Aiptasia breaking out...

I had one of these little guys about 4 days ago. Thought nothing of it....until Now. I have about 6. 2 on the overflow and the rest scattered on the rocks.

Is there a natural way to get rid of these? Something that eats them? Not big on chemical solutions.

LFS guy says peppermint shrimp....but this guy wants to sell anything. He wanted me to get rid of my wet/dry and buy his used refugium. ?? So I'm not very trusting of what he says.

Thanks guys.

B

 

Peppermints are know to eat them, but they are also known to go rogue and eat LPS coral. If you decide to go with the pepper, be sure to get an Atlantic one. they are more likely to eat aptasia and not coral. There is also an aptasia eating nudibranch that does a pretty good job but can be hard to find.

 

True pepermint shrimp will eat them. I nuke mine with a home made kalk paste. if you can get to them that would be the best way.

take some Mrs wages Pickling lime and put some RO water with it to make it like toothepaste. then add in some red pepper and hot sauce. cook it in the microwave for 30 seconds or untill it is all bubbly. add in a little RO water if you need to so that it is like toothpaste. then put in a syringe. a little drop in their mouths and they will be gone in a matter of minutes.

Best part is this is NOT a chemical and actually acts as a natural buffer for your tank.

 

Very cool Pickupman

 

He may want your money, but his advice still seems pretty sound.

I have three peppermint shrimps in my 110 g DT, they don't harm my corals and they do a great job of controlling and small Aiptasia that happens to come into my tank as hitchhikers. They won't touch any larger ones though.

How you get rid of them depends a lot of how easy they are to reach. If I can get the piece of live rock that one is on out of my tank, or at least to the surface, I use a butane torch (a small one) to nuke them. Three or four seconds of 2500 degree heat works wonders.

His advice about the refugium isn't bad. If you don't do proper maintenance on a wet/dry, they can be a "nitrate factory." I'm not really as anti wet dry filter as many people are either. Whether his actual used refugium is a good value for you or not is another matter of course. But the general advice isn't bad.

 

Whenever I see any Aiptasias in my tanks, I inject TM Elimi-Aiptas directly into the stalk as opposed to into the mouth. I find that the product has a better kill rate when injected into the stalk rather than the mouth.

 

i normally make the kalkwasser paste too. Hasn't work as of late though. Some won't close to actually eat it and the ones that do, dissappear for a few days and pop up 10x stronger! I'm thinking I need to thicken the paste a little or get a syringe. I used to feed them kalk dough balls, but they don't eat them, just close as soon as it touches the mouth, but it never eats them. I'm thinking some kalk and a syringe is gonna be my best bet.

 

Kill them as soon as you see them.

They like tanks that get feed a lot as well. I have found when feeding with just pellets the population stayed the same. As soon as I use frozen they spread. Now I see one and out comes the kalk paste.

 

Matthew... Toothpaste consistency out fo the syringe works best.

 

Great advice guys. Thanks a lot. That kalk paste sounds like a great idea. I went ahead bought three pepp shrimp and from what I see most of my problem Is gone. Blow torch idea sounds fun haha.