I found sure-fire aiptasia killer!

[debbie g]

I performed this 24 hour experiment on killing aiptasia and it worked! I had one particular rock that had several (maybe 20) aiptasia on it. I took the rock out, put it in a bowl with tank water just covering it and put the whole thing in the fridge for 24 hours. I just took it out and voila! All the aiptasias were dead on the bottom of the bowl. I am so excited that this worked because like many of you, I have been fighting a losing battle with them. Between injecting them, squirting them, scrubbing them, ugh.
Just to be on the safe side though, let me say that I don't know if I hurt the coralline algae or not. The coralline was a deep purple when I put it in the fridge. Now when it came out, it looks like a bright pink color. If losing a little coralline is worrisome to you, don't try this until I can report back in a few weeks to see if the coralline survived!
Questions or comments are welcome!
Debbie G

 

[misslaina]

let us know, I only have one (that I can see) and I have tried to kill it several times

 

[speg]

Thats neat and a interesting idea.. congrats on trying something new and experimenting.... its just a shame you didnt keep this secret to yourself and sell it somehow lol. Let us know how everything else turns out.. I wonder if that kills all the beneficial bacteria on the rock.. seeing as how it obviously has negative effects on inverts.....
I wish I had some Aptasia still so I could test it out myself
Thank goodness for

peppermint shrimp!

 

[dburr]

That sounds like a quick way to do it. I'm sure you killed everything on that rock but don't worry, it will repopulate in time. I wouldn't do all the rock at 1 time, LOL.

 

[hot883]

My peppermint shrimp wiped all of mine out in 1 night. Ha! About 8-9 2"tall stalks. He wated for 4 days and then took out a stalk that was about 4" long. Ha! Great new trick though. Thanks for sharing and keep us updated on the coraline

 

[weaponusmc]

Thats great, your method has me thinking of another way that mght be easier and can spot done without efecting the whole rock. Back in the day (the 80's) I worked at a roller skating rink. Inconsiderate people used to spit there gum out on the floor, we used to get it up with this cold spray in a can. It came with a straw like you have on WD-40 and it would freeze the gum solid in a second. Im sure the stuff has other comercial uses so it shouldnt be hard to find. Ill do some searches and see if I can come up with it. Using this would allow you to give each a quick squirt, freeze it and it would only efect one tiny area.

 

[thangbom]

hum.. will it have any crazy harmfull stuff w/the cold air?? like i know that a lot of stuff is pressurized with butane (spelling??) and i dont think that is good for a tank..

 

[debbie g]

Weapon, Like Thang said, it probably has chemicals in it, so I'd be careful with that one. Thank you for all your comments. I now have 3 larger rocks in the fridge. I'll let you know if I get the same results. As far as the coralline on the one I returned to the tank...it still looks like the bright pink. I'll be watching and let you know.
If you have a LOT of rock in your tank with a lot of coralline, even if the coralline DOES die on the aiptasia rock, it seems that it would be worth it because when you put the rock back into the tank, it will get re-seeded in time by the established rock anyway.
Oh, and in case anyone wants to cheat on the timing...when I looked at the rock after 12 hours in the fridge, the aiptasias weren't dead yet. Wait the full 24 hours.
Okay. I'll report back soon.
Debbie G

 

[gregm779]

Just make sure there's no aiptasia on your lunch meat!

 

[debbie g]

Okay, here's the outcome. The first rock that stayed in the fridge for 24 hours - all coralline algae gone, one aiptasia has come back. The second batch I put in the fridge for 36 hours, also lost all coralline algae but no aiptasias survived. All in all, I'd say that I would do this again to a rock that has many aiptasias. But I wouldn't kill off all that coralline for say, a rock that just has 1 or 2 aiptasias.
Debbie G

 

[speg]

You try putting the rock over open flame yet?

 

[gregm779]

This is probably a bad thing, you're probably making your LR into base rock and killing everything on it, you should probably stick to just killing the aptasia with joes juice or kalk paste

 

[cdposey]

Have you tried using kalkwasser, I use it and it works great, just mix up a little (I usually make it quite strong) then using a target feeding method ie syriinge just squirt the kalk mix directly on the aptasia and they die almost instantly. If you haven't tried it that would be my fast simple effective suggestion.