Aptasia or ..??..

[sworley]

Thank you in advance for any advice on the following …
-
I purchased 200# of live rock for my newly set up 150Gal aquarium. My long term goal is primarily SPS. After one week I started seeing Anemones, only a couple isolated to a single rock which I thought was very cool. A couple weeks later after ID’ing them as Aptasia I grew concerned with what to do. As I understand Aptasia are a nuisance Anemone and should be dealt with or they can reach plague proportions. Now out of concern for the future of the SPS, I decided to quarantine the single live rock. I was able to observe that this rock also had a feather duster and what I believe to be spaghetti worms (visible only by flashlight at night). Oh, and after moving the single rock containing what I believed were three Aptasia to quarantine, I can now count 13 of them … they are all over this rock in the holes, etc. With very little water movement in quarantine they are stretching out quite well and can be easily seen.

My Question(s):
1. Is this live rock of any use … I would hate to throw it but can not see placing it back into my tank?
2. Is there a way to treat the Aptasia and only the Aptasia to eventually place the live rock back into the Aquarium? (some are very small and I am not sure I could “juice” them given their size and location).
3. Does anyone think that the ID is incorrect (if not Aptasia ..??..)?

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ayW3DZzTQLzIbJPxwenOHg?feat=directlink

 

[roscoe]

That is definatly Aptasia. You can try Bergia Nudibranch.

 

[ajnweb]

Peppermint shrimp have also been know to eat them, hit and miss though so if you go that route buy a few of them.

 

[sworley]

Thanks for the suggestions and ID verification! Now I am very happy that I pulled the rock from my main tank. I only hope that there are not too many that made it off of "the rock". I will consider it a quarantine tank rock for now and see what I can come up at the LFS. Thanks again.

 

[jetaero]

Easiest way to kill aiptasia for me is to:

1. Boil some hot water (in a kettle or something)

2. Take a small cup, add a fair amount of kalkwasser (CaOH) to it.

3. Pour the boiling water into the cup with about 1 part (per volume) of water to kalkwasser. (so half and half kalkwasser powder and boiling water)

4. Take a syringe, suck up some of the water but mostly the gooey sediment at the bottom (while hot, so don't burn yourself while you're doing this)

5. Squirt the solution out of the syringe over your aiptasia which will coat it white and usually it will shrink up. Give it a day and it should be gone.

For this you just need:

- a syringe (no metal part, just the plastic) which you can get from a local pharmacy, I'd say to ask for a 10mL feeding syringe.

- a glass bowl or cup you don't mind not using again

- any kalkwasser mix (kent marine, etc.)

If you don't kill it, even in quarantine the aiptasia will just reproduce and take over.

Hope that helps.
-Josh

 

[roscoe]

Kalk, joes juice, boiling water ect ect is just temporary fixes. You will initially kill the parent but then if you don't siphon out all the tissue they will just spread to another part of your tank. It is a never ending battle using a mechanical method. You need to get something that eats them. Copperband Butterfly and pepermint shrimps will eat them but are hit and miss and the copperband can be a potential danger to your LPS if you have them. Bergia Nudibranch is your safest bet. I didn't have any luck with them but I know plenty that has. Also too if you are going to use Bergia make sure you don't have any peppermint shrimp as they will eat them.

Sarang

 

[user 26995]

If this is one rock out of all the live rock he has is it possible to just kill off the entire rock by drying out and baking it and then put it back in qt to make sure it is clean and then put it back in the tank when sure. However if it is on one rock, it is bound to be on the rest of the rock too. I have also used Aptasia X with great results.

 

[sworley]

Easiest way to kill aiptasia for me is to:

1. Boil some hot water (in a kettle or something)

2. Take a small cup, add a fair amount of kalkwasser (CaOH) to it.

3. Pour the boiling water into the cup with about 1 part (per volume) of water to kalkwasser. (so half and half kalkwasser powder and boiling water)

4. Take a syringe, suck up some of the water but mostly the gooey sediment at the bottom (while hot, so don't burn yourself while you're doing this)

5. Squirt the solution out of the syringe over your aiptasia which will coat it white and usually it will shrink up. Give it a day and it should be gone.

For this you just need:

- a syringe (no metal part, just the plastic) which you can get from a local pharmacy, I'd say to ask for a 10mL feeding syringe.

- a glass bowl or cup you don't mind not using again

- any kalkwasser mix (kent marine, etc.)

If you don't kill it, even in quarantine the aiptasia will just reproduce and take over.

Hope that helps.
-Josh

Very cool, thanks for the step by step, this is good stuff. I would like to try as many methods as possible until I get it under control (hopefully in as few attempts as possible). I consider it a test before the final exam ... given that this is already in quarantine and I could have more in the main tank, I want to understand what works and what does not on a small scale first (again without having to take drastic measures on each rock in the main tank, I sure don't want to tear everything back down).

 

[sworley]

Kalk, joes juice, boiling water ect ect is just temporary fixes. You will initially kill the parent but then if you don't siphon out all the tissue they will just spread to another part of your tank. It is a never ending battle using a mechanical method. You need to get something that eats them. Copperband Butterfly and pepermint shrimps will eat them but are hit and miss and the copperband can be a potential danger to your LPS if you have them. Bergia Nudibranch is your safest bet. I didn't have any luck with them but I know plenty that has. Also too if you are going to use Bergia make sure you don't have any peppermint shrimp as they will eat them.

Sarang

Ok, after some additional research on the Berghia Nudibranches, I am intrigued and am willing to try these first. Tomorrow AM I will check with the LFS and see if he has any. If not, I will check into online resources. This looks like the easiest way to Aptasia control. I will try to eradicate them in quarantine first and if successful, keep them on hand for deployment into the main tank. From what I can read, these are a very natural way to Aptasia control. Thanks for the follow up on this!

