Aiptasia's. BOILING water, STILL ALIVE !!!

[427HISS]

We have a pearl bubble coral that has several aphasia's on the rock it's on.
We took it out of the display and boiled some water and dipped only the rock into the pot for just 5 seconds,
then also used a syringe with the boiling water. Today,...their all still alive !

HOW ??? :mad2:

 

[Ligershark]

Sorry to hear this. Peppermint shrimp did the trick for me. If you decide to go this rout make sure they're from the gulf of mexico. Get a couple that way there is some competition for your and some are still hungry enough to eat the aiptasia.

 

[427HISS]

Their one, of the reasons we quit the hobby back in the 90's.
I've heard about them and some may require "training" to eat the aiptasia's, in a small tank with little to eat and once they are, put it in the display.

But, don't they also eat polyps and the mantels of clams ?

We also have a wrasse, do they eat the shrimps ?

 

[hybridazn]

I had a friend's tank be completely taken over by these things. I removed all the livestock and put them in a temporary tank, removed the rocks and filled the tank up with cold fresh water and let it run thru the tank for 2 weeks. I then let the rock sit outside during that time and hit the rocks with a pressure washer

The only down side is that you will be basically starting over but it's worth it in the long run to get rid of these things.

 

[Justin1997]

I've had crazy Aiptasia out breaks in both of my tanks although I'm only 17 and not as experienced as most these are the methods that have worked for me. I used a copperband butterfly in my 120gallon took him about 3-4 months to start eating (or me to notice some was being eaten for that matter). In my 60 cube I used an "aiptasia eating filefish" as it was labeled in my LFS, again took a while but shorter than the copperband did, if you have these and they don't eat them, I suggest cutting your feeding in half till they start. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+30+2562&pcatid=2562

 

[Justin1997]

I wasn't sure boiling most of my live rock was such a good idea, being impatient with the fish I would take a rock out that was super covered, boiled it then out it on my porch during the Canadian winter that took care of that. (Ended up giving up on that worried I was killing my good bacteria and I didn't wanna screw with my aqua scape.

 

[Fin]

My aiptasia control in my 140 is a Copperband Butterfly. I have aiptasia all over in my overflows and sump, but none in the display - for several years. I have also used a File Fish in another tank. You can use Berghia nudibranchs, but they will eventually die without a constant supply of the nems.

 

[mrcoffee2]

+1 on bhergia. They are decimating my aiptasia! I had over 500 easy, I am probably down to less than 100 now. - Took 2.5 months to do that and some of the aiptasia were as big as quarter!

Too bad you are not local I would give you some of my bhergia! I have a thriving population right now

Here is a before / after picture of a 5inch clam I bought at my LFS that was covered in aiptasia. (I only paid $10!):xd:


As you can see there is some pretty large aiptasia heads there. They were around for about 3 weeks until the adult bhergia found them, once they locked in it took the 3 days to clean the entire clam.

Here is a pic I just took now, not a single aiptasia! I wish I had got some pics of the adults eating it, they were easily over 1.5 inches and really kind of pretty for a slug hah

 

[427HISS]

With only a handful I'm not ready for extreme measures, and hopefully I won't need to.
I'm going to remove the rock that has the coral on it and carefully,....use my mini torch.
I'll look into the nudibranchs for a in-tank solution,as they sound like the best method so far.

 

[luxauterna]

+1 on berghia great success with them.

 

[Justin1997]

Yea from what I've heard the berghai are the best, seems to be difficult to get them here in Ontario so I have no experience with them

 

[wandoshane]

boiling any marine rock is a bad idea. People have gotten really sick and almost killed there whole family. NEVER BOIL!

 

[jzaso]

Carribean peppermint shrimp do work - I was a bit wary putting them in my sps tank but two months later no anems and no damage -I do have a falko hawkfish in there- they go rogue and I flush them out of there hole for hawkfish treat!

 

[FLipp]

glad you got it figured out! peppermints did the job for me.

 

[diver4life1992]

I have a filefish that did a great job getting aiptasia. Unfortunately it moved on to my zoas once the aiptasia were gone.:squigglemouth:

 

[427HISS]

I'll see if my LFS has any the Caribbean peppermint shrimp.

I also just spoke with a great friend that has had good luck with the bhergia's, and my wife's 29g, he suggested apx. two to six of them.
Right now,...we have around 7 aiptasia's, but you know haw fast they can multiply !

 

[Vanmo92]

A needle syringe with NaOH it the most effective method I've found by far. Complete annihilation!!! They simply explode and never show up again and in all the times I have used it I have never had any side effects other than aiptasia dying! The common name for the stuff is lye, and if you're careful can be purchased as drain cleaner from lowes/home depot. As long as its 100% sodium hydroxide with nothing else mixed in, you're good to go. Some precautions are necessary handling the stuff, but I have found it 100% effective agains massive aiptasia outbreaks.

 

[427HISS]

I've never had any luck with putting in the needle into the aiptasia's tube, as they just retreat into the hole in the rock, especially small ones.
How do you inject yours ?

 

[wesleh]

I usually take the affected rock and let it dry for a day in the sun. Never had an issue with them rising back to life.

 

[Vanmo92]

Just gotta be quick, and sometimes it definitely can take more than 1 try. I also have good success stabbing their "stem", and with lye this is just as effective. A lot of times they will retract into the rocks and I will just keep stabbing and injecting the hole they are in until its full of lye. I think even just being exposed to the stuff is enough to kill them in a lot of cases. Remember only do this with ALL the flow turned off. I currently only have 1 in my tank that despite repeated attempts has always manages to evade the needle.