Aiptasia take over HELP!

Jovreefer · #1 01/02/2004, 10:10 PM

I posted this also in advanced topics because I need serious help.

Ok my friend's in the army, he came home for a break and his tank is covered in HUNDREDS of aiptasia, I'd say 300-400 easy. he's leaving in 2 days and I told him I'd try to get rid of them while he's in afganastan.

They have killed most of his corals while he was gone. They covered the glass all over so you cant see in alot of places! they are growing on the snails, corals, sand and clams!

I know peperments and injecting them with kalk and copperbands kill aiptasia. but on such a large scale are there any sugestions?

For the ones on the glass, can i scrape them off with a razorblade?

For the ones on the sand can I just rip them out of the sand?

bertoni · #2 01/02/2004, 10:35 PM

Wow, that's a lot of Aiptasia.

What's in the tank at present?

You can scrape them off the glass and pull them out of the sand. Remove all the Aiptasia carcass you can get from the tank. Even tiny, smashed bits seem to be able to regrow.

Jovreefer · #3 01/02/2004, 10:42 PM

Ive herd that tiny pieces can regrow so I wanted to be careful.

It IS alot of aiptasia, I did not believe him when he said they were taking over till I saw it myself.

Currently he has a yellow tang, and a yellow tail damsel. as for corals he has 2 clams, one nice capricornis, a few acros, and some hairy mushrooms left. All other softies have been taken over, and most of his acro's have aiptasia growing all over them!

Los · #4 01/02/2004, 10:53 PM

Relax. I had the exact same problem and it was very, very easily solved. Go to the pet store as soon as you can and buy 2-3 peppermint shrimp. Make sure you ask if they are the ones that eat aiptasia, since apparently the ones from either the Pacific or Atlantic (I can't remember) don't.

Acclimate the shrimp to the tank as instructed by the fish store and watch the aiptasia disapear in a few short days. They are almost all water, so the shrimp can eat tons of them every day. 3 of 'em cleaned up my 240 in less than a week. I couldn't believe it!

It is an easy solution and you will be pleased.

Cheers,

LOS

Gerard the fish · #5 01/02/2004, 10:56 PM

You should sell them as mated pairs :-D

eums · #6 01/02/2004, 11:10 PM

i have seen people talking about this stuff called joes juice. they have had great sucess. you may want to search it out here on RC and see if its the thing for you.

Los · #7 01/02/2004, 11:24 PM

BTW, forget about trying to inject each aiptasia with calc, boiling water, etc. You'll never keep up with the little bastards. Get one or two peppermint shrimp and never have a problem with them again.

LOS

bertoni · #8 01/03/2004, 12:02 AM

The peppermint shrimp will likely do the job. There doesn't seem to be anything in the tank that precludes them. They have worked for me in the past, and you've already got some other positive reviews. They seem to eat a lot of 'pods, though.

Unfortunately, the shrimp can't get rid of all the Aiptasia, IME, so you'll have to keep some in the tank or eventually find another method.

You could try Berghia, although it's slower than the shrimp and probably less certain. They seem to be working in one of my tanks.

eums · #9 01/03/2004, 12:34 AM

the joes juice is not an injection, its something you dose to your tank. .....

NicoleC · #10 01/03/2004, 12:54 AM

You don't dose your tank with it, you squirt it on the anemones' mouths. They just melt.

eums · #11 01/03/2004, 01:03 AM

wow, i was wrong. i am thankfull i never had these POS aiptasia's

NicoleC · #12 01/03/2004, 01:32 AM

Hey, you're just down the road. I can always introduce you to some so you'll know what everyone is talking about

Travis · #13 01/03/2004, 01:57 AM

I finally won the aiptasia battle in my tank with a copperband butterfly. I had at LEAST 500-700 in my 75. I tried everything from vinegar and kalk paste injections to covering them in kalk paste. They would always come back within a month and there would be more than there was in the first place. Also, tried to keep getting every single one I could find every couple days to try and keep up with them but that didn't work either. IME, with a major infestation like your friend's, a natural control method is all that will work such as a pepperment, berghia, or CBB.

Pinecone_Jeff · #14 01/03/2004, 02:05 AM

I'm having the same problem with my tank! Tons of aiptasia. Hers's my strategy. I've let my caulerpa grow uncontrolled so that they've taken over the top of the tank. Most of the aiptasia have moved up into the grape caulerpa to get at the light. Some of the bigger ones stayed behind.

After months of this (most of my corals are softies and zoos and they've barely hung on). I yanked out the caulerpa and dozens upon dozens of aiptasia. All that I'm left with are the big guys and a few smaller stragglers.

I then introduced 12 small Lysmata wurdemani (peppermint shrimp) and I plan on getting some Joe's Juice. The peps have slowly been taking out the smaller aiptasia and I'm hoping to get rid of the big guys with J's J.

In time, I'm gonna hopefull get rid of the peps (they're already making a huge dent in my pod population!) by giving them back to my LFS when all the aiptasia are gone.

PITA these aiptasia are. But things are looking up in my tank! And this hasn't been the case in many months! I almost gave up reefing all together because of the aiptasia. But my wife kept urging me to figure out a solution. Glad I stuck with it!

Los · #15 01/03/2004, 03:18 AM

Pinecone-

I'm worried you may have the wrong type of Pepp Shrimp. I had hundreds of Aiptasia in a 240 and 3 shrimp cleaned them up in days. If you have a dozen, they are either really, really small - or they are the wrong type. In a 37 gallon, I would think one would clean it up in days.

