Lemon juice and aptasia?

[Pam Little]

I know I've read on here about this. I think they said to inject it? If so with what (what gauge needle.) Can you do it in the tank or must you remove the rock? Need help fast my favorite pink zoos are disapearing fast!

[eris8]

Yes you can inject the lemon juice w/ any gauge needle into the aiptasia. Hot water(boiling), kalk, and Joesjuice also work in similar fashion. You may kill them initially but fragments are bound to disperse and reseed. It can be done in the tank but if you can get the rock out you may be able to reduce the seeding. The down side to removing the rock is that you wont be able to see them as well b/c they will retract into the crevices. Vigilance is the key to getting rid of them. Just keep on injecting and youll notice a decrease in their amounts. HTH.

[Pam Little]

Thank you very much I'm going to try it right now!

[ykh]

Pam,

Sorry to hear that you have aiptasias in your tank. I started my first SW tank about a month ago and bought LR and LS from a guy on this forum. Guess what? The aiptasias came with the LR and LS.

You can inject them with juices if they are big enough. For the small ones, it's very hard to get the juice inside them as it's very hard to see their mouths. They also retract as soon as the lemon juice reached them.

I've tried peppermint shrimps and they didn't do anything either. May be they are keeping the population from growing but didn't eat the existing ones.

I was so frustrated that I dipped two pieces of my LRs which covered by 50-60 small aiptasias each into hot tap water for 5 minutes. Of course, the aiptasia died, so as the LR:(

I'm going to try pickling lime if I can find it locally. If not, probably have to spend extra bucks to get joesjuice.

Kean Huat

[misery]

Hey, ykh, if you find pickling lime locally, holla!

I beat the aiptaisa menace by drowning them in joe's juice. Then, I deployed a coupla peppermint shrimps to take care of the dregs of those feinds!

[ykh]

misery,

Hi! No luck so far,I have checked with Jewel, Dominick's and Whole Foods.

Tried to order the Mrs. Wages online as suggested by Ari but it's out of stock now:(

It's such a PITA to deal with aiptasias in my first/newly setup reef tank.

Kean Huat

[arinick]

Kean-

You are welcome to enough to get you by until Mrs Wages is around again. Maybe I'll get in on that order with you then.

Let me know if it is worth the trip north!

[Sullyman]

Use Real Lemon concentrate, use it the same way as JJ, you'll need to inject it(not really inject it, but rather use it like pepper spray up close, get the aptasia to absorb/inhale it, and it's dead.
I'd bet JJ says you only need a little because it's concentrated.
The key is the citric acid, burns the weed anemone, make sure you use very small doses, over a period of time. With a hypo delivery device.

[oach]

ykh I used peppermint shrimp to cure my aptasia problem and it only took about a week...but, that was my second attempt. The first time I placed the shrimp in the tank and, at the time, I had a serpeant star (yes, stupid me, that's why I am a noob) that had a nice high priced meal. Got rid of the star and put some more shrimp...done deal.

I am just sharing this with you in case you have something eating those shrimp before they eat the aptasia.

Later,
oach

[ykh]

Ari,

Thanks for your generous offer, I really appreciate it. I will let you know if I need to get some. You are not that far away from me if I follow your driving direction instead of mapquest's:)

I might just go ahead and order the magical portion----joesjuice that everyone is talking about.

Thanks,
Kean Huat

[ykh]

Sullyman,

Yes, I got the lemon juice from Dominick's. It said on the bottle that it's 100% from concentrated lemon juice.

The small aiptasias retracted as soon as they were sprayed by lemon juice. But after 20-30 minutes, they all come out again! I managed to kill the big ones as I could inject straight into their mouths.

Kean Huat

Originally posted by Sullyman
Use Real Lemon concentrate, use it the same way as JJ, you'll need to inject it(not really inject it, but rather use it like pepper spray up close, get the aptasia to absorb/inhale it, and it's dead.
I'd bet JJ says you only need a little because it's concentrated.
The key is the citric acid, burns the weed anemone, make sure you use very small doses, over a period of time. With a hypo delivery device.

[Sullyman]

You've got a small tank, and no remedy works instantly, you must be patient and it will work, careful so you don't end up with lemon juice for water, peppermints are hit and miss, rarely takew on a large aptasia, copperbands do a great job but your tank is too small, so use the juice slowly and it will work.

[ykh]

Oach,

You did bring up a very good point and explained why two of my peppermint shrimps were gone. I made the same mistake like you did.

About 3 weeks ago, I put in a green brittle star and 4 shrimps on the same day. Two days later, I returned the star to Scott's because I read that it will prey on small fish and etc. Since then, I only see two peppermint shrimps in my tank.

The two survivors haven't touched the aiptasia. They will only feast on the frozen bloodworms.

Kean Huat



Originally posted by oach
ykh I used peppermint shrimp to cure my aptasia problem and it only took about a week...but, that was my second attempt. The first time I placed the shrimp in the tank and, at the time, I had a serpeant star (yes, stupid me, that's why I am a noob) that had a nice high priced meal. Got rid of the star and put some more shrimp...done deal.

I am just sharing this with you in case you have something eating those shrimp before they eat the aptasia.

Later,
oach

[oach]

Sorry to hear that they won't eat the aptasia. You want to borrow mine? ;)

[ykh]

Oach,

Ha, thanks for your offer! If you are closer to me, I might take up your offer:)

Kean Huat

[RandalB]

Kean,
I had good luck with boiling RO water and Peppermint shrimp to kill the anemones. I used a turkey baster to squirt the RO water into the holes they (the anemones) ducked into. The Pepermints ate off all the little ones and now I don't think I have any in my Reef tank... (I can't see 'em anyhow...)

RandalB