Can this method work for aptasia?

[ctreefer]

so, I’ve got what I count as four aptasia in my tank. Came in from some frags or live rock I received several months ago. Not sure. These pests are located on some lower pieces of rock that would be a pain to remove for treatment with peroxide or kalwasser. Could I use some underwater epoxy and just cover them up?

Next option would be to drain most of tank and spot treat with peroxide and then refill.

Any other options?

 

[Marvilis]

I would just get a couple of peppermint shrimp and let them go to town on the aptasia. That worked for me in the past.

 

[lejeune981]

The aptasia I'm fighting in system laugh at peroxide... my one zoa frag was covered in them... I soaked the frag in 100 percent peroxide for 5 minutes... rinsed it.. ploped it back in the tank.. and watched 2 aptasia open right back up... there was like 10.. but still.. 2 survived

 

[5altkreep]

I've smothered a few with epoxy. It was very effective. I haven't seen any since. However, the epoxy is kind of an eyesore. I was able to move some things around to hide it.

 

[Gools]

I use some of the water from my frozen food, add Kalk to it, to a thick paste, but thin enough to put through a salifert test kit syringe and feed it to them. Go slow and they eat it up. Never done it more then twice.

 

[ctreefer]

ugh..... so last night I noticed that the population has exploded. I now have over a dozen in the sandbed sticking their heads out and who knows if there are more in the rock but my guess would be yes.

I guess I'll try the shrimp option and see if I'm lucky. I waited too long to try and treat the few that I had....

Maybe do the kalk idea as well. I need to tackle this before i lose sleep.

 

[Bill_Moorman]

I would suggest Aiptasia X. I use it whenever I spot an Aiptasia and it rocks. Kills them dead in short order.

 

[Clueless Reefer]

I've been battling them for years - there is always another one that pokes it's ugly head up.

Joe's Juice works every time, I always keep a few bottles on hand.

 

[jd371]

Aptasia-X or Joe's Juice will work but you have to be quick otherwise the Aptasia will feel threatened and release spores and then you'll have a small army in that spot, you have to inject it quickly right into it's mouth and hope you got the whole thing down to it's base otherwise it will come back. I would have no problems with Aptasia that were out in the open on top of the rocks, but the ones in the holes and crevices I thought I was killing but they would pop back up a few days later. I had an outbreak of Aptasia because of this. Glueing over the hole works unless there's an escape path at the other end.
I can't use Peppermint shrimp because my Wrasse makes a snack out of them. I bought a CBB a year ago and it pays no mind to the Aptasia. A little over a month ago I added some Berghia and they seem to be doing the job. It takes a while for them to do their thing but I noticed no more Aptasia were the Berghia were introduced and I don't see any Aptasia anymore deep inside the caves and rocks at the sand level like before. From my understanding is they eat the Aptasia inside the rock work and once they are depleted they start venturing outward.

 

[ctreefer]

Thanks all, it seems the peppermint shrimp are doing good work on the pests. I can only find one small aptasia now when there were over twenty this weekend.

Quick question. Do the shrimp completely kill all the aptasia or do they grow back from the base?

Also, once the aptasia are gone, what’s a good food for the shrimp? My guess is I can spot feed some small chunks of shrimp and similar? I’m feeding formula 2 and frozen brine shrimp to the fish and see the shrimp looking interested but the fish do quick duty and not much makes it to the rock work where the shrimp hang out.