Aptasia problem?

Ben13 · Nov 4, 2011

ok guys got my live rock today as it says in my build thread but I saw an anemone and it seems to be Aptasia, any thoughts? (warning picture quality sucks)

shred5 · Nov 4, 2011

Pics a little fuzzy but it looks like one to me .. I would nuke it.

Dave Polzin

Ben13 · Nov 4, 2011

what is the best way to combat them ?

secretreefer · Nov 4, 2011

yeah, joe's juice seems to work good for me.

aquabull · Nov 4, 2011

You can also pull the rock out, poke it, and when it retracts, seal it in it's hole with some super glue gel. that'll teach it!

IPisces · Nov 4, 2011

aquabull said:
You can also pull the rock out, poke it, and when it retracts, seal it in it's hole with some super glue gel. that'll teach it!

haha...your so vindictive...haha...we all are when it comes to aiptasia.
I agree if you can get the rock out, its the best way. Then you can dig it out or fill the hole. If you try to kill it in the water, they tend to squirt out a lot of spores and you may end up with a lot of them.

Ben13 · Nov 4, 2011

so the best course of action is to fill the hole? when i was at my lfs the guy use a screwdriver and took it off outside the water, would that work?

nixer · Nov 4, 2011

just fill the hole with kalk

Ben13 · Nov 4, 2011

what is kalk?

sorry very new to this buisness and where can u get it?

aquabull · Nov 4, 2011

Kalkwasser or pickling lime. Some people use it to raise the calcium in reef tanks. A small amount mixed with a few drops of water to form a paste, then injected into the hole may do the trick, but it may encourage more aiptasia as well. (if you miss!)
Removing the rock and scraping the ENTIRETY of the anemone off of the rock is the easiest, and safest. Just be sure to get every last bit of tissue. Any little piece left behind will produce more!

Ben13 · Nov 4, 2011

ok i will attempt this tommorow

i will take quick action, thanks very much for the help!

skinz78 · Nov 5, 2011

I have recently found that if I use one of my 1.0 ml syringe and the nozzle from an old Salifert test kit it works great for doing the kalk paste solution.

Keep us updated on your success!

jules77 · Nov 27, 2011

I was told to buy Zaptasia and then some pepperment shrimp and so far, 1/2 of mine are gone and I had an entire rock full of them. I heard it takes time and patience but that is the least expensive way I have heard of.

spscrazy · Nov 27, 2011

I tried everything to get rid of them kalk super glue etc then I took the rock out & took a drill with a big bit & drilled them out rinsed rock with ro & put it back worked great till several months later there was one on a rock I couldn't get out after several months of worrying about what to do I got some aiptasia X & nuked it 2 weeks later there were 25+ tryed the aiptasia x on them & within the month they were sprouting up everywhere rocks powerheads etc
then fortune smiled on me :wink: I wanted a yellow fish but my 95 is too small for a yellow tang so I got a false lemonpeel angel & within the week no more aiptasia what a nice accident!

dallas reefer · Nov 27, 2011

I heard a laser pointer zaps Em good. Fries them.

Don't remember where I read it. Here? Or somewhere.

dallas reefer · Nov 27, 2011

Oh yeah it's under middle Tennessee forum. Just saw it

Scomstock · Nov 27, 2011

A laser pointer ?! like a regular everyday laser pointer ? do you shine the laser through the glass into the tank or take the rock out of the tank and hit it with the laser then ? If this method works it could be a huge breakthrough in the treatment of Aiptasia!!!