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Am I about to have even more Aiptasia? (1 Viewer)

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frankc

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We noticed that almost every Aiptasia in the big tank today has a big white blob in the middle. I don't know if they're getting ready to spawn or what's going on. The other thing I thought of is that they all got a mouthful of algae yesterday when I cleaned the glass and they're expelling the excess waste, but we've never noticed this before.

I'm hoping they all suddenly got tumors and they're going to die, but I'm sure I couldn't get that lucky.

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frankc

frankc

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I would love to have a filefish, both for Aiptasia control and I think they're cool how they can change color so fast. However, I have tried two with no success. They both ate well while in QT and would eat Aiptasia in there, but once they got to the main tank they refused to eat anything. One just disappeared after one week, the other lived about 3 weeks before it starved.

So far, all the Aiptasia still have these blobs in the middle, so I still don't know what's happening for sure, but I think if it was just expelling waste it would be gone by now.
 

Cody

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I've never failed at completely irradiating aiptasia with this method:

Get about 4-8 peppermint shrimp and turn them loose. Of that batch a few will eat aiptasia and the rest will learn to do so like a young bird dog being taught by the older one. They will irradicate the small and medium ones no problem. Once those are gone, inject Kalk paste into the large ones that are left (just mix enough water with Kalk to make it able to get into a syringe). This will not kill the large aiptasia, but it will injure it and the shrimp will go after it like sharks. I batting 1000 using this method for about 5 or 6 different tanks.
 
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frankc

frankc

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I tried a bunch of peppermint shrimp, but apparently there was not an old bird dog in the bunch because none of them ate the Aiptasia.

I was totally successful with the Berghia nudibranchs one time, and I may try that again. Some people have suggested that won't work if you have wrasses, but I'm not sure if that's true because the nudibranchs are nocturnal and the wrasses go to sleep at night.
 

Cody

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I tried a bunch of peppermint shrimp, but apparently there was not an old bird dog in the bunch because none of them ate the Aiptasia.

I was totally successful with the Berghia nudibranchs one time, and I may try that again. Some people have suggested that won't work if you have wrasses, but I'm not sure if that's true because the nudibranchs are nocturnal and the wrasses go to sleep at night.
What were the sizes of the shrimp and what were the sizes of the aiptasia? Like I said, if they're already big (face roughly the size of a dime) then the shrimp won't go at them until they're shriveled and vulnerable.
 
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frankc

frankc

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The shrimp were pretty decent size, but if dime-size is considered a big aiptasia, then mine are friggin huge. I probably need some friggin sharks with friggin lasers on their heads to deal with my aiptasia.

Of course there are some small aiptasia too, but none of them seemed to disappear.
 

Cody

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The shrimp were pretty decent size, but if dime-size is considered a big aiptasia, then mine are friggin huge. I probably need some friggin sharks with friggin lasers on their heads to deal with my aiptasia.

Of course there are some small aiptasia too, but none of them seemed to disappear.
If you still have some peppermint shrimp then hit them with the Kalk paste. You'll be good to go.
 

RR-MAN

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At this stage nothing probably works. The aiptasia got too big and out of control (probably released hundreds of spores already). Sorry not trying to be a pessimist. :)
 

sneezebeetle

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I hate aptasia! I have a big ole nasty one that gives me the stank eye every time I look at it. I can't reach it though because its in my overflow between 2 pvc pipes.

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steveb

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I hate aptasia! I have a big ole nasty one that gives me the stank eye every time I look at it. I can't reach it though because its in my overflow between 2 pvc pipes.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Stop your return pump, close off the drain line, siphon the water out then fill the overflow with NaOH solution or maybe try vinegar. Let him stew in that for a while then suck it out with a shop vac.
 

sneezebeetle

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Stop your return pump, close off the drain line, siphon the water out then fill the overflow with NaOH solution or maybe try vinegar. Let him stew in that for a while then suck it out with a shop vac.
Yeah...I had the thought to drain the over flow down, but couldn't decide what to do after that haha! Was thinking of sticking a long blade down there and cutting his foot off the pipe and then sucking him up with the shopvac. Thankfully he is near the bottom so it will be easy to soak the area and then suck it back up.

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Laser's don't work. I had a conversation about them with the guy who originally posted about it on RC. He said that in the beginning it seemed to work, but now looking back and knowing what he knows now. IT DOESN'T WORK.

You can only get the smaller ones close to the glass and the others will just pull into the rocks when they start to get burned and you see them back out in a week.

He told everybody don't waste your money because they're not worth it.

His post on RC was called "A real Aiptasia Laser" if anybody is interested and wants to cross check me. He posted on the thread too.
 
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