Aptasia Overrun....HELP!!

[noobyReefer]

ok...so i bought some live rock from a LFS, and now i have this super flourishing aptasia issue. what is the best way to get rid of it...ive heard of shrimp and snails actually eating aptasia, but im not sure what kind they are. its taking over my tank...and i cant have it anymore... :(

[Gooli]

i dont have a single aptasia in my tank...why?
Answer: Peppermint Shrimps

[JeffersonReef]

1) Peppermint shrimp - if you buy one at the lfs (approx $10), it may or may not eat aiptasia. I bought one and it wiped the aiptasia in my old 100g in a few weeks. You wont ever see it, cuz it comes out at night and PWNS aiptasia. This is likely your best bet.

2) Kalkwasser - I have read that if you use a needle and inject kalkwasser mixed with rodi into the aiptasia/majano, it will shrivel up and die. Only problem is for every aiptasia you can visisbly see, there are several more that you cant... which is why the pep shrimp would be better.

3) Copperband butterfly - I have heard these work great on aiptasia, but can also nip at coral or inverts... also they tend to die once the aiptasia are gone I THINK.... dont recall exactly

4) Berghia Nudibranches - these would be your best bet... will make a quick meal of aiptasia... good luck getting your hand on some though!

HTH.

[crushed_rock]

Have the same aiptasia problem. Got peppermint shrimp but shrimp didn't even last a week. What could've killed the shrimp? Could it be my sixline wrasse?

[Duddly01]

Peppermint shrimp may or may not work, depending on whether you have something that will eat them. I have a peppermint shrimp in my seahorse tank. Cleared up what aiptasia I had in two days and have never seen any in months.

In my reef I have a fuzzy dwarf Lionfish. I added some peppermint shrimp thinking he was too small yet. He had them gone in a day (except one I see pop up every once in a while).

I have even purchased five Berghia that we saw eat an aiptasia when put in the tank and I haven't seen them sense and I still see lots of aiptasia. I am still holding out hope on those little guys. They are pricey and the only place I could find them was online ordering. I got mine from Salty Underground.

I have also been injecting them with Kalk paste, mainly just the ones currently bugging any corals (still holding out hope for the Berghia). They suck it in and die.

[glockcoma]

I have a few huge aptasia's, will the peppermint shrimp be able to eat those?

[joesynodontis]

I have had aptasia from the beginning of my set up almost 3 months ago, When it came time to buy livestock I got 1 peppermint shrimp, along with some reefsafe non agressive fish. It took a few weeks but slowly the dozen aptacia that were spread out from the bottom of the tank to the top are now gone. He had to get use to the tank the peppermint shrimp was shy at first, then he took care of business. My old method was to take out the rock it was on and chip it off, but those guys can go way inside the rock.
good luck

[JeffersonReef]

I had some serious aiptasia in my 100g and the little pep that could took care of all of em. Trouble is I had a few in the fuge... gotta catch him and throw him down there soon.

-Tony

[five.five-six]

lets see some pics :)

[hpasternak]

will a blue throa trigger eat the peppermint shrimp?

[joesynodontis]

im no where close on being an expert reef keeper, but I know that anything goes in a hungry tank.

[tomconk]

My 4 line wrasse eats any peppermint shrimp I put in my tank.....It sucks

[tripinpn01]

i tried the peppermint shrimp... didnt work.

[dchan928]

I think it also depends on the pep shrimp. I had one and it didn't eat the aptasias. I also heard that you should not feed it so it will go after the aptasias....once it get use to other foods it will not want aptasias??..i don't know.

Also, make sure you don't get a camel shrimp cuz they do look similar. I think camel shrimp will go after corals. Good luck!

[chaffey]

^ agreed I got 3 camel shrimps, I thought they were pep. shrimp, they are trouble maker....can't seem to catch them out, I am thinking of adding a trigger fish to take them out.

[glockcoma]

I went to a LFS to get a pep shrimp and I called before I went and they told me they had some for 6.99, and when I got there, they told me they were all gone, ended up buying joes juice, its working pretty good for now, how safe is this stuff, im worried about my good anemones, and speaking of anemones I zapped some mojanos w/ this stuff and they shrivled up and turned white, funny thing is that my as soon as my emerald seen that they shrivled up he went after them and ate them up, how strange is that?

[Duddly01]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10355185#post10355185 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by glockcoma
funny thing is that my as soon as my emerald seen that they shrivled up he went after them and ate them up, how strange is that?

Hmmm, guess your Emerald likes pickled aiptasia.:lol:

From what I understand joes juice is calcium Hydroxide (kalkwasser mix/Pickling lime) and lemon juice. I actually started mixing my own and it works, temporarily. They always seem to pop up again. I use Kalkwasser mix and natural lemon juice made into a paste with RO. If you can find it pickling lime is usually a pure food grade calcium hydroxide, but I haven't found a store that carries it.

[noobyReefer]

awsome guys sounds like the best bet for me atm is joes juice and a pep shrimp...one thing im worried about is i already have a blood shrimp, would the pep shrimp cause problems with my other shrimp?

[Frankysreef]

denutrify your water...
high flow
carbon
strain your foods

These animals thrive if there is a lot of nutrients

[crushed_rock]

Can you please explain more what nutrients this aptaisia thrives on? Thanks.

[d0cdave]

Anything you feed your fish the aiptasia will swallow down as well. I feed my clowns flake food inbetween the big feedings of frozen mysis and I always see my aiptasia eating the flake. Its easy to see since the food is bright red!

[phishx]

daddy told u what to do already.

[noobyReefer]

thing is...i dont even have fish to feed atm...i am runnin carbon in the sump...so maybe ill toss in an extra pump till i can get a hold of some pep shrimp.

[tripinpn01]

i just wanted to say that initially i had said that peppermint shrimps did not work... well that was in my previous tank. in my current tank i decided to try peppermints again (its hard not to when they are 6 dollars a pop) and... voila! all but one ( a large one) is left standing. if the apitasia is twice the size of the shrimp lol do you think they will eat it?