aiptasia anemone

i got a toadstool coral and the rock it came on has about a half dozen aiptasias on it. anothr piece of live rock had one big one on it i took it off with tweezers. i found another one tonight a small one on a piece of rock. are these things really bad? they can get in your tank any way without doing anything wrong. you buy coral etc you get them. is it really safe to fill a syringe with vinegar and spray them in my tank? this wont have any effects on my tank? can i just leave these things alone

 

first by pulling it off, spores\eggs were most likely released. so youre gonna get another crop of aiptasia from that. ive never heard the vinegar trick. heard lemon juice or boiling water injected into them. then when they let go, they were manually removed. either get some aiptasia-x \joes juice. or peppermint shrimp some have luck with too

 

ok i read online it is reef safe to use lemon juice on them. but i do not see how you can inject them with it. if i go close to it they retract right into the rock hence making it impossible for me to inject them. do you just spray them with the juice?

 

no it has to go into the stalk.

 

The best defense that you can have is just get a couple of Peppermint shrimps. That works the best.


luna

 

will peppermints and a cleaner shrimp get along? i have a cleaner who i like alot. i may just fill there holes with superglue to sufficate them and if more pop up in different areas then ill just have to get a peppermint.

 

I currently have both( 3 Peppers and 1 Cleaner) and they dont even see each other. They are fine together.



luna

 

I have a couple of peppermints in my tank, barely ever see them, though they are still about. They are fine with my cleaner shrimp, who is quite large.

I have a copperband which controls my aiptasia, but that wasn't why I got him initially. I know that they are a great means of removing aiptasia, but i'd recommend strongly against getting a fish like a copperband that requires quite a lot of attention purely for this purpose.

 

I have used peppermints with great success many times.

recently, i had to eliminate aiptasia from my aggressive tank so I used Joe's Juice with great success as well.

Try the lemon juice, though from my experience I couldn't get it to work.

 

I agree with the peppermint, you can treat all the aptasia you see, but chances are there are some hiding under rocks. The shrimp will find these ones and take care of them.