Ridding a rock of aiptasia...

kwirky · #1 02-22-2007, 02:50 AM

I looked at the rock that my large toadstool's connected to this afternoon, and it was COVERED in aiptasia! the little buggers showed up in like a 20 hour time period. Some were about 3/4" across too!

So I resorted to emergency measures. I fragged the large toadstool (it was about 12-14" across) up, and I dunked the rock it was attached to (including the old stalk) into a bucket of freshwater until I know exactly what to do with the rock. I had recently gotten the toadstool and the rock it was attached to from somone on the forum who parted out their tank.

I'm now worried about the well being of my other livestock in the tank. My 6 line wrasses I put in there are rubbing against rock now, and have patches on their sides. I'm running about 2 pounds of GAC, actively through an aquaclear quickfilter, and hopefully things will turn out better in the morning.

I was planning on fragging the toadstool a while ahead, after setting up a separate tank just for it.

Any suggestions on other stuff I should to in order to protect the other livestock in the tank?? It's a 120 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump and a 33 gallon fuge.

I'm prematurely going to have some huge toadstool frags available in the Calgary area in a few weeks, though

Der_Iron_Chef · #2 02-22-2007, 03:17 AM

Hey, Sean....count me in for one of those frags if you do that. I've been looking for one!

Do you think the aiptasia stung the wrasses or what? Maybe I'm confused!

kwirky · #3 02-22-2007, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

Do you think the aiptasia stung the wrasses or what? Maybe I'm confused!

No, I think it was the toxins from the huge toadstool cuttings. They've stopped rubbing on the rocks now, though. I'm going to keep my eye on the tank. I'm mixing up change water now, going to do about a 15% water change tomorrow morning.

I used to allways keep about 30 gallons of change water mixed up at all times, but then I turned the 33 gallon tank I was using for this into an extra sump/fuge. I might just convert it back to a mixing tank, after experiencing this. learn as you go, i guess.

KrazyKuch · #4 02-22-2007, 04:50 AM

Did you cut the toad stool while it was in the tank....you should always do your fragging in a seperate container...unless your fraggin SPS

kwirky · #5 02-22-2007, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

Did you cut the toad stool while it was in the tank....you should always do your fragging in a seperate container...unless your fraggin SPS

no the cutting was done in a separate container

I'm glad I did, because I saw all the misty stuff just oozing out as I was using the scissors on it. Man oh man it STINKS cutting up leathers btw. Everyone in the house was complaining about it

I was worried about toxins coming off the cuttings themselves, once they went into the tank. All seems well, though. I'm running an extra ammoun tof GAC for now, and the sixline wrasses have gone back to their normal behavior (no scratching against rocks).

I did a scouring of my rocks, looking for more aiptasia, and found none. But Jesus! I didn't know cinamom clowns could be so DEFENSIVE! the female on repeated occassions just went ape nuts on my hand when I was moving the rocks around. And when the lights went out, she saw my head and tried to attack it through the glass. Smacked against the glass real hard, too. Probably freaked out because I stole her nice giant toadstool

kwirky · #6 02-23-2007, 07:20 AM

ok so I've kept this aiptasia rock in a bucket of freshwater for a couple days now because I don't exactly know how to kill them off 100%.

Anyone know how to kill off the aiptasia completely? I don't care if everything else on the rock dies, I'm just going to re-seed it in the tank again.

Boil? continue the freshwater treatment? Leave out in the winter cold to freeze?