Should I toss the whole colony?

[Andrewalex11]

So last night I picked up a few frags all are looking great I managed to get my hands on some decent looking zoas for really REALLY cheap I'm talking like 8 dollars for a 30 head colony and today I noticed a nice pile of glass anemones hanging out on them so I took the zoa rock I wanted to start out of the tank and began pulling what I could find off with tweezers but each time I did this more and more of the dang aiptasia heads kept creeping out from the woodworks.

What do you think? Risk a full blown take over and battle these jerks or just get rid of the colony of zoas.

They have only been in the tank for about 10 hours.

 

[Vahanyos]

Get a peppermint shrimp to handle the aptasia... i had a really big one slowly getting bigger as soon as i put my peppermint in there, never saw the thing again.

 

[Curtie44]

Dump them. Not worth the hassle if the aiptasia get a foothold in your tank. You'll spend 10 times as much on products/livestock to try to eradicate them than you did on the zoas.

 

[Breadman03]

Don't do it unless you have a QT and can clear it out completely.

Bear in mind that I'm currently rotating my rock out due to a ridiculous infestation.

 

[Brew12]

Don't do it unless you have a QT and can clear it out completely.

Bear in mind that I'm currently rotating my rock out due to a ridiculous infestation.

Peppermint shrimp didn't work for you? Or a filefish?

 

[Curtie44]

Peppermint shrimp didn't work for you? Or a filefish?

See what I'm talking about....nothing is guaranteed to get rid of those little pests except removing the risk from the beginning.

peppermint shrimp - $10
File fish - $30
Berghia nudibranch - $10 each
Aiptasia x - $15 for small bottle

All for an $8 colony of zoas...

Get rid of them before you go down the above path that so many others have already been down.

 

[Vahanyos]

Put it in QT, and put a peppermint in there and see what the results are... I guess i got lucky with my pepermint and the aptasia? I honestly saw another one growing next to it so if i didnt take action it was going to start travelling all over my tank..

That's what i love about this hobby... experimenting!

 

[Vahanyos]

See what I'm talking about....nothing is guaranteed to get rid of those little pests except removing the risk from the beginning.

peppermint shrimp - $10
File fish - $30
Berghia nudibranch - $10 each
Aiptasia x - $15 for small bottle

All for an $8 colony of zoas...

Get rid of them before you go down the above path that so many others have already been down.

$8 Colony that is potentially worth more, he got a great deal on it

 

[Marlon2024]

Frag a few heads and them them grow easiest thing to do

 

[brett_schn]

See what I'm talking about....nothing is guaranteed to get rid of those little pests except removing the risk from the beginning.

peppermint shrimp - $10
File fish - $30
Berghia nudibranch - $10 each
Aiptasia x - $15 for small bottle

All for an $8 colony of zoas...

Get rid of them before you go down the above path that so many others have already been down.

Peppermint shrimp are $10? My lfs has them for $3 and they have a guarantee that they eat aptasia

 

[Curtie44]

Yeah, $10 might be on the high side but the point is pepermint shrimp are not guaranteed to eat aiptasia. Then you try the aiptasia x....when that doesn't work and you end up with 5 times as many you give the joes juice a try.....next is the berghia...by this time you've got a whole colony of aiptasia. An ounce of prevention.....just saying

 

[Andrewalex11]

It's a 10 gallon nano reef I have pretty much the max amount of livestock (not including corals) I can have to my comftorbility of upkeep and everything has been running excellent and pest free for months now so I just picked the rock up and chucked it. Between making this post and looking back at the tank just a few moments ago more glass anems popped up from the woodworks off this colony of zoas luckily these guys had a really small dedicated rock and never came close to coming in contact with the actual main rock structures.

So my last question is how possible do you all think a future infestation is? They were only in the tank for that short amount of time.

 

[DracoKat]

I have a peppermint shrimp in my Pico that has aiptasia. either he's still too small, or it's a fail. had him for 2 weeks now

 

[donnievaz]

I have a peppermint shrimp in my Pico that has aiptasia. either he's still too small, or it's a fail. had him for 2 weeks now

Supposedly it depends on where the shrimp is from... Atlantic or Pacific. I forget which one is supposed to eat them, I think Pacific. I have no proof of this claim though.

 

[Cherub]

i wouldn't touch them with aiptasia, get rid of them but you might be able to sell them to someone who already has aiptasia. i mean they are still life, no need to toss it

 

[DracoKat]

I believe you are right. though it's hard to tell where the shrimps came from unless you have a solid confirmed source. My LFS wasn't too sure so I got it anyway.

on the flip side, the aiptasia IS bigger than the shrimp, so who knows if its just too small or wrong kind.

 

[Curtie44]

So my last question is how possible do you all think a future infestation is? They were only in the tank for that short amount of time.

As long as they weren't disturbed too much while they were in your tank you are probably fine. But only time will answer that question for sure.

 

[cjd]

peppermint shrimp have always taken care of any issues I have had with aiptasia. Just make sure its a true peppermint and not a camel shrimp as I have seen those sold mistakenly for them before. My experience is even a small one will destroy a large population of them . I usually remove the shrimp after I don't see anymore popping up . I have never had them return .

 

[enthejungle]

Not sure where the aptasia is at on the colony but I once got a hammer that I noticed a head of aptasia sprouting out from. I took it out, hit the head with a syringe of boiling water and never had an issue.

I was lucky enough where I could angle everything and not worry about damaging the animal. Not sure if it will be the same for you but wanted to throw it out there.

 

[Andrewalex11]

Nah this thing looked like it was infested as all hell I picked 5 off with tweezers and flushed them down the sink put the colony back in and there was at least 1-3 more just coming up from everywhere in between the zoas. It was crappy too because of where they were I was probably REALLY stressing the zoas out like crazy