Aiptasia?

[giulianom]

Is this Aiptasia?


I've noticed a bunch of it on the live rock I picked up last week...

I'm guessing so - I'll probably attack it with a butane torch and kill it with fire.


Also, the little white dots appear to be very tiny snails, with circular shells that look like a nautilus.

(Click to Embiggen)

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[mr difficult]

Aiptasia too me watch trying to kill it cause it can spread faster if not killed right. I had that problem in a smaller tank.

 

[giulianom]

The rock's just in a Brute trash container at the moment, with some CUC snails and hermits.

 

[mr difficult]

May want to dry out or try killing it. I have had luck with peppermint shrimp as well eating it. kill first then try adding peppermint shrimp to system if you can they will keep it gone from my experience.

 

[swalke2]

+1 pepermint. Since adding pepermint to tank never seen another aptasia

 

[todd_washowich]

since adding a Hawkfish, I have not seen another Peppermint either...

 

[giulianom]

I will probably try some peppermint shrimp.

It's just a temporary Brute, so I'm not ready for fish... But inverts are fine...

 

[giulianom]

Picked up about 8 peppermint shrimp from SEA Atlanta today.

Brought them home, and acclimatized them in the bag for a little while.


They're swimming around in the Brute right now, happily picking at the rock.

Haven't seen them attack any of the aiptasia yet, but I'll check it again later.


Shrimp are such interesting critters.

 

[swalke2]

GiulianoM;695651 wrote:

Shrimp are such interesting critters.

Esp. hot of the grill drenched butter. :doh:

Good luck

 

[giulianom]

swalke2;695656 wrote: Esp. hot of the grill drenched butter. :doh:

Good luck

I don't think I could find a skewer small enough...


I'll let the shrimps nom on all the aiptasia it can find.

Any left over, I'll torch off when I take the rock out.

 

[ff337]

swalke2;695373 wrote: +1 pepermint. Since adding pepermint to tank never seen another aptasia

How many did you add?

Edit:

swalke2;695373 wrote: +1 pepermint. Since adding pepermint to tank never seen another aptasia

How many did you add?

 

[giulianom]

GiulianoM;695651 wrote: Picked up about 8 peppermint shrimp from SEA Atlanta today.

I picked up 8.

 

[ff337]

meant to swalke2 but cool.

Im going to get about 100 for my 120. I have about 75-100 aiptasia.

Want me to frag any for you?

 

[giulianom]

FF337;695661 wrote: meant to swalke2 but cool.

Im going to get about 100 for my 120. I have about 75-100 aiptasia.

Want me to frag any for you?

Heh.. Frag aiptasia?

No thanks.

 

[ff337]

I understand.

I added 9 peppermint to my tank about a 6 months ago. I think something ate most of them. I did notice a reduction in aiptasia. But I only see one of those critters come out to play at night. I think im gonna get about 20 more of them.

 

[giulianom]

Fish, possibly.

From what I was told, they're mostly nocturnal and hide a lot.

 

[giulianom]

Aiptasias are a kind of coral that are pests in the reef aquarium, and multiply very quickly.


There are a few ways to get rid of them:

Various aiptasia killing liquids.

Pickling lime.

Burning them off with a torch.

Peppermint shrimp will eat them.

 

[winkkle]

i believe they can sting other corals or smother them out if they multiply in colonies.

 

[sir_cephalopod]

If you really want to stamp out aptasia, I recommend getting some Berghia nudibranchs. These little guys are ferocious consumers of aptasia. They will also reproduce well in your aquarium if there is enough aptasia to support the population. I have seen them reduce aptasia to nonexistent levels in tanks overrun by it, after all other biotic and abiotic solutions were tried. And not just sometimes as other biological fixes go, every time I have put them in a tank with aptasia, their numbers have increased while aptasia numbers have decreased.

 

[giulianom]

I got to see the peppermint shrimps in action - I had turned off the circulation pump in the Brute, and after a little while a few of them came up on the rocks near the surface.

I saw one of them take apart a small aiptasia. Pretty cool.


When the pump's circulating the water, I think most of them hide where I can't see them... I'll have to set up a timer for the pump so that the water stops flowing for about an hour, give them some time to work.

Edit:

Amici;696121 wrote: One thing I learned is that pepps wont go after large aiptasia. I had to cover the aiptasia with some kalk, the pepps would come clean up the pieces later and I think they then eat all the babies when they popped up.

So far most of these seem to be smaller than a dime or a nickel.

A few are a quarter.