Aiptasia Anemones

[midas]

We purchased a live rock with a mix of soft corals & mushrooms, plus two aiptasia anemones that were hitchhikers. We are new to reef aquariums but everything we read indicates these are pests we need to kill. Photo shows one of them, and we're hoping someone can confirm and suggest a method to kill them, without killing the other items. Red Sea Aiptasia-X is one method we are looking at.
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>

 

[ralph atl]

red sea or pickling lime.

 

[midas]

Thank you for the info, I think we'll try the pickling lime this weekend. Danny

 

[dorian965]

I am a firm believer of peppermint shrimp. cheap and funto watch. Put them in and let them settle. take something and smash the aiptaisia a little to wound them and the shrimp should take them out.

 

[nickskains]

I tried peppermints on one of mine... but found that,

1 - My trigger likes them.
2 - If they get food else where they tend to ignore the aptasia.
3 - They just don't care for it.

I had 4 and none of them touched it. Granted 2 are now dead....

 

[glxtrix]

I added 8 when my tank had a bad problem....all of them took the fun slide down into my sump and now are playing with my ball of chaeto. Just use some pickling lime and a syringe (a hypodermic one is best if you can get one) I find the best way to get rid of them is to inject a nice amount of the kalk mixture right into the foot/stalk....it'll promptly play the wicked witch of the west and scream "WHAT A WORLD!!!"

 

[soarin']

I got 2 hypodermic needles from Target (pharmacy) for .50 each. I felt weird buying them, but it was very easy. Then I got some lemon juice and heated it in a pan, and injected it into the aiptasia -- I find that if you get it into the foot, they will release, and you can suck them up with the turkey baster.

 

[midas]

I was unable to find Pickling Lime, and decided to purchase Blue Vet Aiptasia Control from The Avarium for $12. It came with a syringe type applicator that I used to apply the liquid/paste directly on top of the aiptasia - and it worked almost immediately.

 

[glxtrix]

Pickling lime is sometimes tricky to find....I usually find it around the fresh produce at Kroger. Awesome though that you got some stuff to get onto of those pesky things....they will get out of control if you don't be careful.