the lemon juice technique. I will take a picture and post it so all can see the invasion it stinks!! BTW what happened to all the archives?
 
scottnlisa

scottnlisa

Member
I know very little about aiptasia. How do you get it? If my tank doesn't have it right now, could it get aiptasia in the future? Thanks in advance for your info
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3259302
how did it get so bad?
You remember Alien and the mother? I think I have the mother aiptasia in my tank!!
Honestly though I think that using the kalk paste made them release spores because it was not this bad before using that. Everytime I would kill a bunch twice the amount would reappear. Plus I have so many spots in my tank I can not reach.
I do believe I see some progress this morning!! I am praying that this works.
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
Originally Posted by scottnlisa
http:///forum/post/3259300
I know very little about aiptasia. How do you get it? If my tank doesn't have it right now, could it get aiptasia in the future? Thanks in advance for your info
If you buy frags or new rock to add you can get it. My tank was aiptasia free for years.
WHERE ARE THE ARCHIVES?????? They had a plethera of information!!
 
miner_skyline

miner_skyline

New Member
the way I got rid of mine for good is I simple burned them with my BBQ lighter, ( the really long lighters) I took the rock close to the surface and I BBQed them, once they feel the heat they try to retract back into the rocks, most of the time it was too later for them. it sounds weird but it worked!
 
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