Aiptasia Oops

[Gibeon]

Bought a small (2.5lb) piece of LR to add to my fuge-to-be tank. I did not notice until after it was in there for a couple hours that it had about 8 or 10 aiptasias on it

I think I've read that if you leave them alone, they don't do much. Or, is it already too late for me...

I would prefer to get rid of them outside of the tank. I'm conisdering pulling the rock and boiling it, or setting it outside for a week or something...

moh...

[Pro_builder]

dose them with kalk slurry or vinegar. Just make sure to watch your pH changes! Don't do to much at one time.

[flyline]

i tried vinegar with mine and did not have much luck but then i used boiling water and that got rid of them i havent seen any since. hope this helps you out

[JFK_Jr]

This works great...Joe's Juice.

http://www.joesjuice.com/

[lcstorc]

I second the Joe's juice recommendation.
I have used it several times on new pieces of lr and it worked like a charm.

[Woodstock]

Get rid of them as quickly as you can or you will regret it. I have had success using Joe's Juice. Over the years I have found 6 or so small aiptasia that I killed immediately with Joe's Juice.

[blue_eyes53813]

since it is a small piece, I would take it out and scrub the buggers off,,In the past I would watch where they were on the rock(because some will retract into a hole when touched or moved) scrape them with the end of a scissors or if they retract to far into a whole I covered the whole with a big dab of super glue.. if you scrape some off make sure you rinse the rock off in a seperate bucket or bowl of salt water before putting it back in the tank. Get them out asap

[Dragon Wrasse]

I just removed 11 of them from one of my tanks a couple of days ago...used "Joe's Juice" and it worked great!! when you by it make sure you get the curved tip for your suringe...it will make things allot easier....don't let them spread and don't fragment them into your water.......good luck.

[SueT]

kalk mixed with ro water will work as good as anything. I've used JJ's til I found out it is lak and ro water and mixing it myself is way easier than ordering it. Don't let them sit as they will spread.

[iluvzigz]

i agree with the joes juice..i tried several methods and it was the only thing that worked...i only zapped a couple aiptasia every day or so ..i tried not to get them all at once to not let so much of that "juice" go wild in the tank..good luck

[jkhalliday76]

I used the cheap boiling water remedy and it worked like a charm. Never had aiptasia again.

[Gibeon]

Thanks for the advice!

I'm going to opt first for the scrub method when I do a water change: Scrub them off in some the "old" water then rinse with more "old" water. If that doesn't work, I will move on to more aggressive methods

Thanks again!

[Gibeon]

Ok, so I wasn't able to pick up water for a water change. I decided to dip and scrub in really cold tap water. The little b's sucked back into their hidey-holes before I even dipped them, so I was only able to scrub one. So I dipped them for a few minutes, and swished the rock around. Then I rinsed it under running water to get any anemone pieces off so they wouldn't spread.

As of this morning there were only 4 visible (out of an original 11 or 12). One was missing its tentacles - the one I tried to scrub.

Also, I found a VERY nasty looking crab hiding in a hole in the rock (beige with dark tipped meat-ripping claws). I saw him poking his head out a couple hours after reintroducing the rock to the tank. Also, that rock had about half a dozen 1 inch bristle worms in it. I'm not sure how they all fared.

What I find interesting about this attempt at erradication is that I shocked the heck out of a bunch of stuff on the rock and a lot of it was still alive later. Are all the Bad critters also extra tough? I'll have to check again tonight or tomorrow for the death crab.

I am glad that this isn't in my main tank. If all goes south, I can put the fish and hermit in a new tank, and kill off the aptaisia and death crab using a more... "permanent" method.

If I try the boiling water/Joe's Juice injection. Do you have to be quick? Won't they suck into their holes when you try to stab them?

[Dragon Wrasse]

They won't suck back in when you apply Joe's Juice because you don't "Stab" them you get real close to thier mouth and apply via a suringe, check out the info given to you in Post #4, Joe's Juice. com. If you want to get rid of your nasties on your rock, use a HIGH salt solution, mix up some salt water that is about twice (2X) normal strenght and dip your rock for three to four minutes, you will see the Bristol Worms and other nasties drop off. This has no lasting effect on the health of your live rock.....good luck.

[JFK_Jr]

Be really careful not to get stung by the bristle worms... one of our members "theskunk" is on his way to the hospital after getting a handfull of bristles stuck in his fingers!