aptasia that won't die.... (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

Ok, I have some aptasia in my tank that I have been unable to kill.

I tried to inject kalk into it and was unable, it would retract everytime before I could actually pierce it.

I've tried shooting kalk at the base and into the mouth, neither have killed it.
It just disappears for a couple days, then its back. (or it moves to somewhere else)
Some of them in my tank are starting to get rather large.
I've contemplated just grabbing it with needle nose plyers but I dunno what will happen there. I'm assuming it would tear and I just get a piece of it.
Anyone got a suggestion? I can't put a Copperband Butterfly in, I have too many things for it to eat.
I've tried peppermint shrimp, but my antennata lionfish doesn't give them the same respect he gives the cleaner shrimp. (ate all 5 peppermint shrimp the first day)
I've heard there is a nudibranch that will eat aptasia, is it limited to small ones? or does the size of the aptasia not matter to them?
If so, which nudibranch is it, and does anyone local carry them.
Anything else I can do to kill off the aptasia?

 

[pernelf]

They are called berghia v. nudi's and aiptasia is the only thing they will eat. I would not recommend getting them though just for one aiptasia as these nudi's run over $20 each and wil die after eating your aiptasia. Now if you have a lot of aiptasia overrunning your tank, you may want to look into them.

 

[Kyle]

Berghia (Spelling?) is the type of nudibrach and apparently they eat all sizes of aptasia. They multiply every few days too. This is all they eat, so once the aptasia are gone they will die off unless you get rid of them. A guy is selling them on Reefcentral for $10 each. The problem is shipping. He said it would be $33 to bryan Texas for shipping. If we could find enough people we could split shipping. I have not seen them locally but let me know if you do.

 

[HolyBanana]

cooperband Bfly fish did it for me. However I did lose all my feather dusters along with the aptasia.
My aptasia are growing in my fuge. And its getting out of control. I put two pepperming shrimps in there, however I have a feeling they got sucked up in the skimmer.

 

[Guest]

I'll have to try one of those nudibranchs then, the aptasia are starting to spread very quickly.

 

[Guest]

I think I wil try the Peppermint shrimp, I do not hav ea huge problem right noe but i have noticed 4 or 5 of them and they seem to be growing rather quickly. Do Peppermint get along with Blood red shrimp and cleaner shrimp?

 

[Guest]

They get along fine, my understanding has been that not all peppermint shrimp eat aptasia though.
Just a crap shoot there.

 

[Guest]

I use Joes Juice ( which is probably just kalk). If they come back I just use it again. 3 applications at most does it. I am very happy with this method as I no longer see any aptasia. Once in a while I see a new one somewhere and I juice it right away. Works good enough for me.

 

[Guest]

Inject with lemon juice...it is cool to watch them melt. Also, if you don't want them to retract, feed them some meaty chuncks so they can pull in their hole.

 

[Guest]

well joes juice is most definately something to keep in mind as well. thanks.

 

[Cakepro]

Trey reports that caustic soda works exceptionally well. I have some 30% caustic on hand if you can come up with a small syringe.

~ Sherri

 

[incysor]

Supposedly boiling water will do the trick. Just inject it into it, or around the base. Same goes for lemon juice.

Brian

 

[Guest]

Cakepro,
What is caustic soda ? I have some small syringe, you can pick it up tomorrow.

 

[Cakepro]

It's a highly corrosive acid. You need to inject the aiptasia with a fine-bore needle, I believe. Something along the lines of a url=http://www.qualitymedicalsupplies.com/page/QMS/PROD/SN-TB/58-305945]tuberculin syringe[/url].

I'll bring you some caustic if you want some, Kevin.

~ Sherri

 

[Trey]

Hello All,

I use 10% caustic (sodium hydroxide) to eliminate my aiptasia (sp?). I inject the little beggars with 1-2 cc of the stuff, and they are typically never to be seen again.

Several issues to remember.

1. The sodium and hydroxide will react with CO2 and form buffer, so there is no long term issue with tank contamination.
2. Within a small diameter of the injection point, you will have a very high pH (>13) for a second or two. Coral or livestock nearby can be impacted. I actually killed an aiptasia on a colony of zoa's this way and cleared out a small circle of zoa's about the size of a dime. The rest of the colony was uneffected.
3. High flow in the area of the injection will minimize the impact to surrounding organisms, but it is not required.
4. You must inject the aiptasia directly. Getting close may get them on occasion, but a direct injection is a guarantee. Sometimes this can be tricky when they are attached to the wall of a crevis in a rock. Just poke around injecting a bit here and a bit there. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
5. If the immediate area has good coraline growth, it will be killed and turn white. Again the area is small, and the coraline will recover.

I will continue to control them this way, but if I can find some peppermint shrimp at Texas City or Galveston, I would rather use them. I think the biologically supplied control mechanism is still the best.

Later,
Trey

 

[Guest]

I have been unsuccessful trying to actually inject anything into the aptasia.
As soon as the needle comes in contact, they retract.

 

[Guest]

I went ahead and ordered some Joe's Juice. I know some people say it's nothing special, but I've seen nothing but good reviews of it, and most of the other methods seem to be hit-or-miss. If it's snake oil - who cares, as long as it works. I'm willing to risk $14 to try it.

I should get it in a couple of days, hopefully before this weekend since I have a boatload of tank maintenance planned. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[Guest]

Well, I finally found something that will get rid of them. First thing you need to do is go to your lfs, pick up a tube of the coral epoxy. You know, the one that's green on the outside, white on the inside. Pull off a plug, mix it up in your fingertips, and as you're reaching in the tank and that little SOB sucks back in, you cram the epoxy down the hole the aptasia's in. It can't come back out. I've used this I don't know how many times and it works like a charm. You should give it a try.

 

[pernelf]

might as well buy a new frag to stick in the epoxy and kill two birds with one stone How many little epoxy white spots do you have in your tank?

 

[Guest]

I only have three at the present. And thanks for bringing up the good point about the frags. I might have to start doing that.