aptasia on my brain?

[ghofmann]

I have a trachyphyllia that has some small aptasias that have attached to one side of the base of the skeleton. I have had the coral in the tank for about a month and overall the coral seems very healthy. Where the aptasias are it looks like the flesh is receding. How do I get rid of the aptasia without hurting the tissue on the brain. I thought about injecting them with kalk but don't know what effect this would have on the brain. I also thought about peppermint shrimp but I have a coral banded in the tank and I don't want the peppermints to become a snack.

[ReefDiver]

That could be aptasia and I would go with the peppermints rather than trying to inject them. Find a LFS that has peppermints that have been feed aptasia and are use to eating it. My LFS always has these shrimp ready to go. I had good luck getting rid of aptasia in my own tank this way. I would suggest putting at least 6 of them in the tank. Good luck.

[jpg]

its an aptasia alright.theres a new product thats suspose to be100% reef safe.its called joesjuice.you squirt some on the aptasia and within a few seconds its history,it just disolves.ive heard nothing but good feed back on the stuff.but figure if it does that to aptasia's why not corals.

[ReefDiver]

Again, go with the shrimp first. I don't trust any products that proport to do what you say and you are correct in thinking that it just might have a bad effect on other tank inhabitants!

[photobarry]

It looks to be a pretty small aiptasia and the coral's tissue appears to be reasonably far away from it. i would try injecting it with boiling water or vinegar. Or you could remove the coral from the tank and scrub off the aiptasia and apply epoxy to the area to prevent any missed parts from regrowing.

[bneyman]

Do you have a small elegance coral you can move easily?

If so, pick it up gently, and press it's tentacles quickly against the aiptasia. That'll kill the aiptasia!

[MiddletonMark]

I like ReefDiver's suggestion the most - as we don't want any harm to come to the brain.

Personally, injecting anything worries me a little, though the boiling water would be my first bet. Vinegar probably second. I've heard Joe's Juice is reef-safe ... but yet I can't help but think that if any of it touched the Brain, it would be bad for the brain [same with Kalkwasser injection]. Maybe it's not ... but corals are pretty precious to experiment on IMO.

Good luck, try the peppermints first, IMO ... I've had great luck with them.

[photobarry]

If you try the peps, be prepared to try something else if they don't show any interest in the aiptasia. Don't let it get too big otherwise the problem will only get more difficult to solve.

[MiddletonMark]

Yep, and feed a little lighter for the first while you have the peppermints. I find well fed peppermints don't eat that much aptasia, and well fed Emerald crabs don't eat that much valonia. But fed very little - they've both worked well for me....

[photobarry]

LOL That's what I meant to say. :)

[bluemonster]

Jumping in for a second. Im starting to get aiptasia in my tank. I would prefer getting peppermints but I have a large banded goby who within weeks always eats my shrimp. So my question is, how fast do shrimp usually rid a small aiptasia outbreak? The goby usually gives the shrimp a week or two before he gobbles em up. Could the shrimp do their job that quick? Thanks

[photobarry]

The problem is that the shrimp rarely eliminate the aiptasia. If you remove the shrimp the aiptasia will likely return. But they could reduce the population enough that you could deal with it manually once the shrimp are removed.

[bluemonster]

Thanks

[EricHugo]

IME, the best way to kill Aiptasia, especially a few, or locally, is to use concentrated HCl (muriatic acid) and an insulin syringe with a fine bore needle - like 29 gauge. Aiptasia are to sensitive to large needles to stick them fast enough. The HCl nearly instantly dissociates in water and the only change will be to pH, easily corrected with buffer or limewater. You cn inject quite a few cc's of acid before you see any pH drop in an average size tank and it takes about 1/10th of 1 cc to kill Aiptaisa. It's also my experience that you should hold the needle in place and keep slowly injecting to make sure pedal lacerates are killed. These exist outside the main Aiptiasia, and even though you kill the adult, say with boiling water or kalk (which rarely works for me), you leave completely unaffected lacerates underneath...when the adult dies, the babies are free to grow, and instead of 1 with attached lacerates, you have many babies.

[ghofmann]

Eric will the muratic acid affect the coral? The polyps are within 1/8 of an inch from the aptasia.

[photobarry]

The acid will have less of an effect on the coral than the aiptasia does.

[EricHugo]

agreed. Coral polyps contract when you squirt the acid nearby, but I have never lost even a single polyp - like I said, the mucus protects them quite well.

[ghofmann]

Thanks for the info I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

[Phillips]

Another biological control are fish called Scats (Scatophagus argus), but they grow very large (12 inches in the wild), very quickly. They make great pets too. Very friendly, eat like pigs and still find room for Aiptasia.

You usually see them for sale in the brackish section of your LFS, but you should be very careful when you acclimate them and you REALLY need a big tank or a friend with a big tank who can take the scat off your hands after a few of months.