new aiptasia growing

I discovered 3 aiptasias growing on my live rock yesterday (3 month old tank). I obviously want to get rid of it before it spreads, but it is in an awkward location to inject with needles. Can anyone recommend something to eat the aiptasia? I know copperband butterfly fish work, but I have corals in my tank. And I have heard that peppermint shrimp work, but honestly the look of a big bug in my tank freaks me out. Anything smaller/less ugly? What do people recommend?

 

the two you have mentioned are about the only things i can think of that will eat them. what do you mean a big bug? lol i kind of like the fact that they look creepy..i love my coral banded..they help clean up other stuff too!

 

There is another alternative, you can remove the rock (if it doesn't have anything that you want on it) and nuke it. Either the bleach solution soak or boiling will work (I think the bleach would smell better though), but it depends on weither or not you can #1 get to it and #2 if you want to salvage anything on the rock.

With a tank that young though, you'd prolly want to keep as much life as you can in there. Especially if its got coraline algae, my first six months were brutal because it looked like nothing was going on! The needle method isn't too hard though, again if you can remove the rock for the DT. I've done it many a times where a frag will get one of those guys on it. Pull it out of the water, some white vinegar injected and back in the tank within 2 minutes. Guys dead, everyones happy

 

The peppermint shrimp rarely are seen during the day. They will hide out all day most the time and when you wake up your aptasia will be missing.

 

i had 6 little aptasia that ive seen put in a peppermint and they were gone in 9 days

 

or just nail it with some Joe's juice. Look on ebay and you can get it for like 10 bucks shipped.

 

Got some Joe's juice today from my LFS. Funny thing - as I was passing through their coral section, I saw some corals (weird zoas?) that looked just like my aiptasia....only theirs was a rock full of them!

 

I'm lucky enough to have yet to see my first aiptasia; so I preface this post with a reminder that I'm not speaking from experience.

From what I've read in the couple of years here on 3reef, folks enjoy limited or no success employing livestock to rid you of aiptasia problems. I have yet to read once about somebody buying a peppermint shrimp or anything else that eradicated a tank of these anemones.

If and when I get an aiptasia, if at all possible; I'll remove the rock, and pour on a few ounces of boiling water at that spot of infestation, taking every living thing with it in the process. Better yet, if the rock is not so large that it's a good portion of my biological filter, I might just nuke the whole rock. Why not?

These things spread like cancer. Operate early, and take no prisoners. Better to lose the biological filtration aspect of an entire piece of LR than to jeopardize your whole tank.

 

Update - used the Joe's juice today - worked like a charm! The aiptasie shrivelled up and died basically as I watched over 5 minutes. I am now less concerned about more aiptasias - even if they do spread, if all I have to do is kill them by squirting some joe's juice into their faces, it is not such a difficult thing (not to jinx myself, and as long as you catch them early enough).

 

I know a guy that also pulls the rock out and takes a propane torch to burn the area were they are hiding lol...never tried it my self but I'm sure it works......I have also heard of people squirting superglue in there mouth while the rock is still in the tank sounds like it would work to.... just some suggestions....