Aiptasia Control

[Mephistopheles]

I have just learned by reading on reefentral that the Aiptasia that is proliferating in my tank is a real 1) plague, 2) scourge and 3)pest.

And I thought I had some great stuff for the next frag meeting!

It's not totally out of control yet, but I have a couple of real big ones and about 5 or 6 smaller ones that are visible. I suppose I have a lot more lurking and believe that some of the little things growing in my sump are probably Aiptasia as well.

Anybody have any suggestions on what bio control works for them? I can probably play god and execute a couple using some of the chemical suggestions I have seen. But, I would rather leave them as food for a Peppermint Shrimp or the burghia nudibranch http://www.seaslugforum.net/bergverr.htm.

It sounds like the burghia may may be really effective but die out just as soon as the Aiptasia is gone and may be an expensive way to get rid of the pest.

I am open to suggestions. Also, where can you get burghia in the bay area? San Francisco?

Cheers,

Marty Courson

[Schweb]

I have had good luck with good old peppermint shrimp. I've tried copperbands and they were difficult to acclimate to the tank let alone go after the aptasia. For the big ones that the shrimp wont eat I used stop aptasia with a syringe.

[Tenner]

Hello,

I second the Peppermint Shrimp for control of Aptasia. The larger ones you may have to try and remove with chemicals or epoxy.

The club had tried to run a Berghia project but we had terrible luck keeping them alive.

Good luck
Matthew

[Reefer Dude]

Peppermint shrimp work great, but they work better in numbers. Be careful though, there are many common reef tank inhabitants that will make a meal out of the shrimp. Hawk Fish and Brittle stars are good examples. You should call The Aquarium in Concord and talk to Bob, and he can tell you what you need to know about them. As a side not, once you put the shrimp in the tank you will never see them again during the day. The come out in the dark. I thought mine were dead untill I moved my tank.

[Mephistopheles]

I bought a Peppermint Shrimp from 6th Avenue last nigt (and an Emerald Crab which I have heard are good Valonia/Bubble Algae eaters). The Peppermint Shrimp has promptly disappeared. I can find hide nor hair nor antennae of him. I got up last night and searched with a flashlight but he is no where to be found. I suppose he has found a nook in there somewhere though and I hope my Aiptasia now starts to disappear as well. Thanks for the input. Cheers, Marty:p

[Tenner]

Marty,

Be patient. It may take a couple of months. One shrimp in a 60g tank is a lot of space to cover.

Remember to try and nuke the large ones yourself.

Good luck,
Matthew

[RustySnail]

OK... I will let you guys in now on another good way to kill aiptasia... (so listen up Darcy and Mobert)! I did not want to post it until I was sure that no immediate dangers would occur to my tank, but I have been injecting my aiptaisa (it had gotten to be a real plauge) with get this... Lemon Juice! Just the stuff you buy in a little squeeze bottle, no need to juice fresh lemons or anything... The reason it works is because lemon will instantly cook fish (must be the acid/base reaction with SW). Just take a syringe full and give a good dose. Some survive, but most will die and if you storm the tank with a baster they will literally be floating around the tank (you can then get them out with a net).


Hope that helps...

Russ

[Reefer Dude]

How does it affect fish?

[RustySnail]

Well if you injected your fish it would likely kill it, but some stray lemon juice in the tank gets neutralized so fast that there is no effect on anything else in there. ;)

If you squirt some too close to coral tissue it might give a surface burn. It definitely takes injecting it to kill the aiptasia, so I would suspect that you would have to do the same to kill any other coral also. While administering doses, the only thing that seemed to close was my bubble-tip anemone, but I think that was more to do with decreased lighting (it always closes up when the lid gets opened for more than 10 minutes).

I would not recommend using a whole bottle full on one application or anything. 5 ml of lemon juice can be used to inject about 25-50 aiptasia. (a very small amount when you consider the total volume of say a 55g tank).

Russ

[SunfishFun]

I used Russ's secret ingredient (lemon juice) last week and zapped ~6 aiptasia which had survived multiple kalk injections. All are still gone - yeah! The only thing was that in one little cave where an aiptasia's foot was, a bunch of kalk must have been trapped b/c when I injected the lemon juice it set off a little reaction. (Acid + Base :) ) For 5 min or so bubbles streamed up to the surface. My purple tang who equates water turbulence with food, swam over and swallowed a bubble or two before I could shoo him away!

-maureen

[hhinojosa]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned this before? It is such a simple solution! I've tried peppermints, injecting B-Ionic, Kalk. Even considered buying berghia for $12 a pop or borrowing a copperband.

Any chemists want to weigh in here on the chemistry in our tanks by using lemon juice?

By the way, I tried it in my 6 gallon nano (no fish or corals at the moment) and it works!!

[Mephistopheles]

I am a little hesitant squirting lemon juice in my aquarium. I would definitely be intersted to learn of the chemistry. I did try it though, using just .1/ml from one of those little plastic lemons (regretting the fact that it was probably full of preservatives later), injecting my biggest aiptasia with a snub-nosed hypo that came from my calc kit. The aip shrank up and flopped around a bit with sickly looking "fingers". . . . .
Then it blossomed right up and looks better than ever now.

