Aipetasia has reached plague conditions

globaldesigns · #1 03-28-2011, 07:44 PM

Personally I would use some KALK paste and a syringe. Works wonders and it is only 25 cents for a syringe at your local drug store and Kalk is also cheap.

Mix some KALK in little bit of water so you can suck it into the syringe. Turn off all your pumps so you have a calm tank, and start sticking each beast and inject some kalk, then squirt some on top of it and leave it. Do a bunch and let them stand in a calm tank for 15 minutes. Turn on your pumps, kalk will start lifting off rocks, but this process has always worked for me. Killing them in one dose.

Good luck!

EDIT: If you have hundreds of them, don't kalk them all at once... I would do 20 or so a day, so the Kalk doesn't through your water param's out of whack.

365seasons · #2 03-28-2011, 08:36 PM

We've had the most luck with peppermints.
Just ask your LFS to show you that they are eating first.
Got 4 from Red Coral Calgary a while back, and haven't had aiptasia since!
Kevin put some aiptasia in the tanks and within minutes the shrimps were all over it.
=)

Ya Dude · #3 03-28-2011, 11:59 PM

Ive battled those for years and found success only by removing the rock and scraping them off with a screwdriver.Dont waste your time injecting or zapping they always come back eventually.Its only 50g tank,YOUUU CAAAAN DOOO IT

globaldesigns · #4 03-29-2011, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ya Dude

Ive battled those for years and found success only by removing the rock and scraping them off with a screwdriver.Dont waste your time injecting or zapping they always come back eventually.Its only 50g tank,YOUUU CAAAAN DOOO IT

I disagree... Why disrupt the environment. I inject Kalk on my 180G DT with great success. Just did it last night to one. I have never had any invasion in my display, I just kalk them when I see them.

The Grizz · #5 03-29-2011, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

I disagree... Why disrupt the environment. I inject Kalk on my 180G DT with great success. Just did it last night to one. I have never had any invasion in my display, I just kalk them when I see them.

+1 as well, I just zapped 20 or more Apitasia in my tank over the weekend and there is no sight of them again and did not have to move a single rock.

Megalodon · #6 03-29-2011, 01:33 AM

I found Joe's Juice works better than any other liquid injector. It's heavy and bury's the aipetasia instead of floating around.

asylumdown · #7 03-29-2011, 09:03 PM

I'm about ready to throw in the towel with a 90 gallon because of aiptasia. An ounce of prevention would have solved this by being militantly aggressive when I first spotted them, but that was back before I knew what an aiptasia was, or how awful they could be.

I find the kalk paste doesn't ever kill the whole thing. It melts off their tentacles and part of their head, but they're back out a week later looking like nothing ever happened (and likely have released thousands of tiny clones in the process).

The only thing I've found that completely kills them to the point where they cannot regenerate is to take a very fine gauge syringe (the kind diabetics use), fill it with lemon juice or some other acid, then very gently spray a small cloud around the tentacles. The acid is strong enough to denature the proteins of their tentacles on contact, so they curl up against the body. This also stuns their "RETRACT!!!" reflex. After that, you've got about 20 seconds to get the syringe right up deep inside the body, either through the mouth, or by injecting straight through the side. After about 20 seconds (whether you inject them or not) they'll figure out they need to retract and disappear.

If you spray the tentacles first, you can even get tiny aiptasia this way.

However, if you've got as many of them as I do, you'll likely not ever bring them under complete control. When I move to my new tank, every piece of live rock in my current tank is going to be making a pit stop in a rubber maid full of bleach first.

The first aiptasia I see in my new tank will find it's host rock immediately removed, and then discover what the blue flame of a butane torch feels like.

Dive_dry · #8 03-29-2011, 11:48 PM

peppermint shrimp and a coper banded butterfly fish worked great for me

xblade · #9 03-30-2011, 12:15 AM

I had about 25 or so pop up in my tank very quickly..I went on a hunt for the best solution.Got a demo of what pepperment shrimp do to aptasia at RC.. bought 2 and less than 2 weeks later,there is not 1 I can see.

Thanks for the demo Kevin

asylumdown · #10 03-30-2011, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xblade

I had about 25 or so pop up in my tank very quickly..I went on a hunt for the best solution.Got a demo of what pepperment shrimp do to aptasia at RC.. bought 2 and less than 2 weeks later,there is not 1 I can see.

Thanks for the demo Kevin

Man my tank must be too full of more delicious food than aiptasia. I bought four from Kevin after watching them destroy one that he fed them.

My aiptasia problem has gotten way worse since then. Maybe there's just too many for them to make a dent.