Big AIPTASIA PROBLEM

[ricwilli]

I purchased some live rocks from a reefer that is getting out of the hobby. Unfortunately all of the rocks that I purchased have Aiptasia. I did not know what they were at the time of purchase. The rocks also have allot of corals on them. Currently the rocks are in a container. I am afraid to put it in my tank because the aiptasia might/will spread to my other clean rocks. I have Joe's Juice which I will be using. I will also be purchasing some pickling lime. Do you think it is possible to rid all of the aiptasia? How do I mix the pickling lime? Since there are corals on the rocks, I've been leaving the lights on my tank for five hours and than moving the lights to the container for three hours. I hope they don't die with the limited light that I am providing. The container is holding about 10 gal of water. How much Joe's juice can I use in that amount of water? Do I have to do water changes? I would like to get these rocks in the tank asap.

This is what I am dealing with:

[avshockey311]

I would get the rock in the tank and treat the aiptaisia in the tank. Just start injecting them as soon as you get them in the tank. Pickling lime is 1 tsp. pickling lime, 2 tbsp water, microwave for 40 seconds on inject into mouth of aiptaisia. It works best if you can fill the stalk up with the mixture.

[bearpeidog]

How accessible is your tank? If its shallow or the rock work is easy to get to, I would hit em with Joe's juice and then put the rock in the main display. As you see them - hit em with the juice.

I don't think Aptasia is that hard to control, having faced a outbreak myself. My tank is fairly deep and a lot of rock is inaccessible, so just using Joe's juice wasn't practical in my case. I threw two pepperment shrimps in - they cleaned house....

However, I did clean out my over flow a couple weeks ago and found a BIG aptasia in there - but none in my display.

[ricwilli]

Well right now the rocks are in a container. I just used Joes Juice for the first time today. I don't know how much juice I can use in the container. But that is a good idea on treating the rock and than putting it in the tank. How fast is the juice suppose to work? When I put the juice on the aiptasia they just close up. What I'm thinking about is after I put the juice, take the rock out of the water and put a propane torch to the treated area. What do you think?

[austinvanover]

I have never used any chemicals to treat, but I have used peppermint shrimp several times when aptasia has come in on a rock with corals that I have received. It never seems to take more than a week and the aptasia is gone.

[ricwilli]

OK, I covered the aiptasia with Joe Juice about an hour ago and it is still moving. I tought it was suppose to work as soon as they ate it.

[OmarD]

Ugly.

I am convinced every rock at any LFS is infested with this plague.

One shot of Joe's Juice should kill each off...looks to me like you are going to need a gallon of it.

Sorry.

[ricwilli]

Has anyone used a propane tourch to kill them. I already have the tourch and the lighter on the table ready to go.

[chujai]

i dipped a rock which had one on it in water that was super high salt levels, and it seems to be gone now for more than 2 weeks, it also killed off all bristle worms, fireworms... the bucket was discusting aftewards... all the coraline algae on the rock seem to be good and still purple...

im not sure if its still considered live rock but it does still look good minus pests...

[davidryder]

It's just going to take a lot of time and patience... kill like 10 a day. You aren't going to be able to kill them all at once.

[supervdl]

You can control them over time. I have them growing in the back of the display where I can't reach them with Joe's Juice. However, if I see one in the front, it get's nuked right away. It worked for me over the last 2.5 years and I never had an out-of-control situation this way. I got them with the live rock from a fellow reefer.

[FishboyBT]

What are fireworms? Are they bright orange? I found one in my reef and sucked it up in a turkey baster. Flushed the nasty thing.

[jdieck]

With that amount of Aiptasia do not, and I repeat, do not put it in your tank. Even if you cover them all with the juice they will multiply like fire.
I tried for a long time to get rid of them with Joe Juice, I kill them all and in less than a week they started to pop up again in larger numbers.
I removed all my rock into a large tub, I went trough each rock removing each aiptasia were it was including a chip of the rock, after that a couple of drops of muriatic acid. Put them back in the tub and despite that about 20% showed back again and there were micro aiptasias all over the tub.
They are sturdy and stubborn. When 20 or so I think they can be controlled killing them once and again every time they pop up, with that amount it will take more than JJ to do so.