I think it I just made the aip a kind of fuel injected Lemon Daiquiri.

From here out, I'm going to rely on my newly acquired Peppermint Shrimp and see what happens.

Cheers,

Marty

[mobert]

Here's a picture of what can happen if you don't do a clean kill on that first aiptasia....I started with just one in my tank.

Now imagine if every rock looked like this....

[RustySnail]

Thanks for the 'reference picture', Mobert... My tank was really badly infested, and limewater injections were doing little to nothing. I assure all of you who are skeptical that lemon juice does work. You may have to give a couple of injections... I had aiptasia bothering almost every coral in the tank. I am not saying that I was able to totally irradicate them, (you would have to get some berghia or other natural predator to do that), but it made the situation managable and really helped knock down the 'plauge'.

For those that are skeptical about lemon juice, I can only say good luck controlling your aiptasia problems, whichever way you choose to do so. I was only trying to let you all in on what WORKS for me.

Russ

[mobert]

Thanks Russ,

Every bit of information helps. I have a big copperbanded butterfly in there now that is working on it and I have two peppermints in there plus six more in training with nothing except aiptasia to eat. I've stopped injecting anything at the moment since I don't want the CBB to think sometimes aiptasia doesn't taste so good. It is definitely looking a little better though.

I will try the lemon juice on a few big ones in the sump and maybe a squirt into the skimmer too...

[anathema]

to glaring at mine, but I haven't seen any effect yet.

They are really starting to become a nuisance in my tank also, but I don't see what I can do. CB are out, I like my worms, Peppermints and clams aren't safe together...

:rolleyes:

[lori344]

Originally posted by RustySnail
I did not want to post it until I was sure that no immediate dangers would occur to my tank

Russ,
How long has it been since your first injection? Have you tested your water? Have you done any water changes?

I too am curious... we have never had aiptasia in our 150 until about 4 weeks ago. It's been set up for a year and a half. Now, one rock has sprouted about ten of them... Very rapid growth. :mad: The 80 has them sprout up occasionally, but they have been easy to control with kalk injections. I sure hope the lemon juice is a viable option, the 150 needs more than just the kalk.

Maybe we should post a link to this thread in the chemistry forum, what do you think?

[RustySnail]

Here is the situation... My tank has a really bad aiptasia infestation. I have thought about getting some peppermint shrimp, or a CBB, but really I do not want to add anything that may just do more harm than good (it's a crap shoot getting the right spceies of shrimp, and they in addition to CBB may start picking at things I want to keep alive). I have no idea what a CBB would do to a bubble tip anemone, & various LPS corals and dont want to find out.

So that left me with doing limewater injections, which will do some good, but never seemed to be highly effective. I decided to try the lemon juice hoping that it would have the same effect as marinating fish or shrimp in it (it cooks it).

Remember, we are only doing a very small amount in localized spots. There is really so little used in comparison to the volume of your tank that it really is quite insignificant (impurities/preservatives included). Part of my decision to do the LJ is because I have heard of success using of all things a dilute solution of Draino (Lye). Even dilute, a 2N mixture of HCL is way stronger than LJ (you can drink LJ as a refreshment, the other will likely have you pushing up dasies).

So after numerous applications over the last month, I have had nothing but success, and NO ill effects. Have not done any WC, nor have I needed to (except for the tank overheat incident, which is another subject). I wanted to respond to the thread that was going about a month ago, but figured that I should wait and see if there was any residual effects (none detected).

If you are trying to totally irradicate them, you will have to go to a 'natural' solution (CBB,PPS,Berghia), but if you just want to quell the plauge, stop them before they get out of hand, or keep your corals from being stung to death, then by all means try the LJ, you won't be disappointed. (It's probably the main ingredient to the 'Stop Aiptasia' product)

Russ

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are many acids and bases that work well to kill aiptasia. I've had good experience with the alkalinity portion of B-ionic. Others with NaOH, milky limewater, muriatic acid (HCl) and many more. I don't doubt that the lemon juice works, and it is probably harmless.

Still, lemon juice will contain loads of things that are not naturally ocurring in a reef tank, while the inorganic acids and bases (even lye) will, once neutralized, leave only the ions typically present in seawater (Na+, Cl-, etc.).

So while I have nothing aganst lemon juice, I'd be reluctant to pick it as being more natural or less likely to be a problem than B-ionic, limewater, muritaic acid, or lye. The problems (if any) will certainly be bigger when more is added, and if one is going to kill lots of aiptasia, it might be useful to do at least some of them outside of the main tank.

[lori344]

Thanks Russ and Randy... I'm off with my syringe!!! :D


..... look out you dirty bas***ds here comes she-rambo !!

[mobert]

Did everyone read what Eric had to say about battling aiptasia?

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82345

I have a few Peppermints in a tank in training with nothing but aiptaisa to eat. Hopefully they'll learn to be useful members of the big reef tank society.