Aiptasia are taking over!

[Bagpiper Jim]

Well, I have tried lemon juice, boiling water, Hydrogen peroxide and Aiptasia-X and still these things have taken over my tank. I am not real keen on peppermint shrimp because I have Zoa's and i hear the shrimp might even feed on them. Part of the problem is the Aiptasia are now growing out of my Zoa's. I placed some Berghia nudibranchs in the tank a couple of weeks ago and I can only assume they are still in there and not ground up in my skimmer pump and and turned into skimmate. Anyway, I just ordered a bottle of Joe's Juice because that is what the LFS uses with some success. Anyone have any more suggestions as to how I can get these things under control?

Thanks again, Jim

 

[tnwillia]

My best sucess is with Aiptasia-X with the tank turnd off and dead calm, shooting it right into the oral disk 1 at a time. My Pepermints won't go near them and Joe's juice drifted off on me. Good luck!

 

[joewell]

I too had the same problem! I used some of the products you mentioned and if it did not kill the Aiptasia 110% it spread like crazy!

I finally got a couple of peppermint shrimps (they were pretty big) in nothing the first 3 or 4 days but when they started they cleaned everything!

The only issue I have with them is that they ate my frogspawn bit did not and have not touched anything else! I could remove them but I like them too much! The come and sit on my fingers when it's feeding time!

 

[Bagpiper Jim]

I too had the same problem! I used some of the products you mentioned and if it did not kill the Aiptasia 110% it spread like crazy!

I finally got a couple of peppermint shrimps (they were pretty big) in nothing the first 3 or 4 days but when they started they cleaned everything!

The only issue I have with them is that they ate my frogspawn bit did not and have not touched anything else! I could remove them but I like them too much! The come and sit on my fingers when it's feeding time!

I may give in and give the peppermint shrimp a try. There will certainly be enough Aiptasia for them to eat so I shouldn't have to worry about them munching on my Zoa's. I will keep a close eye on them and if they look like they are going to be a problem then I will put then in my FO tank.

Thanks again, Jim

 

[Big Jay]

I've never had a problem with my peppermints eating anything but food and the stray aptasia.

That's not to say you will be trouble free. It's a chance you'll have to take IMO.

 

[BigAl07]

Ditto I think it's a GREAT course of action and as with anything else "salty" it has some degree of "iffy" to it

 

[1Reefer]

I'm thinking the frogspawn was "weak" so they took it out... my peppermints took out an acan (a small 4 head frag) but don't touch any of my other acans.... I have frogspawn also and they have never bothered it, like mentioned above though, I'm sure each shrimp is different and it may have something to do with where they are caught...

 

[BigFish11]

I had three huge Aptsias growing and taking over a zoo rock, i did buy two peppermints, i think only one survived, but she did a great job eating the aptasias. I believe that if you keep the tank well fed then most creatures will not stray. but thats just my .02

 

[1Reefer]

+1 bigfish... but feed too much and they will ignore the aptasia lol

 

[Monkeyboy]

I think i'm going to have this problem at some point so i'm reading this hoping that a simple solution can be found and i can copy.

I was thinking of going down the Peppermint route but my LFS only has what look to me like the Camelhump shrimps - i'm not sure if they'll do the same job.

Hopefully a solution will be found soon.

 

[Royalscott]

Peppermint shrimp worked for me.

 

[Thespivster]

+1 to Peppermints...aptasia 100% gone in 9 days.

 

[Shamus]

The Aiptasia-X worked for me in killing the big ones, but I constantly was seeing little babies in my tank - I got a peppermint which has kept my tank baby aiptasia free since its addition!

 

[GlassMunky]

I'd say get a pepermint, they are less that $15 and DO eat the aiptasias. just make sure they are not starved and they shouldnt go after your zoas. mines never even paid my zoas any attentien, and i havnt had any aiptasia since about a week after i got the shrimp.

 

[1Reefer]

+1 avoid those camel backs.. they are related but the camels don't eat aptasia. Peppermints do a wonderful job though!

 

[Schwa]

Joes juice is nothing more than an extreme solution of pickling lime /Kalkwasser if you buy some pickling lime and put about 4 tsp full in a couple tbsp of RO water you will have joes juice get a 10ml syringe and turn off all your pumps and just give each aptasia a little squirt in the middle and they will instantly shrivel and die from getting an extreme alkalinity dose completely reef safe and it works great. if you have a ton of them I would do it in a couple stages so you dont raise the alk in your tank too much. I used to use joes as well until I figured out what it was. As far as peppermint shrimp eating zoos never heard of that happening . But I have never seen one eat an aptasia either.

 

[Ravenfan84]

This is great stuff I am bout to get some now but i already have in my 75g 1 peppermint, 1 fire shrimp, and 1 cleaner shrimp. So do i need more peppermint shrimp eventually all will get moved to my 210 when its ready but need some advice

 

[Ravenfan84]

This is great stuff I am bout to get some now but i already have in my 75g 1 peppermint, 1 fire shrimp, and 1 cleaner shrimp. So do i need more peppermint shrimp eventually all will get moved to my 210 when its ready but need some advice

 

[magnum]

I had a peppermint that was great. I had no aptasia, he ate out of my hand and had a great personality. Then it attacked my feather duster and coco worm so he needed to go.

 

[GrendelPrime]

i had a aptasia outbreak in my reef a number of yrs ago i had to hit it from a few different sides, peppermints i had would only eat the babies so for the adults i had to nuke them using a combo of lemon juice and boiling water injected from a syringe..took alot of time and patients but eventualy u will zap them all:grind: