You think you have aiptasia? Look here.

Beach Girl

Member
Can they be clear as well?? I have a strange Anenome thing that only comes out at night. They rest of the time it is inside the rock. It looks like the picture but it is white. I will try and get a picture tomorrow if I can. I just noticed it a few days ago it just sort of appeared out of nowhere.

Thanks
Kris
 

XeniaLee

Member
I have 2 tiny, clear little things on my LiveRock that look like that. they are only about 1/2 tall when they are stretched out at night. During the day, they are almost invisible, and consequently i can't get a photo of them. Does that sound like it could be aiptaisia?
 

SecretAgent

Member
My aiptasia story..........

My 125 was literally overgrown with them a couple of years back. I used the lime juice, Aiptasia X, boiling water and so on. I even bought the fish that was told would eat them. No luck

Then I read how people was shooting them with Kalk. Well, I wasnt going to buy that just to kill the pests, so I found out that pickling lime is basically the same thing as Kalk and I bought a bag.

I kept the syringes from the many bottles of Aiptasia X and used that for the lime. To date, no aiptasia in my 125g....the 155g has some tiny ones in it, but bought peppermints for that and they are doing their job. Back glass was covered with little ones that I couldnt reach and after putting the peppers in, they were gone within 2 days.

I mix the lime just enough so it goes into the syringe (the one that comes with Aiptaisa X) All I do is cover the mouth and when it shrinks up into itself, I cover the whole thing and it melts those pests away (also works on majonos (sp) Some of the lime gets on other stuff, but isnt enough to hurt it. I just wave my hand to get it off if I feel it will burn whatever it falls on.

I also use the lime to control the GSP that grows on a big piece of live rock. I make a boundary with it or if the GSP has already grown onto a spot I dont want it on, I squeeze some onto the GSP and it kills it where I put it. Doesnt hurt the rest of it.

The lime hasnt ever affected the water in any way or the other corals and I have softies, LPS, and SPS in all my tanks. I dont ever remove the lime once it has killed whatever it is Im wanting to kill. It dries hard and eventually will flake off and fall to the sand where it becomes part of the sand bed. No spikes in PH, no harm whatsoever that I have seen.

Ive always zapped as many as my arm allowed me to, not worrying about what it will do to the water because Ive tested after zapping literally hundreds within 2 days time and it didnt affect the water.

Now the only time I need it is when I get a new coral that some may come in on or I need to control my GSP. I dont even turn off my power heads when I apply it. The aiptasia readily take it as if it were food, giving one time to fill the disk of it full. For safe measures, I shoot it and cover the whole thing once it retracts, and I never see another one even near where that one was killed.

I found it rather therapeutic when I was going after the ones in my 125g, was my " thinking" time....Before I knew it, I had zapped the whole tank and there was no more to zap. I liked the challenge of finding them as much as I did the zapping them........=)~
 

RedTail87

Member
I bought Aiptasia X Wednesday and killed off about 10. Found a couple more yesterday.. Haven't seen any since. Hoping that's the end of them... Once my tank is cycled I plan on getting a Peppermint Shrimp.

i like to pluck them out and burn them

I've heard that plucking them or scraping them will cause them to release their seed. AKA, mass reproduction of Aiptasia.
 

soco

Well-Known Member
Aiptaisia x works for some. Me personally it just made them spread. Scraping them is a bad idea it wil make them spread. My best advice to you if your not dead set on the way your rocks are setup. I would say just pull the rocks out of the water and either cook the aip. with a blow torch and then scrub it off or let the rock completely dry out before u put it back in. I have lost the battle with aptiasa before and trying lemon juice and aiptiasa x. Id rather lose a rock or move some stuff than deal with them again :O
 

Brady92

Member
how long is the stalk on these things i have something similar in my tank but it has a decently long stalk compared to the mouth and tentacles
 

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
Ive had some big ones over 3/4"stalks. I thinks from my experience they wil grow at least as tall as the body is wide.
 
i like pep shrimp but after all the ap nems where gone they went after my bta so afraid 2 get more pep shrimp now that ap nems are back
 

modulok

Active Member
Peppermint shrimp worked for me. I had same problem when I added green bubble tip anemone.
I saw him going after the nem tonight and lured him into my net with a piece of krill.
He's living on my sump now.

My bta has been retracting tentacles when clown tries to go into nem. I'm hoping that without the peppermint poking the bta it will accept the clown.
 

dblasky

Member
I probably tried everything in the market. lemon juice, aiptasia X and other products but never got rid of all of them. the best natural way is with peppermint shrimp but they don't always consume it and they come back. i used the matted filefish and in less than 2 weeks they were gone. i had a lot of them. but then it started to consume some polyps and the buble tips anemones and i just moved it to another tank with no corals. they never came back. i still have the fish and is cool and mellow.
 

BLADEYAMAHA

Well-Known Member
Check out my Aiptasia Garden!

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