Aptasia

[SaltSolutions1]

Please help. I found one polyp. A nice sized one. I need to get rid of him before he spreads. Please advise.

Thanks

[Engine8ff]

Get some aptasia x from your lfs and hit it with that.

[jdthomas24]

^^^ will get rid of it fast. 1-2 mill and go in close and squirt it on the aptasia when it is open and it will be no more after that.

[jchase1970]

I had 1 good size one, got rid of it and things were good for 3 weeks, then I started seeing little ones pop up. Going to try the natural way of using peppermint shrimp since the tank is large with lots of rock for stuff to hide away.

[SaltSolutions1]

I have a gold coral banded shrimp being delivered tomorrow along with a urchin. Will either of those get rid of him. If not, will a couple peppermint shrimp get along with the gold coral banded?

Thanks

[Brndn0515]

If you dont want to spend the money on the aptasia x. Put some lemon juice in a syringe with needle and inject directly into the stems of the polyp. I have used this method and it works.

[venom550pm]

If you can get the rock out of the tank easy enough, use a blow torch Plus it gets out some aggression

[Lannyrx7]

Originally Posted by SaltSolutions1

I have a gold coral banded shrimp being delivered tomorrow along with a urchin. Will either of those get rid of him. If not, will a couple peppermint shrimp get along with the gold coral banded?

Thanks

No to all. Neither one of those animals are aiptasia eaters. Also, the banded will get the peppermints.

[Akrite]

Peppermint shrimp only eat aptasia if there is nothing else to eat. Starve your tank for 2 months with 2-4 peppermints or setup a separate tank, 20 gallons or so and put only peppermint shrimp and LR with aptasia on it. This works but it will take a few weeks.

[Tuscaquatics]

Not sure about the lemon juice, that might work fine. I use a paste made from kalkwasser (Mrs. Wage's pickling lime). Put a couple teaspoons in a cup and add a few drops of water at a time until you get a nice paste that will squirt out of a syringe.

Whatever you use, be vewy, vewy qwiet about it. Sneak up on him. And before you squirt him in the mouth, squirt all around the mouth at the tentacles and try to nuke them first. This will get the eggs before he's able to release them.

A lot of people just squirt 'em in the mouth, which works sometimes, but they're quick and paranoid, so when you creep up on them, if they see you, they will release those guys.

[Jstdv8]

How to kill aiptasia with pickling lime or kalkwasser mix

1.) Mix 1tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon of Mrs. wages pickling lime with 1 1/2 Teaspoons of water to make a nice paste. The paste should not be running, but it also must be thin enough to get injected through the syringe.
2.) Apply a layer of the paste to the oral disc of the aiptasia. Sometimes you can get them to think its food by teasing their tentacles a little and then injecting the paste onto the oral disc. If they suck back into their hole right away just cover the hole with the paste.
3.) wait 45 minutes to an hour
4.) suck out the paste and the aiptasia with a turkey baster and dispose of them.

I bought 100 lbs. worth of live rock from a fellow reefer who was tearing down her tank. The rock was covered with aiptasia (estimating over 300). Some of the rocks also had some corals on them (mushrooms, green star polyps and Kenya trees)
I put the rock on a 55 gallon tank that I used as a holding area while I treated the rock before putting it into my display tank.
I mixed up a small batch of the lime paste and started injecting the aiptasia with the method used above.
I recommend doing only a few at a time as the paste can cause a PH spike in your tank if you do too much. Keep in mind Pickling lime and kalkwasser are similar products that are used for correcting alkalinity and calcium problems and can be used safely if in small doses.
Be sure to cover the whole face of the aiptasia with the paste to ensure that it cannot release its seed into the tank and make more aiptasia later. You also must get it out of the hole as even a small piece of aiptasia can grow into a whole one over time. Do it right the first time.

Other methods that work include Peppermint shrimp, Copper banded butterfly, joe's juice, aiptasia-x, vinegar, boiling water or just leaving the rock out in the open air for a couple of days(killing everything on it.)

Peppermint shrimp work well as long as they don't have a different food source they like better. It is also very important to get the correct shrimp as there is an imposter shrimp that doesn't feed on aiptasia that looks very similar. When you are buying the shrimp ask for L. wurdemanni. Do Not accept the shrimp if it is a L. californica.
Peppermints will also not attack a large aiptasia so these will have to be removed in another way. There is also no guarantee that the aiptasia will not release its seed into the water which they tend to do when in danger. This will cause more to pop up later.

