[FishKid]

i have one piece of liverock (maybe 4# fiji) it has a pretty nice colony of button polyps which would be doing great if the rock didnt have (i counted 53) aiptasia, 8 of which are about a nickle in diameter. I am so frustrated with the aiptasia which is really only on that rock, i was thinking about taking the rock out, fragging a few pieces of the button polyp colony, and just chucking the rock in the trash (either that or epoxying the whole fr!gg!n Rock

or could i take the rock out and keep it in a container with high salinity for a few days, would that work? but then id have to cure the rock all over again (from the die off) right?


i would appreciate some urgent advice!! as youd probably have a heart attack if you saw this rock!

mark

[PerryinCA]

I would just get rid of the rock if you have no other choice, and try to save some bottons if you can. But its not really worth it if there's aptasia. You can always get some propped polyps, can't always rid aptasia. I would take the rock and give it to the LFS, or try and trade for credit.

-Perry

[DukeDog]

If your going to just throw it out why not do a fresh water dip to kill the aptasia. With time the rock will come back and the aptasia should die. Then your not wasting the rock.
Jeff

[FishKid]

Ive been banned from all the LFS's around here that are dumb enough to take aiptasia (thats what i get for telling there customers that,that an anenome wouldnt live in a 10 gal with NO lighting system to speak of, besides a nightlight!!!) there is an area where the aiptasia hasnt gotten to, tomorow i am going to see if it is possible to save a few of the larger ones, and toss the rock out!

mark besides that rock, there is only about 10 more that i know about , and should be able to kill em. Can the epoxy be applied under water? there is one little aiptasia in a crevice that in order to reach i would have to take the whole tank apart!


Duke:
I'd rather not chance it, 'cause i have to hand it to them, they are resiliante buggers!

mark

[Venaman]

wut is aiptasia?

[FishKid]

click the 'search' icon on the top rght of the screen, type in aiptasia and voila.. (while your at it type in copepods ) aiptasia definatly sux!

[Venaman]

ohh i c
ya i noticed some of those in my tank. .
not alot tho how would i get rid of the few of them?

[FishKid]

you dont want to get rid of a few of them! you want to get rid of all of them! They have reached plague proportions in my tank! I dont know of any animal that can survive their sting. I lost my cleaner shrimp to them! get rid of yours now before yours do to!

probably the best way to get rid of them is mixing 2 parts water 1 part kalkwasser, or pickling lime, (or was it 2 parts kalk and 1 part water? not sure, wait for another reply before you take my directions in case they are wrong) and using a large bore syringe (i tried using small bore, it strained the calcium from the water!) once you have it in the syringe, put a glob of it on the mouth (center of the disc shaped part) and watch them go to hell! but be quick with a siphon, i would use the smaller part of the siphon, not the part you would use to clean the gravel in a nonreef system. if you cant find one, or wanna be cheap you can by some air tubing from your LFS it should be real cheap (get like 4 feet of it so you have room to play with) and suck up every little peice of the aiptasia (they are like mushrooms and can give 'birth' when u kill them)

HTH

mark

[Venaman]

yes i was just reading on this and heard of that method. .
can fish be killed by it?
right now im looking in my tank and i cant see them anymore, cuz i got rid of all my live rock about a month a go due hair algae infestation, i just started over.
so right now i can see any but if i do than i shall seek and destroy.
get back to me on the exact ingredients of the kalk water mix if possible
thanks man

[Venaman]

oh ya. .
and where would i get a large bore syringe?
do i need to get like the needle with it and stuff
wuts it look like compared to the small bore?

[FishKid]

you could get it from a vet or some good lfs's, large bore has a 'bigger' hole where the needle is, no, i wouldnt use the needle.. yeah fish can easily be killed by aiptasia! im in a rush so ill have to get back to you on the solution..

[DukeDog]

I have never heard of fish or shrimp being killed by aptasia. They are more of a killer to corals . Im not sure what happened to your cleaner but did you specificly see the aptasia kill it? Just curious. Also you can get needles from a drug store. Just be ready to explain what you need it for.
Jeff

[FishKid]

i didnt see the act, but i saw the tail (the only part left) next to a big patch of them... i also lost a true percula to them


mark

[Trapper]

Try peppermint shrimp they ate all of mine. Or copperband butterfly fish,but they will eat feather duster worm's. I hav'nt had any of my peppermint shrimp bother my button polyp's either, but they have destroyed all of my aptasia.And they provide a steady supply of plankton in my tank by breeding.

[popcorn]

I very sucessfully injected all of ours. You can get syringes at drugstores, but you will need to do some explaining. I use a small bore needle, too. (That's what they gave me.) Yes, needle. I inject the boogers themselves. As long as you rinse it out with freshwater afterwards, you shouldn't have any problems.

As for mixing, make it good and strong, but still liquid (not a paste). I think ours was about 2 TBPS to 1 C water, or something. I mixed it in one of those disposable tupperware things. Shake it up right before you use it, and draw some of the middle layer into the syringe.

Rather than squirt it on top, try to actually spear the stalk and inject them (doesn't take much). They move really fast, and you can't do too much injecting at once (or else the kalk will mess with your pH), but it works. When you hit one, you see a little poof, and they sort of explode in white goo. And they are gone for good. (IME, at least.) I also didn't bother siphoning, as there wasn't anything left TO siphon. Maybe I'm just lucky, but that's how it happened.

Fishkid, if you can get a syringe, try this. It knocked off all of ours. It just takes some patience. Sooner or later you'll get 'em. That's what I"d do. (Or try to do.) Good luck.

[Venaman]

damn
i just found an aiptasia. .looks like hes gonna have a meetin with a syringe and some kalk.
and possibly a siphon

[Tha One Crumcake]

Hey Govna, I'll tell you exactly what I would do if I was in your shoes............

Go to a LFS,,,a cool one, with cool people, not stuck up buttheads.

Ask them if you can place your colony rock in with one of their tanks that has Dog-faced puffers for a few weeks.

Tell them, to keep an eye on it, and if the puffers start going after the zooanthids (which they shouldn't) then tell them to move the rock to another tank with Other fish (butterflies, triggers, different puffers, etc, etc).

That's what I would do.

Later Govna'.

[FishKid]

i already saved enough of the colony to start over... so i think im gonna chuck it rather than go through the trouble, i have too much lr anyway

[hcp28]

I'd say just leave it out on a window sill mark rinse it off with some freshwater and then leave it in the sun for a few weeks soon you'll have a sparkling white piece of calcium carbonate to call your very own. Just rinse it out before placing it in your tank/sump whatever to get rid of all hte dried up aptasia corpses. I'm pretty sure a few weeks in direct sunlight will kill the stuburnists apitsia. If not nuke it

later,
Henry

[FishKid]

I have it in a bucket with a wet piece of plastic wrapped around it... I dont want a piece of rock drying out in my room (mainly because of the smell) I think i will just throw it out, because there is too much rock in my tank too allow me to rearrange it... plus when i get more coral the rocks from them... so this will just open up some room in my tank.

mark