Aptasia...

[Hotrod32487]

This seems like the saltwater tank equivalent to an std. Im embarrassed to say i got it all over :'( I've moved off to college and my father has been taking care of the tank. Of course, he thought the aptasia looked cool at first but now there is quite a bit of it. I took out the main rock it was on (cough)Alamo(uncough) and soaked it in tap water as hot as the faucet would get with about a 1/4 cup of vinegar (not a big rock) I did that for about an hour and it killed everything BUT the aptasia... I’m at a loss and am looking for advice about how to get it out of the tank without baking every rock in the oven. Any advice?

p.s.
Sorry about another Aptasia thread

[txstateunivreefer]

how many are there you may be able to use pep shrimp or inject them your other option is kalk paste

[bigmoe21]

i used the blue life aptasia removal it worked you can do it in the tank but since you have the one rock it would be easier out of the tank i guess. It was $10 at aquarium design and they also have joe's juice which is twice as much but i hear is good. If this would be an option for you i'd say do it.

[Ping]

A guy we know used a torch to heat a screwdriver, then stuck it in the aptasia holes.

Like Chris said, Pep schrimp and Kalk injections, work wonders

[Fish4life]

also consider the amount of available food. they thrive in tanks that are fed a bunch. becareful when using kalk. i hate using it becuase i always nuke other stuff. they say you should shut pumps off to keep this from happening but i don't listen very well. Use a bunch or peppermint shrimps. I also think there are nudi's that you can use as well.

hopefully that babble helped.

cheers,

kurt

[cavipower1]

i have had a rock with about four of them on there for about a year and ive never had any problems with them. it may vary with every tank though?

[emac]

i've had good sucess with injecting like a tenth of a cc of distiled white vinegar in them about 3 at a time. they tend to melt away and not come back. you could always try something like joe's juice.

[Bill S]

CBB, joes.

[Hotrod32487]

When you say inject...you mean like directly into them or into their hole or what? i tried one time to do that but i basically just squirted it into their face

[Submariner]

Joe's Juice works great. I tried purple up in a syringe once because that's all I had and it worked great. I didn't even inject it, I just killed the pump and slowly squirted on the aptasia. The up side is that it is harmless/helpful to everything else. If you have some it's worth a try and it's a cheap solution.

[MissT]

Berghia nudibranchs are the ones that eat aiptasia. once your problem is gone, you can just sell/pass them along to someone with the same problem or trade them in at a LFS. It's not hard to find people willing to buy them since aiptasia is such a common occurence. Peppermint shrimp do a pretty good job, but if you have any really large ones, it's a good idea to use an aiptasia control product to nuke those, because IME, they don't really mess with the big ones.

[emac]

like stab them with the needle type inject

[alton]

Berghia Nudibranchs, Copper Band, and Blue Life Aptaisa killer for the large ones(It Works). Remember for everyone you see there are many more in areas you can not see.

[Submariner]

Oh and Klein's Butterflyfish work great too, but be careful the can pick at some leathers and polyps. There was a great article in Reef Hobbyist Magazine on them.