[plyle02]

Originally posted by jdieck
With that amount of Aiptasia do not, and I repeat, do not put it in your tank. Even if you cover them all with the juice they will multiply like fire.
I tried for a long time to get rid of them with Joe Juice, I kill them all and in less than a week they started to pop up again in larger numbers.
I removed all my rock into a large tub, I went trough each rock removing each aiptasia were it was including a chip of the rock, after that a couple of drops of muriatic acid. Put them back in the tub and despite that about 20% showed back again and there were micro aiptasias all over the tub.
They are sturdy and stubborn. When 20 or so I think they can be controlled killing them once and again every time they pop up, with that amount it will take more than JJ to do so.

I agree.... I had an explosion of babies, just from trying to nuke a couple of them. IME, the best control I have stumbled on is a Copperband Butterfly fish... Word of caution though, I am lucky, and mine goes nuts for mysis, but after they kill off alot of the aptasia, some of them starve. I would make sure it's eating before bringing it home...Good luck...

[reefworm]

Fishboy DON'T KILL THE WORMS! I'll grant you they're not the most attractive members of your community, but they may well be the most useful. Bristleworms, fireworms, etc. are very valuable detrivores and will help keep things cleaned up for you. Harmful polychaete worms are very rare in our systems, so you needn't worry about them hurting your corals. If you see them on your corals, it's probably due to dead/dying tissue that they've detected before we can and they're doin' their thing.

[reefworm]

Fishboy I just noticed you're in the 8th grade - hopefully advice from a teacher didn't put you off Also, I wanted to say I'm happy to see someone your age in the hobby! [my youngest is a rising 8th grader] Wish we'd get more into astronomy as well Imagine what you'll know by the time you're an old fart like some of us!

[Frick-n-Frags]

clean off the rocks with corals on them first, or frag the corals off those rocks totally. then you can get medievil on their a$$e$ when it is just you, the rock and the aiptasias

[ninjamini]

Get some calcium powder and make a thick paste. They get a eye dropper like from a test kit and accurately feed it to them. Be ready with fresh water to change water.

Feed it to them. they will close around it then pancake more of it on top of them. They you have one dead pest.

be warned. this method will have clumps of calcium float all over the place. 1. turn off flow. 2. have airliine hose and create suction to suck the pieces that float about. Thats where the fresh water comes it. You will have to do this 1-3 times as you find more. It works great and its cheap.

good luck

[ricwilli]

Unfortunately the rocks are in the tank. I was following everyone’s directions before some of you stated not to put the rocks in the main tank. I don’t think that I can remove the corals with out breaking the rocks. I really do not want to do that. My next step is to get some peppermint shrimps. My only concern is that when the shrimps start to eat the aiptasia some of it will float around and start growing somewhere else.

[bearpeidog]

Hey ricwilli - with the pepperment shrimps, the recommendation is to make sure they are hungry. In otherwords don't feed the pepperments or they may not opt for the aiptasia. Would you rather have Prime Rib or Bolonga?

Also, I've read somewhere that people confuse (IE. sell) camelback shrimps as pepperments. So make sure that you truely get pepperments.

Once again, I did have an outbreak of aptasia. I did the ones I could see/reach with JJ and then the pepperments took care of the rest. It didn't take them long to clean up my tank.

Good luck - please post back to let us know how it turns out!

[uscharalph]

Originally posted by ricwilli
Has anyone used a propane tourch to kill them. I already have the tourch and the lighter on the table ready to go.

I boiled one rock I had. No more Aptasia. No more anything on that rock. LOL!!!

[ricwilli]

As you can see, most of the aiptasia is gone. There are still some that I have get. Some aiptasia are still alive after I used JJ on them. They still have two or three moving tentacles. I am holding back on purchasing the peppermint shrimps. I literally drove half way to the lfs to purchase them and than turned right back around and went home. I just think that it will get worst using the shrimps. With pump running, some of the aiptasia will float around and attach itself to other rocks and start growing. At least with JJ, I can turn off the pumps and feed them without having to worry if any will float in the tank.



uscharalph, there is no way I will be boiling these rocks. I keep starring at the propane tourch debating if I should use it or not. I actually used a lighter on some of them. But that was just taking to long.