The Copper banded butterfly's require an established tank to safely house one (preferably 6 months or longer). Some for whatever reason don't prefer aiptasia though (the upside here is that these ones are reef safe)
If you choose this method you risk the fish devouring other corals in your tank that you wanted to keep once it has eaten the aiptasia. And again, there is no guarantee that they won't release their seed into the water when attacked.

Aiptasia X is similar to the paste that I described above and it comes in a nifty little syringe with a straight and an angled head for getting at aiptasia in hard to reach places.
The downside here is the cost. At 20 dollars a tube it gets pretty costly, especially if you have a lot of aiptasia to treat. A jar of Mrs. Wages pickling lime costs about $4 at Wal-mart and you will have a lifetime supply.

Boiling water, vinegar and Joe's juice all have been known to work but as with most methods are very hit and miss. While one person says they had great success the next may say it didn't work at all.

Best of luck to you and good hunting!

[capnfritz]

+1 to Jsdv8. Hands down the best treatise I have ever seen on this subject.
Outstanding. Congrats.

[drstratton]

I'm going to build one of these. Paulb came up with this.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1808040

[tkimmons85]

I had a massive infestion, like 100 or more aptasia. 4 peppermint shrimp made quick work of them in just 2 weeks. Best money I ever spent.

[usctrack]

I have used the lemon juice in a insulin syringe for aptasia and mojano and it did well with both of them and you cant beat the price.

[Blakeup295]

about a year ago i had a huge problem with these little guys cause i didn't know they were bad and let them grow then i looked them up one day and i got that aptaisa control thing that u put on them to kill them it worked good but they just kept coming back id have to use it all the time! then i came along one of my favorite fish the Matted filefish after i got him i haven't seen one at all in over a year. i recommend him 100%

[iamwrasseman]

if you read the directions and follow them the aptasia x works great but you have to turn off the pumps and cover the entire head with and don't be skimpy with it . if you just squirt some near it or try to kill it with some other stuff it will many time sense its demise and spit off some spores and thus spread it so read the directions as the certainly do work when read .

[Jukas]

Get it now before it gets out of hand, once they start spreading as they have for me it seems to be almost impossible to get rid of all of them.

I've had mixed success with aiptasia-x but peppermint shrimp have been entirely worthless in my case. Since the aiptasia have spread I'm going to have to take a two prong approach to deal with them, the ones I can see and get to easily I will tackle with aiptasia-x but for the ones that are springing up behind the rockscape I will have to try either Berghia or a CBB.

[SaltSolutions1]

Ok. My girlfriend is a nurse. I asked her to bring home a syringe tonight so I can try the lemon juice. Any juice is fine?

I have some lemon juice at home in my fridge.

Do I just blast him with it? Stick the syringe in its mouth? what do I do?

Also, what does lemon juice do to my water parameters?

[hobbydave]

Good luck with this...please post how it comes out. I have the same problem as you. I have been following your thread for a soloution.

[mmm67]

aptasia x worked great for me. Also copperband butterfly

[BeachBumm]

Kalkwasser was more economical for me . Make a really thick paste with it and coat the aiptasia , kills very well .I have also used very hot water for the mix and it worked faster .Good Luck .

[SaltSolutions1]

Well, I tried the lemon juice. I blasted him pretty good. I waited about 20 minutes and then sucked him out of his hole with a turkey baster. It seemed to have got him all. Only time will tell if he released any spores. Thanks again for all of your input.

[thebkramer]

Originally Posted by SaltSolutions1

Ok. My girlfriend is a nurse. I asked her to bring home a syringe tonight so I can try the lemon juice. Any juice is fine?

I have some lemon juice at home in my fridge.

Do I just blast him with it? Stick the syringe in its mouth? what do I do?

Also, what does lemon juice do to my water parameters?

I also just used lemon juice with syringe. I used 1ml of lemon juice. I put the needle in his mouth GENTLY so he doesn't shrink up. He wrapped his tentacles around the needle, and then I injected him. He melted away. I waited about 5 min and suck up what I could with turkey baster. The peppermint shrimp ate what was left that night.
The lemon juice didn't affect my water parameters at all. I'm sure if you use too much it would though. They say a little at a time. You might want to turn off powerheads for about 5 mins too Good Luck

Edit: LOL looks like I was 2 secs too late!!
Glad to hear all went well

[iamwrasseman]

many of the homemade remedies will actually spread it so be careful and observant