Help Glass enenimies taking over

[saltwater40]

I have an astablished tank that is about a year old.... have a clam, soft corals, purple lobster, tomato clown, yellow clown, sea worms, snails, cleaner shrimp, fans, two sea eninimies ect... i have hundreds of the brown sea enenimie looking things that just start gorwing on the live rock and all over the tank. its has gotten out of control and i was told the only way to kill them off and get rid of them is to inject them with calcium or buy a copper band fish that eats the small ones.... does anyone else have any suggestions? its a 40 gallon tank.

 

[reefersx2]

Man oh man you do have one or two I would say pull some rock out and scurb it with a toothbrush. A copper band butterfly is a good choice however it is rare to get them to eat when the aiptasia is gone. If I was you on top of scrubbing I would put in 5 or 6 peppermint shrimp.Best of luck to you hope you get rid of them.

 

[firecopemt]

 

[supertube]

We just killed a bunch of them. Get a plastic syringe (like you can buy to give infants medicine). Mix Kalkwasser and a little bit of water to make a paste. Just enough that you can get it in the syringe. Squirt it directly on them. Kills them instantly. But make sure you squirt more water on the area, so it doesn't "stain" your rock white.

 

[supertube]

BTW, keep it away from all your enenome's. It will kill them all instantly, not just that type.

 

[mlm]

I would get about 20 peppermint shrimp to eat those things.

 

[broomer5]

If I was in your situation - I would probably set up another tank ( like a inexpensive 10 gallon or even a Rubbermaid holding tank.
Fill it 50% with existing 40 gallon tankwater when you do your next water change.
Fill other 50% with new saltwater.
Add heater and a small powerhead.
Get the water up to temp, etc.
Remove a piece or two of aptaisa covered live rock - place them in this new little tank/container.
Start the injections of kalk paste into the anemonies, and watch your pH.
If pH soars high - be prepared to do small water changes on this tank.
When it looks like you got'em .......... rinse these pieces of live rock off with some new saltwater and place back into your tank.
Start another batch and keep repeating.
Pros:
You will not be injecting kalk into your main 40 gallon tank.
This will possibly protect your water chemistry in this tank.
You'll be removing the aptaisa slowly - and not trying to kill them all at once.
Cons:
By removing some of the live rock from the 40 - you may disturb the biofiltration. Doing smaller batches would be better than doing them all at once.
There's a chance that you may see some ammonia spikes in the 40 or in the 10 gallon kill tank - if you have die off.
Getting the water quality right in both tanks would be very important - and feed the 40 lightly during this time.
I don't know if peppermint shrimp would be helpful at this stage.
Sort of an all you can eat aptaisa buffet - and it may be too much for them to consume.
Just an idea - the goal is to protect what you have in the 40 while still being able to eliminate the pests.

 

[leboeuf]

I would order peppermint shrimp from this site. You can get a package deal for cheap and they WILL eat it. When its all gone, they will still survive on debris and left over food.
good luck

 

[richard rendos]

Peppermints have always done the trick for me.