How To Eliminate Aiptasia Anemones

[akunochi]

I may pick up a copperband here shortly and don't have any aiptasia. I may be able to let him eat on some of your corals......err pests.

 

[Bosco83]

Do you know if the Blue Life Aiptasia Control has any adverse affects on zoanthids or other coral? What is Joes Juice? Has anyone tried injecting lemon juice. I though I would give that a try if a peppermint shrimp wont take care of them.

It didn't hurt mine any and I didn't notice any difference in my water quality.

 

[user 26995]

I may be able to let him eat on some of your corals.

Thats so kind of you:shock:
I was talking to my LFS this afternoon about renting one. They basically sell you one and let you return it for store credit. My 50gal isnt big enought to support one for more than maybe a few weeks. I am going to start pulling rocks one at a time and treating with the aiptasia x and see what happens.

 

[DonW]

Please show me the way GURU!!

Its actually so much easier to go out and do some a reasearch and get a understand of the "pest". Understanding how they work makes it easy to get rid of them. Most if not all of the suggestions of potions of joes juice, aptasia x, hot water and vinegar most of the time are going to make things worse. This has been an ongoing topic over and over again for years, the same people with the same suggestions and the same aptasia. Killing the parent head does nothing more than just that you killed the parent without dealing with the lacerates. Killing the head is no great success, its a fragile animal and drastic change hot, cold, high ph or low ph will do that no mystery involved. Killing the parent mearly causes it to release all the lacerates and gets the parent umbrella out of the way for all the lacerates to thrive. They thrive because we give them the perfect High light and high nutrient levels which makes them a perfect barometer of actual water quality. Of course the standard argument is well my corals are fine so my water must be good or my tank has no nitrates or phosphates. Thats a load of bull if a tank had no nitrates or phosphates nothing would be alive. So the not detectable by the cheap hobby test kits is just that the test kits are just not good enough to give a accurate measurement giving all the more reason to use the aptasia as a barometer of water quality. The average test kit that shows no nitrates in a sample will usually have in excess of 5ppm or much more depending on the batch of test kits. One thing you can count on if you have thriving aptasia you are providing them with plenty of nutrients most likely well in excess of what the cheap test kits are showing.

Don

 

[roscoe]

Its actually so much easier to go out and do some a reasearch and get a understand of the "pest". Understanding how they work makes it easy to get rid of them. Most if not all of the suggestions of potions of joes juice, aptasia x, hot water and vinegar most of the time are going to make things worse. This has been an ongoing topic over and over again for years, the same people with the same suggestions and the same aptasia. Killing the parent head does nothing more than just that you killed the parent without dealing with the lacerates. Killing the head is no great success, its a fragile animal and drastic change hot, cold, high ph or low ph will do that no mystery involved. Killing the parent mearly causes it to release all the lacerates and gets the parent umbrella out of the way for all the lacerates to thrive. They thrive because we give them the perfect High light and high nutrient levels which makes them a perfect barometer of actual water quality. Of course the standard argument is well my corals are fine so my water must be good or my tank has no nitrates or phosphates. Thats a load of bull if a tank had no nitrates or phosphates nothing would be alive. So the not detectable by the cheap hobby test kits is just that the test kits are just not good enough to give a accurate measurement giving all the more reason to use the aptasia as a barometer of water quality. The average test kit that shows no nitrates in a sample will usually have in excess of 5ppm or much more depending on the batch of test kits. One thing you can count on if you have thriving aptasia you are providing them with plenty of nutrients most likely well in excess of what the cheap test kits are showing.

Don

Well Ok thanks for the insight Don! I did enough research on these things. I've tried most of the above. My question is how does one get rid of the lacerates? Of course there are nutrients in all water. That should go without saying. Aptasia doesn't grow on it's own out of thin air does it? Don't it have to be physically introduced into your system somehow? My mistake was I decided to kill off 1 huge one I had in the tank and shortly after that is when the infestation started. Before that it was the only aptasia in my tank for over a year. So if I never killed it would I still be infested today?

 

[DonW]

It only takes one to have thirty. I started my tank with all dead everthing completely free of all pest. It took one new zoa colony purchase to infest my tank. Its easy to get them and probably impossible to avoid if you actually want anything in the tank. The lacerates are easy if you completely cover a big area with kalk paste or super glue all the other methods will just cause more problems. If you can keep up with them the lacerates will starve as long as you actually have low nutrients. If you dont the lacerates you missed will thrive and make many more. It all boils down to getting as many lacerates as possible and having low nutrients.
If you never killed it would you still be infested? Of course you would because if you do the research you will see that the lacerates seperate eventually and go about their way. You would also know that aptasia reproduce by both sexual and asexual reproduction. So the lacerates that do make their way into another area are going to eventually become anemones and produce more lacerates at their base and with sexual reprduction in the water coulmn.
If you would have got the parent umbrella with most of the lacerates and actually had low nutrients then you would not have an aptasia infestation. Try having some water tested by awt and or spectra it will become crystal clear what you thought was low nutrient is actually far from it. The benefit to your corals will also be well worth the fourty bucks.

Don

 

[roscoe]

It only takes one to have thirty. I started my tank with all dead everthing completely free of all pest. It took one new zoa colony purchase to infest my tank. Its easy to get them and probably impossible to avoid if you actually want anything in the tank. The lacerates are easy if you completely cover a big area with kalk paste or super glue all the other methods will just cause more problems. If you can keep up with them the lacerates will starve as long as you actually have low nutrients. If you dont the lacerates you missed will thrive and make many more. It all boils down to getting as many lacerates as possible and having low nutrients.
If you never killed it would you still be infested? Of course you would because if you do the research you will see that the lacerates seperate eventually and go about their way. You would also know that aptasia reproduce by both sexual and asexual reproduction. So the lacerates that do make their way into another area are going to eventually become anemones and produce more lacerates at their base and with sexual reprduction in the water coulmn.
If you would have got the parent umbrella with most of the lacerates and actually had low nutrients then you would not have an aptasia infestation. Try having some water tested by awt and or spectra it will become crystal clear what you thought was low nutrient is actually far from it. The benefit to your corals will also be well worth the fourty bucks.

Don

Thanks again Don... Yeah I'll have to pass on testing my 40b tank. Not worth it since I will be transfering everything over to the 270. I will break all my acros from the base so I don't have a piece of rock that has baby aptasia I can't see hitch hike into teh 270. Hopefully this will prevent them from going into the 270, but we all know how that goes!

 

[akunochi]

Thanks again Don... Yeah I'll have to pass on testing my 40b tank. Not worth it since I will be transfering everything over to the 270. I will break all my acros from the base so I don't have a piece of rock that has baby aptasia I can't see hitch hike into teh 270. Hopefully this will prevent them from going into the 270, but we all know how that goes!

Yep....you're doomed

 

[idgy]

So, if you these pest, you are basically stuck with them?

 

[user 26995]

So, if you these pest, you are basically stuck with them?

You may be stuck with them, but if your tank can support an animal that eats it, it will never be a problem. The tank that my rock came from was not infested with it. A couple of animals ate it regularly. Yet I am seeing more all the time.

I have removed a few of the rock that seem to be the only ones I could see it on at this point and put it in my qt tank in the dark. Luckily I dont have any coral on these few rocks. I should be able to get away with doing this and see what happens.