IS THIS APTASIA

[smelleybrad]

I just got this rock and found this. I uess I will pull it out until I can get them off.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/smelleybrad/HPNX5616.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/smelleybrad/HPNX5617.jpg

[::pete::]

Well if you can get the rock out ... burn it!!!

[smelleybrad]

I can get the rock out with no problem, If I leave it out in the sun for a couple days it should kill it.

[JimD]

Sure looks like it. Congratulations! lol

[JimD]

Or you can nail them with kalk so you dont kill the whole rock.

[smelleybrad]

It's a few pieces I bought. Can I just put them in a 5 gallon bucket and poor an !#@ load of salt in there and let them sit?

[JimD]

You can do that, sure, but it wont get rid of the Aiptasia. I suggest putting a diluted mixture of saltwater, maybe like .015 or so in a bucket, mix up some kalk paste, libraly apply it to the infected area, then put it in the bucket, that way youre not messing with the chemistry of your main tank.

[smelleybrad]

How long do I let it sit?

[smelleybrad]

I might just let it sit outside on the ground all day. That should do it!

[Jenn]

I think it kinda looks like one of those RARE pink anemones! List it on Ebay with like a $99.99 starting bid!!!!!
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Richard]

I might just let it sit outside on the ground all day. That should do it!


I don't know about that. They survive a week of being dry in a box when they ship rock. For a single anemone like that I just take the rock out scrape off what I can with a knife and then fry that area with a lighter.

[JimD]

Thats also a good way to control hydroids. They really stink when you cook em...

[GaryP]

I might just let it sit outside on the ground all day. That should do it!

The only thing you might accomplish by doing that is killing all the other critters on the LR that you spent so much for. The aiptasia will pull back into its hole and wait you out. All it takes is a few live cells and it will come back. Besides, there are probably more aiptasia in the tank then you are seeing.

If you just want to kill these few, try using a red hot screw driver and burn them out with it.

[Tim Marvin]

I take the rock out and put a drop of kalk powder right in them. Let it sit a minute or two until it soaks up the water on the rock and put it back into the tank. This has worked very well for me in the past. The kalk will stay in a little glob on the aptasia for a couple hours after being put back in the tank as long as you are not blasting it with a power head.

[::pete::]

Then burn it!!! Literally, in that area I do it aall the time if I can get the rock out.

[Tim Marvin]

Pete, if you are having to do it all the time, why don't you get some nudis from instar? A CCB will also help out.

[::pete::]

I have 7 in my 100 now!! Im not talking a large piece of rock, but a piece a frag is growing on or something like that. If I see one on it I melt it!!

[smelleybrad]

That rock has not been put in the main tank yet. I'm not worried about killing everything on or in the rock. I can't even find them now that they have been sitting outside. I think I will put them all in a big pot of boiling water.

[GaryP]

Brad, remember that you are going to kill everything else on the rock. Your Live rock will become dead rock. There are a lot more friendly ways to control aiptasia.

[smelleybrad]

Thats true, I'll just put it in the 80 gallon b/c there is nothing but sand in it until I get rid of it.

[Ram_Puppy]

just nail it with Kalc, wait for it to wither, and suck it out with a siphon hose... leave the corpse in and your tank will end up looking like mine, an Aiptasia farm for larry's nudi's. :)

[mhaynes01]

i use lemon juice and vineger heated and inject them right in the mouth

[GaryP]

I sure wish some of you had made it to last month's meeting.

[smelleybrad]

I was there but I'm not patient enough to do all that. My eye sight sucks to begin with. I can barely even focus on them. There is no way I'll be able to inject them with anything.

[Ram_Puppy]

if you get something like Joes juice, you don't even have to inject them, just turn off the pumps and power heads, and squirt a bit in their general direction, they initiate a feeding respons, pull the stuff in, and die.

[dillonsshop]

I'm new to the hobby, but why is it that you are trying to get rid of them? do they completly take over? I thought it looked neat in the pic. but then again what do I know?

[Ram_Puppy]

Dillon,

one fo the first things you will learn in reefkeeping, is Aiptasia is the enemy. It is satan incarnate in a reef tank.

Case in point: I staretd out with 3 aiptasia I got on a coral frag about a year ago, I nuked them with joes juice and thought they were gone. Then, my tank went through a bad spell, it overheated and some stuff died and I was too busy and exhausted w/ work to notice, that was the 'foot in the door incident'. as far as I can tell, when I nuked the aiptasia and did not remove the carcasses, the cells spread over the tank and were either very tiny, or dormant for a period.

When I got over my hump at work and started taking care of the tank again, there were about 15 to 20 aiptasia around, I nuked again w/ joes juice, My water by now was perfect, I had broken down the 30 gallon and moved everything to a 110 (temporary tank) but stuff continued to die because of the heat problem in the old tank the stress I guess had a delayed reaction effect, and this fueld the aiptasia...

I am now the proud owner of, oh, I don't know, about 2000 of the little buggers, I tried combating w/ joes juice, lemon juice, kalk paste, you name it, to put it simply, I am WAY beyond mechanical means of control. Since this tank is temporary , I am not making an effort to control them anymore, infact, i am just letting them go. Why? Well, they are pretty good little filter feeders, and I simply care to invest in a 'temporary tank' when my 115 comes on line in the near future, I am gonig to let Larry borrow my rocks, and have all the PVC shelving in my current tank (He can cut it up if he wants) to feed his copper bands and Berghia nudibranchs, should be quite a feast for them. :) and I don't have to worry about it anymore...

when the new tank goes up, berghia's will be permenant residents, once you have aiptasia, you never get rid of it... and sadly, it's pretty hard to not get it It think, the plus side. Oh, and it's not usually a question of husbandry either, sometimes aiptasia simply can't be controlled, they are hellaciously efficient at reproduction, and sucking god knows what out of the water.

[GaryP]

Even with Kalk, Joe's Juice, or any of the other chemical treatment methods, all it takes is a few live cells remaining for them to come back. Some of the treatment methods actually spread the aiptasia. The best method of control is with natural predators such as butterflys or berghia.

Butterflys can be hard to keep alive though. They usually come in loaded with parasites and have a picky appetite and need to be fed multiple times per day. Instar breeds Berghia nudibranchs and his nudis have been the most effective means of control that anyone has found.

[mathias]

I just grow it... Im actually getting pretty good at it :)

[smelleybrad]

Does Instar have any Berghia nudibranchs? How much do they go far?

[smelleybrad]

will they survive even if you have none in the tank?

[GaryP]

I believe he sells them for about 3 for $45. He always has nudibranches, some may not be large enough to sell yet, but probably not. The thing about aiptaasia is that you always have a lot more in your tank then you think you do. They are constantly growing back so the berghia will always have something to eat. Talk to Larry (Instar) though, he's the expert.