My first aiptasia!!!!

[josephxsxn]

Welcome to the club.

You can go to the store and get Mrs.Wages pickling lime and make a slurry out of that to inject at them. Aiptasia-x is the same thing (calcium hydroxide.) Your basically melting them with kalkwasser slurry. I agree with others here, kill them on sight every time.

 

[Auqaman]

Well I just did the superglue thing. I feel like I might have went overboard with it.

 

[Cell]

As long as you didnt glue zoa polyps closed, they will be fine.

 

[Auqaman]

As long as you didnt glue zoa polyps closed, they will be fine.

Might have lost a couple polyps. But I’m okay with that. Collateral damage I guess

 

[Sharkbait19]

The superglue I’ve heard is very effective. I wouldn’t know personally as I’ve never had an aptasia problem, but good luck. However, be careful, because you may think you’ve manually eliminated/killed them all, but they multiply. I like shrimp because they eat the little guys that grow. Natural predators plus manual removal such as the superglue is honestly the best combination.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I think they should be ok, you might loose some polyps, I sacrificed one polyp of my magician when I made this superglue ring around the base of it to kill two small aiptasia. Luckily I caught this in my Coral QT so put the glue on them and reset the clock to see if any others developed. After another 30 days without seeing any others I feel pretty confident I didn't introduce any into my display.

 

[Coralsdaily]

Lot of good suggestions here. Just be very careful if you do go the route of any natural predator, many of them will not only eat aptasia, but may have a taste for coral polyps. And you need to find the "right" peppermint shrimp. There are many sold as "peppermint", and they do look like them, but aren't and won't do anything towards aptasia. If the piece is removable try take it out and bristle brush (any clean paint brush will do) it out first, rinse with RO water to get any residue out, then blast the spot with kalkwasser juice, or aptasia x whenever you get it.

 

[fishface NJ]

I wouldn’t throw out the rock seems like a waste. There are many different ways to control aptasia. If you really want to be sure you could just boil the rock and then reuse it.

NEVER boil a rock. 'don't boil it!' The fumes from some ocean life could lead to hospitalization or worse for the whole family. Plus you never know if it had paly/zoas on it. Look up palytoxins

 

[Auqaman]

I went the superglue route but I used way too much and ended up gluing most of the polyps, so I ended up throwing out the entire plug. I’ll put this in the lessons learned section and make sure I actually use a qt next time.
But I’m still not entirely sure how this superglue process works. Should I have let the glue “set” before putting the plug back into the tank? Because when I put it back in, that’s when the glue kinda oozed over the polyps. Also, my protein skimmer went crazy. It filled up 5 times within 20 minuets. I assume it was taking out the toxins of the glue?
I did boil the rock, with no zoas attached, to make sure any eggs were killed. All the zoas were still attached to the plug. So I felt pretty confident I wouldn’t be exposed to the toxins

 

[fishface NJ]

Never boil a rock. You are a very lucky person that the fumes didn't cause you harm. You don't know the history of that rock(s).

If you want to kill any eggs, aptasia, etc that are or could be on the rock(s) then bleach the rock(s). Place the rock in a bucket of 1 part bleach 3 parts water and let the rock sit in the mix for 2 days.

 

[rob s.]

so many options but they really are not a big deal. I use Ap-X and kill them as i see them. A tank is constant maintenance anyways so like i said no big deal....

 

[Auqaman]

so many options but they really are not a big deal. I use Ap-X and kill them as i see them. A tank is constant maintenance anyways so like i said no big deal....

I know right. It’s great having everyone weigh in.
It was a dry rock that wasn’t very old, so I was willing to take the risk.
But I’m still not sure about the supergluing (hopefully I’ll never have to do it again). Is it normal for the protein skimmer to go crazy after putting super glue into the tank?

 

[Cell]

All you need is like a dot of glue wherever the aptasia receded. It would be between zoa polyps at the base somewhere.

 

[rob s.]

I know right. It’s great having everyone weigh in.
It was a dry rock that wasn’t very old, so I was willing to take the risk.
But I’m still not sure about the supergluing (hopefully I’ll never have to do it again). Is it normal for the protein skimmer to go crazy after putting super glue into the tank?

I've never had that experience with a skimmer but i have glued Aptasia holes and it works good also. As far as never having to do it again, if this turns out to be true you will be the only person i know to have ended the aptasia on the first attempt. Hope your rite!

 

[toadstool_paradise]

I always use a bit of superglue. Have had to sacrifice a polyp or two but worth it to keep pests at bay. Used superglue to cover aiptasia and a digitate hydroid before.

also never ever boil the rock, please be careful!

 

[mdrobc13]

I got a filefish and a Racoon Butterfly and added them to my Waterbox 130.4 and within 2.5 weeks almost 60% of atipsia is gone. Had severe overgrowth in many area w/some rocks on the back side of the tank I couldn't reach with atispsia everywhere and other areas that were even crowding out my zoas. Now gone. Tried AtipsiaX and that seemed to work only to make alot of smaller outbreaks appear weeks later. Natural predators seemed to do the trick for me...just took a while to see results.