How Do You Eliminate Aiptasia?

[Frankie]

I have used lemon juice in the past but don't have any ATM except just one in the fuge and i leave him alone. Maybe I'll toss a peppermint in there to have a snack one day but its not hurting nothing in there.

 

[jnarowe]

:lol: Until it makes babies!!!

 

[IAP Brian]

Much like Johnathan, I have tried pretty much every med on the market with limited and mixed results. Boiling water and vinegar work really well. Kalk works fairly well but the aptasia can be tough and come back. I also severely damaged my poor hammer with some kalk overspray, so I quit doing that.

I have had good luck with peppermint shrimp, as long as there is little or no other food for them to eat.

I have also had great luck with Copper band's eating aptasia, but they have all starved out after that (exept the one I have now). I have participated in the copper band share method, but unfortunately the poor cbb eventually gets whacked from stress, someone's neglect or a host of other causes. I currently have a copper band in my tank and it is the only one I have ever had that eats anything other than aptasia. He sniffs at flake food, so I am hoping he may learn to eat it as well, but for now he greedily chows any and all frozen foods. I don't have any clams in my tank so he hasn't seemed to bug anything, including the mojanos. For some reason he won't eat them, but he chows aptasia.... go figure.

So I agree with fishermann that way too many of these great fish are sold and not properly cared for and anyone that is thinking of getting one should consider their long term needs and care.

 

[NC2WA]

FWIW,

I was able to have great success in keeping a CBB by feeding in PE Mysis Shrimp. Before I moved from NC, I had my CBB for one year and it was eating out of my hand.

 

[jnarowe]

I only feed frozen foods so I have a leg up there, but my tank has hundreds of aiptasia...it may be a never-ending supply. As far as using boiling water and vinegar, they both seem to work the best but most of my aiptasia are simply unreachable. Even if I donned scuba gear, it would still be very difficult to use that method.

 

[The Apprentice]

Lysmata wurdemanni ++++++++++

Personally I like what Steve said but since I can't Nuke em i have had very good luck with Lysmata wurdemanni But i have a very nice Copper band for looks

Thermo Nuclear Fusion. Its the only way to sure.

 

[fload]

ya i have mojano and the peppermint didnt touch it... i know its not aiptasia but come on man

 

[cr8signs]

Will peppermint shrimp get along with cleaner shrimp?

 

[steve-s]

They will chase each other a bit here and there but unless a small tank should be fine together. In a small (under 20 gal) tank they can kill each other. Especially will little or no rock.

 

[spongebob lover]

OMG OMG OMG !!!!

today i was just checking my blue stripped mushrooms because their rock fell and what do i see!!!
a little aptasia right there .... i was freaking out !!! .
right now i'm boiling RO water :badgrin: ... we'll see who wins !! i don't even know how it got in here

 

[scytale]

Just be careful not to nuke your shroom, Gaby--slimy mushrooms are not fun!

(before my shrimp got hungry--I used a $5 "Flavor Injector" that I got at one of those "Bed, Bath, Linen, Beyond, and Things" stores).
The Flavor Injector (aka 30 ml syringe) was nice--less time needed for re-loading, more time for killing!:evil:

 

[spongebob lover]

before my shrimp got hungry--I used a $5 "Flavor Injector" that I got at one of those "Bed, Bath, Linen, Beyond, and Things" stores).
The Flavor Injector (aka 30 ml syringe) was nice--less time needed for re-loading, more time for killing!
__________________

i didn't know bed, bath and something carries those type of things ... its just one little one (good thing is just a tiny rock and that i had it on the sand before otherwise i think it'd have spread all over my rocks.....i don't wanna go hunting .

 

[lavenderfish]

Well the boiling water trick just sends them into hiding for a week and the peppermint shrimp haven't eaten the obvious ones. I am hoping that they will warm up to the task. They spend an awful lot of time in the crevices of my rock which just makes me wonder if I had a bunch more hiding. I think I will give them another week before I get Joe's Juice.

 

[spongebob lover]

ohh if the boiling water doesn't work... i'll take my shrooms off the rock and dump the rock in the garbage since it's a little one, so far i don't see anything but we'll see

 

[coil1002]

Well after reading this thread I decided to give the pepermint shrimps at blue sierra a try. I bought two dumped them in and never saw them again. Today I looked in the tank (a week later) and there are no aiptasia in my tank. Those buggers must of ate all twenty of them in the night all ninja mode like .

 

[jsmkmavity]

the best method i have seen in my tank and others is a double saddle butterfly fish also known as a false falcula. it needs to be passed aroud to other tanks when the job is done because it will eat other things you want to keep after the aiptasia are gone. i recommend this fish because it is available, inexpensive, hardy, and agressively goes after aiptasia. just make sure your getting it from a tank you know is desease free and dont send yours out unless it is disease free, otherwise the cure is worse than the disease. this pretty much rules out getting one from an lfs unless you qt it first.

 

[Frankie]

Awesome coil1002
Glad you were successful!

 

[NC2WA]

coil1002,

peppermint shrimps are reclusive by nature. I wouldn't expect you to see them. If you do, consider yourself lucky.

Kirk

 

[coil1002]

As long as they keep eating I never need to see them

 

[billaweed]

I've had a few show up lately and I've been able to zap them with a syrenge full of boing water. they havent shown up since..