 

[sworley]

If this is one rock out of all the live rock he has is it possible to just kill off the entire rock by drying out and baking it and then put it back in qt to make sure it is clean and then put it back in the tank when sure. However if it is on one rock, it is bound to be on the rest of the rock too. I have also used Aptasia X with great results.

Thanks for the reply, if all else fails I will bake the entire thing. I also agree with your comment ... I am sure that the main tank has Aptasia, although I have not seen any yet, I will keep an eye out.

 

[jetaero]

I personally disagree on not using mechanical methods. If an aiptasia was able to withstand the high temperatures and high pH presented with the boiling kalkwasser I would be surprised.

Also, what happens once the nudibranchs eat their last anemone...? Sadly they die. I really don't think it's the most ecologically pleasing thought to purchase an animal just to fix a problem. As for the copperbanded butterfly, they do "usually" eat the anemones, but they are extremely hard to keep, let alone feed once (if) they eat your aiptasia.

I've had bad luck with joes juice and other chemical additives, which is why I prefer to stick with a normal calcium additive.

-Josh

 

[sworley]

I personally disagree on not using mechanical methods. If an aiptasia was able to withstand the high temperatures and high pH presented with the boiling kalkwasser I would be surprised.

Also, what happens once the nudibranchs eat their last anemone...? Sadly they die. I really don't think it's the most ecologically pleasing thought to purchase an animal just to fix a problem. As for the copperbanded butterfly, they do "usually" eat the anemones, but they are extremely hard to keep, let alone feed once (if) they eat your aiptasia.

I've had bad luck with joes juice and other chemical additives, which is why I prefer to stick with a normal calcium additive.

-Josh

You do have a good point on what happens when the Nudibranch runs out of food, however I would not go so far as to say that this is sad. If we are concerned for all living things then perhaps we should let the Aptasia thrive. Die-off is a common ecological event in general and when introduced manually, it can be quite effective. In wine making for example introducing yeast to eat the sugary crushed grapes will results in an explosion of yeast that eventually die in their own environment due to high levels of alcohol and carbon dioxide (fermentation), all of the yeast eventually die off.

Thanks for your comments, as I do appreciate the suggestions and dialogue around this as I am interested in making the right choice for my situation.

 

[Reef Addict]

Berghia worked fine for me. Can't find anymore aiptasia, but it wan't a quick fix as the berghia have to breed and have babies to totally populate your tank enough to get all the aiptasia. The bergia have been foraging in the daytime and so they want food. I will be willing to sell them to you if you like. How many do you need? Call me 561-901-2950 Jeff

 

[spongebob lover]

lol !!
i'm in the same boat, for the first time my method didn't work, i tried burning the darn thing with a torch and it survived :O ....i was quite amazed, but i think next time i'm gonna first torch it and then add kalk paste and see if that works, if not i'm doomed

 

[sworley]

Berghia worked fine for me. Can't find anymore aiptasia, but it wan't a quick fix as the berghia have to breed and have babies to totally populate your tank enough to get all the aiptasia. The bergia have been foraging in the daytime and so they want food. I will be willing to sell them to you if you like. How many do you need? Call me 561-901-2950 Jeff

That is good to know, I would expect the whole cycle to take some time assuming that it does work. Thank you for the offer to purchase some from you. I actually spoke to a fellow hobbyist and was offered what I needed at no charge (it is really cool getting to know some of these guys in the local club, I also am on my way to getting some of my first frags, cool!). Thanks again for the offer, I appreciate it.

 

[sworley]

lol !!
i'm in the same boat, for the first time my method didn't work, i tried burning the darn thing with a torch and it survived :O ....i was quite amazed, but i think next time i'm gonna first torch it and then add kalk paste and see if that works, if not i'm doomed

I had to laugh, your comment to "torch them" ... This is the second "torch them" comment I have heard today. I stopped by my LFS today and was told that I could just take a torch to them and burn them off. I thought he was joking ... wasn't he ..??..

 

[roscoe]

I had to laugh, your comment to "torch them" ... This is the second "torch them" comment I have heard today. I stopped by my LFS today and was told that I could just take a torch to them and burn them off. I thought he was joking ... wasn't he ..??..

I'm telling you them things are tough!!! Like I said you will kill the parent colony mechanically. If you don't get a good amount of what ever you are using on,in, around and under it. It is pretty much hopeless. They will reless thier spores. Here is a pic the spores of what DonW posted on another thread.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34055&d=1244752176

 

[user 26995]

They also tend to get inside the rock in cracks and holes so you cant pick them off. They see you coming and they retreat to the hole they are in. I have taken the rock out and completely scraped out the entire surrounding area removing everything till I see clean white rock and no slimy stuff and then rinse in fresh water real good. I had an aiptasia problem for a while. I don't know if the nudibranchs took care of them or if my using the aiptasia x has done the job well, because I am hard pressed right now to find one.

 

[Reef Addict]

Sure thing. It does work, just remember there are predators that eat Berghia. Like, peppermint shrimp, wrasses, butterflies, sallylightfoots, So preferably you don't have those. However, they reproduce so well, they should be able to keep up. Each reproduction cycle takes about 6 weeks and you will need 2 repro. cylcles if you add 1 Berghia/10gal in a moderate to heavy infestation. You will need more reproduction cylcle if you put less in at first. Remember to keep them together as they need one another to breed. If you spread them out too much they may not be able to find a mate to fertilize the eggs....i.e. it won't work for some time. Good luck and have patience. Jeff