how bad is aptasia?

[marlin06]

how bad is aptasia. i have a little popping up here and there.should i start getting rid of it now?i heard peppermint shrimp eat them.

 

[hooked82]

Aiptasia can take over an entire tank if you let it go without zapping it. Peppermint shrimp are hit & miss, I would either get some joe's juice, or you can actually blast em with boiling water.

HTH

 

[kendog261]

Ive used joes juice (thanks David) and it works great. I also have 2 peppermint shrimp that seem to like it

 

[twilliard]

:O
it WILL spread.
Get it while you can

 

[marlin06]

Aiptasia can take over an entire tank if you let it go without zapping it. Peppermint shrimp are hit & miss, I would either get some joe's juice, or you can actually blast em with boiling water.

HTH

how do i do it with boiling water,thanks

 

[scytale]

Boil some freshwater (the hotter the better)!
Load it into a turkey baster, aim it right at them and then squirt away!

You should see them dissolve right away!

(IME, turning off powerheads/circulation helps ensure that your hot water goes right to them, so you don't "miss")

And they are very sensitive to shadows and touch. So try to "sneak up" on them--if they retract you're probably not going to be able to kill them--you'll just "wound" them and they'll be back in a week...

I've heard Lemon juice, or a paste of calcium/kalk fed to them also works....

 

[hooked82]

I have tried the lemon juice before and didnt have much luck with it. Plus the tricky part about it is you have to find a pharmacy that will sell you a hypodermic needle without having a prescription. I had to goto about 6 places before somebody finally listened to my story, lol.

 

[shallowreef]

What do you do though if your apstasia is growing next to a piece of coral and you can't move the coral? I am faced with this problem right now.

 

[hooked82]

I believe it should be fine as long as you're not directly feeding the coral the joe's juice or whatever. If you're goign with the boiling water approach, maybe stick a piece or acrylic inbetween the aiptasia and the coral to "shield" it from the spray.

 

[hooked82]

Also Joe's juice is reef safe and is just said to use with caution as it can mess with your water parameters. If you're not using the whole bottle you will be fine.

 

[shallowreef]

I could try that because i have some star polyps taht are just starting to spread and there is a small apstasia growing. I was thinking about renting a copperband butterfly for a week or two to take care of the job, but i figured they are like the peppermint shrimp as in they are a hit or miss type thing.

 

[class clown]

What do you do though if your apstasia is growing next to a piece of coral and you can't move the coral? I am faced with this problem right now.

Well, the aptasia will sting the coral and most likely kill a section of it that it's touching over time. If you can get some tweasers in there and pluck it off, that's the first avenue i'd try.. That can be tricky though. make sure you get all of it though and not just part of it. The second avenue I woudl try if it is close to or touching another coral would be joes juice b/c I think you can contain it a little easier - just try not to let it go all over the place, but if it does, you probably won't loose much more than you normally would if the aptasia grew over time.

of course your aptasia eaters are great if you can get one that is willing to work. I've gone through about 6 pepperments and a butterfly and of course none of them were aptasia eaters.. Then again, you could get totally lucky on the first time. It's a crap shoot.

 

[Scooterman]

I found calk past works find if you spackle it & the hole like your plastering a wall. If you touch or tear any part of one it will spread, it takes weeks for them to show up.

 

[marlin06]

Tanks.............

 

[returnofsid]

Use Mother's Pickling Lime. It's $2.00 and works great. Just mix it up to a toothpaste consistency, using RO water. Use one of those medicine dosing syringes. Doesn't have to be an actual needle syringe. If it comes in contact with other corals, it won't hurt them...it actually helps the reef. It's the same thing as Kalk. Squirt it on them when they're expanded. You can actually watch them melt. As was said before, just be careful not to startle them into contracting back into their hole before you coat them.

 

[SueT]

you don't really need a needle, the syringe will be fine. Once you load the syringe and hold it over the aiptaisa it should ooze out of the syringe and the aiptasia will take it in and that'll be the end of it.

 

[burning2nd]

I think if you turn your flow, off and be vary carefull, you will be able to use it next to coral,

but it will kill coral like it does, aptasia if to much is around

 

[Grey Legion]

I had a few starting to spread in my tank and was very lucky to get 3 Peppermint shrimp that had a real liking for them. I have yet to see one come back..

 

[MarineTeng]

i thought peppermint shrimp usually eat them, just camel shrimp sometimes get sold as peppermints..., might be wrong though, i have one that keeps my apaistia at bay well, and hot water works well to for blowing them off/killing them

 

[ecobalance]

stop apstaisia

Yea the product;I've used it and the reason it works is because when used with the aplicator it incapsulizes them with what i think is some kind of underwater EPOXY.Im sure there's someone out there that has observed a new kinda snail or slug crusin the substrate the day after use.So the reason it works,is because it inables them to do what they do when u use hot water or limewater,they release all there little [tenticles]into the water at first sign they are under attack.Ikeep a few tanks at my housefor just such experements.So if anyone else has observed this strange little new [stop apstaia green helmited slug]chime in.