Aiptasia (sp) removal ?

[reeferious]

i have 6 peppermints in my tank LOL i'm an all around shrimp fan but i find they'll go after small aiptassas but not larger ones nor will they touch mojanos which used to be my major headache. last cbb i had lasted 2 weeks and just faded away(cyanide caught?) then i considered seagrass filefish which would make short work of any anemone but probably end up finishing off most of your corals. came across an article on reefcentral concerning using electrical current to fry up these pests and so i more or less built something similar and tried it out of tank on a large rock covered with mojanos and a few attached corals. i noticed current charge will kill only targeted things and not affect others next to them,very fast very efficient killing method. next day i spent around an hour going through pests in tank and am happy to say i'm now pest free and have even chose to let the prettiest ones let live. correction on power source i tried 9,12, and 18 volts power source i think you should start off with atleast a 12.

[my2rotties]

Do you have a link or website where I can find out more about this? I saw a few CBB for sale at a few LFS but after reading how they are caught, I decided to try to combat this on my own. I am getting my arse kicked since the large ones laugh at the lemon juice.

Would a quick fresh water rinse kill them? I am concerned about everything else living in the rocks though. However I think one or two rocks need more then a quick remedy at this time. I have a large colony of big aiptasia n the back side of a rock that supports all the others. I cannot reach it, but I can see them...

Originally Posted by reeferious

i have 6 peppermints in my tank LOL i'm an all around shrimp fan but i find they'll go after small aiptassas but not larger ones nor will they touch mojanos which used to be my major headache. last cbb i had lasted 2 weeks and just faded away(cyanide caught?) then i considered seagrass filefish which would make short work of any anemone but probably end up finishing off most of your corals. came across an article on reefcentral concerning using electrical current to fry up these pests and so i more or less built something similar and tried it out of tank on a large rock covered with mojanos and a few attached corals. i noticed current charge will kill only targeted things and not affect others next to them,very fast very efficient killing method. next day i spent around an hour going through pests in tank and am happy to say i'm now pest free and have even chose to let the prettiest ones let live. correction on power source i tried 9,12, and 18 volts power source i think you should start off with atleast a 12.

[reeferious]

i suppose extented freshwater soaking could kill a few along with everything else living on rock (inverts seem much less tolerant versus fish regarding freshwater). anyway just found article discussion on reefcentral. advanced topic, 2nd page, thread how to rid a tank of majanos

[my2rotties]

Thanks for the info. I decided not to do freshwater... I will do piece by piece and managed to get the big colony. Of course my rocks will never be the same now... How I managed to get them they way they were, is beyond me. I have a large coral coming home tomrrow anyways and will need to rearrange to make space for it anyways. My tank is 30" deep and although it looks cool, it sucks to do anything with it.

Originally Posted by reeferious

i suppose extented freshwater soaking could kill a few along with everything else living on rock (inverts seem much less tolerant versus fish regarding freshwater). anyway just found article discussion on reefcentral. advanced topic, 2nd page, thread how to rid a tank of majanos

IMHO the BEST way to deal with Aiptasia is Berghias (although they don't fix the problem overnight). I had a very major problem in my 135 - started out with a couple and over the course of about 6 months ended up with literally hundreds of them everywhere. I tried Peppermints (didn't work - they wouldn't touch the bigger ones), Joe's Juice, Lemon Juice, Kalk Paste, etc. The problem with all these is you always leave some behind to reproduce.

Finally I added 4 Berghias. I didn't see them for about 3 months, and thought they had died or become fish food. Then I started to see the odd one. About a month later, I started to see more and more. At their peak, I had probably about 100 visible during the night. It was really neat to see the Aiptasia disappear a little more every night. They found their way into my sump, refugium, overflows, everywhere. Within 1 month of their becoming visible, every trace of Aiptasia was gone.

The good part about them is there is no place for the Aiptasia to hide from them - they will find it in every crevise. One of the best $50 I ever spent (bought mine from Coralscaping). Totally non-invasive to your tank, 100% successful, and no effort on the part of the Aquarist. Great combination!!!

[naesco]

How many berghias do you now have in your tank?

[my2rotties]

Of course I am doing research now, but wonder how toxix they are to fish. I have a BIG puffer that loves to eat things. He really limits my capability of having anything productive for my tank. He's a BAAAAAD boy, but I love him, so I work around him.

Originally Posted by dstasiuk

IMHO the BEST way to deal with Aiptasia is Berghias (although they don't fix the problem overnight). I had a very major problem in my 135 - started out with a couple and over the course of about 6 months ended up with literally hundreds of them everywhere. I tried Peppermints (didn't work - they wouldn't touch the bigger ones), Joe's Juice, Lemon Juice, Kalk Paste, etc. The problem with all these is you always leave some behind to reproduce.

Finally I added 4 Berghias. I didn't see them for about 3 months, and thought they had died or become fish food. Then I started to see the odd one. About a month later, I started to see more and more. At their peak, I had probably about 100 visible during the night. It was really neat to see the Aiptasia disappear a little more every night. They found their way into my sump, refugium, overflows, everywhere. Within 1 month of their becoming visible, every trace of Aiptasia was gone.

The good part about them is there is no place for the Aiptasia to hide from them - they will find it in every crevise. One of the best $50 I ever spent (bought mine from Coralscaping). Totally non-invasive to your tank, 100% successful, and no effort on the part of the Aquarist. Great combination!!!

[Whatigot]

sigh...
Every couple of months, I just load a syringe up with concentrated Kalk/RO water mix and decimite every little nem I cam find.
Tanks looks great for a good while, I don't consider this to be the more tiresome of the regular tank maintenance I do either.
Kinda satisfactory actually...

Originally Posted by naesco

How many berghias do you now have in your tank?

After the last Aiptasia disappeared (about 2 months ago), they slowly started to disappear (it's their only food source, sadly). I saw one last week, but they have now pretty much disappeared, along with any trace of Aiptasia. It amazed me how they found it all - I had some in some very difficult-to-access spots on my return plumbing - they got it all.

I don't know how toxic they would be to fish - all of my fish seemed to know that they were to be avoided - I saw my trigger, flame angel and hawkfish all pick up one, and immediately deposit it back where they found it...

[naesco]

Originally Posted by dstasiuk

After the last Aiptasia disappeared (about 2 months ago), they slowly started to disappear (it's their only food source, sadly). I saw one last week, but they have now pretty much disappeared, along with any trace of Aiptasia. It amazed me how they found it all - I had some in some very difficult-to-access spots on my return plumbing - they got it all.

I don't know how toxic they would be to fish - all of my fish seemed to know that they were to be avoided - I saw my trigger, flame angel and hawkfish all pick up one, and immediately deposit it back where they found it...

Than I guess it would not be the best solution for aiptasia as you had suggested.
A better soluiton would be the other options suggested that did not result in the starvation of 4 critters, eh!