Aiptasia questions

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sparky5785

New member
I have some live rock from another members propogation system I was going to use in my new build that I have been keeping live for the past couple months. When i purchased it i checked it all out and it seemed clean. As I am getting closer now to starting the system up I did a very thorough inspection of all the rocks and found aiptasia on some pieces I dont want to introduce the pest into my build but I dont want to have to buy even more rock and waste more money. What can I do to the rock to ensure it is pest free before I start my tank. I understand almost anything I do will kill the live rock. Can I just let it dry out? Do I need to clean them with bleach or some other chemical?

Thanks in advance for the help.

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How many . If not to many kalk em. Or zapp em . I get one or two every once in awhile when i over feed. I just zapp em . I wouldnt kill rock unless we talking hundreds. If only a few and u kill the rock and dont do it right its gonna leach phosphates and then u will have algae issues. Imo aptasia lot easier to take care of then algae issues
 
Just throw a peppermint shrimp in the tank and you will not have an issue with future ones as long as that shrimp is a live
 
Right now its all in a stock tank with heater and powerheads. I will have to check again to get a better count. Its hard once I start moving rocks around they retract and hide.

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It doesn't matter how many just tooth brush off the big ones and the shrimp really do the rest. They work every time for me. QUOTE=sparky5785;193061]Right now its all in a stock tank with heater and powerheads. I will have to check again to get a better count. Its hard once I start moving rocks around they retract and hide.

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Since they are in a stock tank I would personally just dump a whole bottle of Aptasia X in there and allow those Aptasia to eat it. Let it sit for a few days and then take the rock out and rinse them in saltwater (either from a WC from your DT or a fresh batch) and clean out the stock tank and put everything back in with clean saltwater. I have never done this before, but that is what I would do if I wanted to make sure every nook and cranny where the aptasia is hiding got hit with the Aptasia X. (Could be a dumb idea, but it was an idea that I thought of) If you allow the rock to sit long enough in the dark without food I think that would kill them off by starvation as well, you would just want to feed the bacteria on the LR somehow, maybe vodka/VC would allow the bacteria to stay alive without feeding the aptasia, not sure. GL
 
That is an interesting idea I thought aiptasia x had to be injected into the mouth of the aiptasia? Perhaps I'm wrong. Any comments on this idea?

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sparky5785 said:
That is an interesting idea I thought aiptasia x had to be injected into the mouth of the aiptasia? Perhaps I'm wrong. Any comments on this idea?

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You are right. The way it works is the Aptasia consume the X and die (at least from my understanding). I believe the Aptasia would still consume the X that is floating the water and die, but who knows. Again it was just a thought.
 
jm23 said:
You are right. The way it works is the Aptasia consume the X and die (at least from my understanding). I believe the Aptasia would still consume the X that is floating the water and die, but who knows. Again it was just a thought.
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They come back to life after awhile
 
U can also try turkey blasting them with pure lemon juice brandon.. I had a lot of success with this when i had one or two in my tank
 
Thanks for the info guys maybe Ill get some peppermints and put them in the stock tank for the next couple weeks until I'm ready fill up the tank. Now does anyone know where I can get a few of them? Doesn't reefwise usually have several of them?

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ddiomede said:
I've been battling aiptasia's ever since setting my tank up. I've tried aptaisia X and it doesn't work. They go away initially, but then come back.

As soon as I get my melanarus wrasse out, I'll be getting one of these: http://www.saltyunderground.com/index.php?cPath=6
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Berghias work well at eating aiptasia, but you would need more than 1 depending on your tank size. Furthermore, similar to peppermints, they will most likely miss some here and there, which means once the berghia dies (it will die soon - they only eat aiptasia and nothing else, so once it cannot find anymore, it will starve to death), the few that area left could reseed your tank with aiptasia. Personally I'd recommend peppermint shrimp - they are obligate consumers of aiptasia, which means they hang around a heck of a lot longer to keep it under control.
 
I would just kill the rock before I would do something like this. This is why I don't want live rock from strangers . Never know what they did to it.I have also had success with a Copperband Butterfly but wouldn't recommend it.

QUOTE=jm23;193178]Since they are in a stock tank I would personally just dump a whole bottle of Aptasia X in there and allow those Aptasia to eat it. Let it sit for a few days and then take the rock out and rinse them in saltwater (either from a WC from your DT or a fresh batch) and clean out the stock tank and put everything back in with clean saltwater. I have never done this before, but that is what I would do if I wanted to make sure every nook and cranny where the aptasia is hiding got hit with the Aptasia X. (Could be a dumb idea, but it was an idea that I thought of) If you allow the rock to sit long enough in the dark without food I think that would kill them off by starvation as well, you would just want to feed the bacteria on the LR somehow, maybe vodka/VC would allow the bacteria to stay alive without feeding the aptasia, not sure. GL[/QUOTE]
 
Top Water said:
I would just kill the rock before I would do something like this. This is why I don't want live rock from strangers . Never know what they did to it.I have also had success with a Copperband Butterfly but wouldn't recommend it.
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How would I go about killing this live rock?



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sparky5785 said:
How would I go about killing this live rock?



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Don't do it! The peppermint shrimp WILL work. They will also eat whatever you offer your fish. So, when the aiptasia population descreases to undetectable, the shrimp will continue to live on, should any aiptasia resurface down the road.
 
Plus 1
Joe Lydon said:
Don't do it! The peppermint shrimp WILL work. They will also eat whatever you offer your fish. So, when the aiptasia population descreases to undetectable, the shrimp will continue to live on, should any aiptasia resurface down the road.
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I can't recommend the Peppermint Shrimp enough. The root of the Aptasia problem is their ruthless reproduction capabilities. An aptasia in distress will release spores into the water column, which will likely attach to whatever substrate is available within seconds of the parent's death. Unless your chemical or mechanical pest solution can vaporize the aptasia tissues instantly, down through to it's base where the spores are, then it's not a silver bullet.

The Peppermint Shrimps can see the Aptasia and all of it's parts. At the Shrimp's scale the spores would be like berries. The shrimp is effective because it's picking/sweeping the spores and parent aptasia's tissues with it's mouth parts, which can shred soft tissues and sift particles from the water. That's why Cleaner Shrimps are able to predate on external fish parasites.

Here's a link to liveaquaria.com 's aptasia eating shrimp species: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+2857+3194&pcatid=3194

Good Luck!
 
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