Aiptasia

there's always lemon juice.

 

I'd use a syringe and inject a little kalk, calcium additive (red sea brand calcium +3 from Petco works), or lookup aptasia X. Some copperband butterflies eat them- especially if they are small... I have one in my reeftank that eats them. They will keep popping up for a while so be patient. The LFS may have not known about it.

 

joes juice works GREAT! Lemon juice is awesome and cheap just don't do too much at once cuz it will mess with ur PH. Peppermint shrimp will munch em all day long too. If u do the lemon juice or kalk/calcium just get a lil syringe and squirt it right around the disc and inner tentacles like u are feeding it and it will suck in with whatever u feed it but never come back out. Don't blast super hard tho, cuz if u piss one off they will detach tiny pieces and reproduce like a plague!!! I've been thru ur same thing already so I've tried all these methods except shrimp and found spending the 12$ on joes juices was by far the easiest and most effective. Havnt came back either. Good luck!!!

 

Yea I use aptasia-x and it works great. I have very porous rock so every once and a while I'll see another one that needs shot up. I've heard of people using pickling-lime from the grocery stores to kill them too. What that is is pure calcium and a super dose of that will kill them. I tried and didn't have good results with it. Also, with pickling lime it's a cheap calcium additive, as long as you monitor your calcium levels very closely and be careful at first not to add too much the first time. I bought 10 peppermint shrimp off Live Aquaria's BYO reef cleaner package site for $4.50 a piece and they don't seem to pay any attention to them. One for sure way to kill them is it buy berghia nudibranchs. They have a short life span and feed exclusively off of aptasia anemones. They are expensive though, so not really worth it unless you have a huge ammount of them. The theory behind buying them is if you have enough in your tank they will have enough to feed the first berghias and they will reproduce and then the babies will take care of the rest. When I talked to the representative from one of the main berghia selling sites she said from the feedback she's had, Joe's Juice is definately the best way to take care of the pests besides the berghias. She said she's heard bad things about aptasia-x from talking to people. Good luck!

 

Aiptasia x works real well

 

Count me as #3 endorsement for Aiptasia-X. Worked like a charm for me. Where are you located at? I just got a new bottle and I'll let you try some out before you but it if you want. A single $10 bottle should treat well over 100 aiptasia. The ones that I treated were relatively small and for the little bit that they required, that same bottle would have done hundreds.

--AJ

 

If it is one small rock get it out of there. It may be too late for them spreading. I would take an ice cream bucket or something that this rock will fit in and soak it in a kalk solution for an hour or day. They should come back from that. Joe's Juice is good but can be made by dissolving Kalk (Lime) in hot water.

 

I use Aiptasia-x (endoresement #4) and have had really good luck with it).

 

I had a bad infestation of them. I took some RO water boiled it and used a syringe to inject it into the litlle pests. A month later they still have not returned. And the cost, ummm nothing. Shaun

 

I put it in the freezer overnight......

 

they should fall off

 

Aiptasia is something that it's very difficult not to get and very difficult to deal with. Once you have them, you'll most likely always have them to some degree unless you are really lucky with your erradication.

There are some really good products out there like Joe's Juice and Aiptasia-X, but the problem is that they only work on the Aiptasia you can see and/or reach with the applicator.

Ultimately, the best solution is to have an aiptasia predator in your tank:

1) Berghia Nudibranchs - Most effective, but expensive and delicate. May become food for other predators in the tank.
2) Peppermint Shrimp - Effective if they are the right variety and they aren't getting an easier food source somewhere else.
3) Copperband Butterfly - Effective, but can be hard to sustain long term and may nip at corals.

I've tried all 3, and I've had the best long term luck with #3.

Hope that helps someone.

-JB