Aptasia

Just noticed two aptasias growing in my tank. I quickly removed the two rocks and cut the aptasia and the part of the rocks they were attached to off.

My question is, can you prevent aptasia from growing or is it just a thing that pops up from time to time? I might buy some peppermint shrimp once my zoas get a better footing in the tank. A copperbanded butterfly is out of the question due to clams. Not worth the risk to me.

 

Yeh get some peppermints they are good for that...when i had a few pop up in mine and I didnt have any peppermints i took a small needle syrenge and took tiny bit of vinegar..gave them a shot..they turned white and died in like 2 minutes

 

ya or this product called Joes Juice worked really well for me it was cheap, effective and i didnt hurt any of my corals

 

well the papermint shrimp will help i used aptasia x and it worked really well.

 

In my experience both aptasia x and peppermint shrinp work. I use pepermints in the DT and aptasia x in my refugium.

 

I have had great results squirting some lemon juice on them, or smearing them with kalk paste.

~Will.

 

I already have an efficient way of removing them that I feel is completely safe. My question is can you prevent them from growing in the first place or is it something just pops up like cluster dusters?

 

Aiptasia don't necessarily just pop up they're spawned from gametes thrown off by the adult however they reproduce VERY quickly and once in the tank are only eliminated with some effort and persistence.
Lets talk about a few things first. When you put something into your tank unless you have a way of getting it OUT it stays in. This includes vinegar (a strong acid with a ph of 2.4), and just about anyone else. Anyone putting chemicals in the tank without having fully researched the effects is going to experience a lot of frustration and loss of livestock.
Also aiptasia are mainly annoyances because they sting corals, if this is a FOWLR get a peppermint shrimp or two to keep the numbers down and mostly ignore them, fish generally are smart enough to stay away, as after all these anemone exist in nature as well.
If you do have corals in your tank start with natural solutions such as the shrimp and copperband (NB some reef clubs trade around shrimp if you're worried about your zoa's on a permanent basis, perhaps you could get on the list for a shrimp or start a shrimp trade, or shrimp sandwich, shrimp on grits, shrimp scampi, well just about any way of making... sorry got sidetracked with the Forest Gump script!)
Failing that your next step would be to use chemicals. I've used and had good luck with aiptasia-x, it seems to be stable and ph neutral (whereas joes juice and vinegar are not), and may be your best bet.

 

I had an outbreak and I killed eveyrone i could reach with a syringe full of lemon juice but , there were a few i couldent reach so today i poped in 6 pepermint shrimp as a deathblow the thing to remember is they are scavengers to encourage them to eat the apitasia ill be feeding very very lightly

 

Vinegar never hurt my tank any, I know that...esp the little amount i used to nuke those anems.