The nightmare is EASILY solved by getting hold of the right peppermint shrimp.

Cheers,

LOS

EmilyB · #16 01/03/2004, 03:23 AM

Peppermint shrimp will take 8.75 years to do that....And the boiling kalk, water, vinegar, whatever. I am waiting on my Joes juice for my FOWLR...it sounds promising. Or I will kill all the rock as I am selling the tank and moving the the FOWLR.

Funny thing is, the aiptaisa has never been a problem in the other tanks??

Los · #17 01/03/2004, 05:12 AM

I can attest to the efficacy of Pepperment Shrimp. I have a 50 gallon quaranteen TEEMING with Aipatasia - just as did my main tank. It was the perfect control and, sure enough, the shrimp got rid of the aiptasia super quick in the much larger tank - while the smaller tank still has 'em everywhere. I even throw them in every once in a while as part of shells, etc. to see how long it takes for the single remaining shrimp to get rid of it. The small anemones never last longer than an evening. These guys work and ensure that aiptasia wont return. You just have to get the right ones.

Cheers,

LOS

Flameangel · #18 01/03/2004, 12:19 PM

With my tank crash I let my aiptasia population grow a little out of control. I was getting rid of them by injecting them with part 1 B-ionic which was working but tiresome. My peppermint shrimp keep going over the overflow into the sump! (someday I will have to try to get them out! I have placed a couple of rock in there for tehm to work on, but I can not move most of my rocks)

So I ordered some joes juice! That stuff is amazing! Worth every penny that I spent on it. I used a needle with the syringe they sent and I just took about 30 minutes and lightly covered each one. THe needle helps control the amount of joesjuice you use. You do not inject them. The next day I found about 10 that I had missed and I got them. The next week I found about 5 more. Today I see none!!! I am sure there are a few I have missed but I will just keep some joes juice on hand!

Good luck,
Connie

Pinecone_Jeff · #19 01/03/2004, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Los
Pinecone-

I'm worried you may have the wrong type of Pepp Shrimp. I had hundreds of Aiptasia in a 240 and 3 shrimp cleaned them up in days. If you have a dozen, they are either really, really small - or they are the wrong type. In a 37 gallon, I would think one would clean it up in days.

The nightmare is EASILY solved by getting hold of the right peppermint shrimp.

Cheers,

LOS

Hi LOS,
I'm sure I have Lysmata wurdemanni and not the commonly confused for camel back shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis). I've had pepps before that voraciously ate up aiptasia and I've had some that never touched it. That's why I decided to go with a dozen of them figuring some of them in that bunch will eat aiptasia. Plus these shrimp are pretty small still and need some time to grow big enough to eat the big aiptasia.

So far, the smaller aiptasias are indeed disappearing, presumably eaten by the pepps. So with the use of Joe's Juice, I'm hoping to totally get rid of all the aiptaisa in time.

I've tried berghia nudies and once, I had one nudi that got rid of a tankful of aiptasia. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of moving him to my 10 gal nano to help with a very minor aiptasia problem and I lost him to one of my filter intakes!

With this latest outbreak, I tried 6 berghias and they all disappeared with no effect on the aips.

So that's when I got my dozen pepps.

Pepps are funny that way with eating aiptasia. Sometimes they eat aips like pigs, sometimes they don't even touch them, and sometimes they just nibble on 'em! Go figure. That's why I took the shotgun approach! LOL!

Just gotta wait 'n see.

Beach Native · #20 01/03/2004, 02:33 PM

When it showed up initially in my tank, I got one peppermint and didn't ever see it again until the peppermint passed away on me.

It only took a couple of months after his passing, for it to start coming back though...

I was ready to add another finned creature to my tank, so threw in a Butterfly I became attached to at my LFS, and he ate every bit of aiptasia in my tank in 2 days.

I prefer the natural approach, and have had success now with either of the above.

Pinecone_Jeff · #21 01/03/2004, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Beach Native
I was ready to add another finned creature to my tank, so threw in a Butterfly I became attached to at my LFS, and he ate every bit of aiptasia in my tank in 2 days.

Ugh! I wish I had a tank big enough for a butterfly!

But I agree, a natural approad is better. I was using kalk injections once and I think I dosed a bit too much.

I killed one of my fish by doing that. I felt so bad and stupid!

discocarp · #22 01/03/2004, 03:06 PM

Inland aquatics used to sell some captive bred peps that they have raised eating aiptasia. I assume they still have them, but I haven't checked in a few years.

Inland Aquatics

Peter

Jovreefer · #23 01/03/2004, 03:39 PM

Thank you all for your posts. I know the right kind of pepperments to get, I had a few in my tank before. I was just not sure they would do the trick on such a large amount of aiptasia.

Also has anyone ever herd of emerald crabs eating or killing pepperment shrimp? he put a few pepperments in before he left for the army and they disapeared almost overnight.

O'Man · #24 01/03/2004, 04:10 PM

I found injecting them helped them spread. I tried pepps a few f times and had no luck, but the copperband solved my problem within 3 weeks.

krisjones · #25 01/06/2004, 07:31 AM

I just want to say that I had HUGE success with Joes Juice. If anyone has any type of aiptasia outbreak (from 1 - 500) BUY THIS STUFF. I purchased 10 peppermint shrimp first but they did nothing. Joes Juice was a tank saver for me. I would suggest using a small piece of tubing on the end of the supplied applicator to control amount and placement of this magical wonder.