Gettin Dirty

Anyone think injecting peroxide into mouth of aiptasia will kill it?
If you are going through the trouble of hunting them one at a time then I'd suggest inject with kalkwasser and then cover it with reef epoxy or smother with superglue and then epoxy over it. There is no overnight cure, and it'll be months of work if you have more than a handful already. You can try filefish, if one doesn't work, find another. I had extremely good luck with a copperband butterfly but they have a whole host of other issues and are more of a gamble than a file fish.
 
I only have 2 or 3 that I can see. How do I know if a filefish will be good or not? I keep missing out on the ones offered here
 
You don't know it's a good one until you try or unless you can find someone selling one that is already "proven" meaning it successfully eradicated aiptasia and didn't go to town on everything else.

If you only have 2 or 3 visible then go nuclear on those things now, like immediately do it tonight. Hit them with kalk, then superglue over their hole, then epoxy over it. I think anyone that has been in this hobby knows if you see 2 or 3 there are probably a dozen or more, so be prepared but it sounds like an early enough catch you can defeat them relatively easy.
 
You don't know it's a good one until you try or unless you can find someone selling one that is already "proven" meaning it successfully eradicated aiptasia and didn't go to town on everything else.

If you only have 2 or 3 visible then go nuclear on those things now, like immediately do it tonight. Hit them with kalk, then superglue over their hole, then epoxy over it. I think anyone that has been in this hobby knows if you see 2 or 3 there are probably a dozen or more, so be prepared but it sounds like an early enough catch you can defeat them relatively easy.
The late and great acroholic had a great recipe..


Reef Napalm:
1/3 cup Rooto lye mixed with 1 liter RODI.
Take the pasta and slather it on the aiptasia
 
You don't know it's a good one until you try or unless you can find someone selling one that is already "proven" meaning it successfully eradicated aiptasia and didn't go to town on everything else.

If you only have 2 or 3 visible then go nuclear on those things now, like immediately do it tonight. Hit them with kalk, then superglue over their hole, then epoxy over it. I think anyone that has been in this hobby knows if you see 2 or 3 there are probably a dozen or more, so be prepared but it sounds like an early enough catch you can defeat them relatively easy.
Yeah I bought a file fish about three weeks ago and it has not touched any of the three aiptasia that I see. I do see it going around my tank picking at the rocks. I don't see it eat when I broadcast feed the tank. So it's finding something to eat. Maybe that's why I just see the three still. They might be to big for him to have interest in it.
 
Can't be brutal enough to that stuff, if there was a way to set of microscopic nukes I would.
I'm about to get a lot of hate..


In 15 years of reef keeping, I only ever had 2 pop up and they died on their own.

But, I have had issues with hydroids, coral eating astrnea stars, flatworms, red bugs, etc..

The stars, not sure.. hydroids were on a rock and the flats and reds came in on the same frag..
 
I'm about to get a lot of hate..


In 15 years of reef keeping, I only ever had 2 pop up and they died on their own.

But, I have had issues with hydroids, coral eating astrnea stars, flatworms, red bugs, etc..

The stars, not sure.. hydroids were on a rock and the flats and reds came in on the same frag..

In my 5-6 years run I had bubble algae pretty bad in the early days. Got that reigned in with some emeralds and cutting back how much I was feeding. Aiptasia were my real source of frustration. The copper band worked miracles but I know I really just got lucky there. Never got any of the other bad stuff. Had astrnea but just the usual multiply like rabbits and photobomb you everywhere type, overall harmless.
 
I thought I got a new friend on here, then you go and threaten me with xenia :p

I'll keep you in mind if I decide to rehome it, zoas are always welcome and never had chalice in a tank before.
well - you never know what someone likes or hates in this hobby. :)

my filefish refuses to touch aiptasia but is a terror on snails - and he eats any food I throw in the tank. His favorite past time is roaming the tank and blowing on snails - if he catches one off guard and it flips over - he eats it.

I do have true peppermints in the reef tank & refugium - as well as frag tank and it's sump. They keep aiptasia in check for the most part - once it's in your system I don't believe you can ever completely remove it. It's just too prolific and great at popping up in spots that nothing can get too.

My fox face will nearly jump out of the tank after bubble algae - he eats pretty much any plant material except hair algae. He also has an appetite for clove polyps of all things - but doesn't touch any other coral
 
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Well this evening found a fairly decent size hermit crab. Also tried feeding the mantis a krill, wanted no part of it. Tried Mysis and he came out swinging. I think the krill may be bigger than him. Lastly noticed an itty bitty dead crab outside his lair so he may be earning his keep for now.
 
Red Emerald Crab and a white hermit spotted today. Hermit will be relocated to the sump. Ammonia is almost gone. Going to start filling some 35g Rubbermaids up to do a 70g waterchange while I pick off whelks and caulerpa tomorrow. Got some chaeto and some clean up crew coming midweek.

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You'd be surprised how much will live through a peroxide dip.
@drnecropolis so let's talk about that peroxide dip. I got cleared by the cfo/ceo of the household to set up a 10g mantis tank. Today the kids were checking out the tank and found Mr. Mantis in a different rock. Well I just saw him a couple minutes before in the same rock he's always been in. I'm fairly sure he didn't make the 12" dash in broad daylight, he's been pretty shy.

The plan was to take the rock he's in along with a new bag of sand to start the new tank this weekend. Now if there are two if these guys it get complicated. So I'd like to flush these two rocks out but not kill the mantis. How does the peroxide work?

Anybody else have ideas?
 
I don't think I would use hydrogen peroxide, zoas can handle it but it kills pods (or at least it appears to) instantly. Here is a link that might help.
 
Steve's link has good suggestions. I would move the mantis in the rock you are sure of and try to set up a trap for the other one. Since you are not sure what else is in the rocks anyway, it's a good opportunity to get a look at what's hungry. I have a pistol shrimp in my sump. I caught him with a trap also.
 
@drnecropolis so let's talk about that peroxide dip. I got cleared by the cfo/ceo of the household to set up a 10g mantis tank. Today the kids were checking out the tank and found Mr. Mantis in a different rock. Well I just saw him a couple minutes before in the same rock he's always been in. I'm fairly sure he didn't make the 12" dash in broad daylight, he's been pretty shy.

The plan was to take the rock he's in along with a new bag of sand to start the new tank this weekend. Now if there are two if these guys it get complicated. So I'd like to flush these two rocks out but not kill the mantis. How does the peroxide work?

Anybody else have ideas?
If the rocks are easy to get to, something else you can do (and is cheaper than buying a bunch of peroxide), simple tonic water. Supposedly, something about the bubble from carbonation they don't like.

It's also safer in the long run for rock you immediately plan on using.
Don't get me wrong, I stand by using peroxide in certain cases, but a simple thing like evicting a couple Mantis, tonic water will achieve the same thing for a lot less.

I think when I was buying a lot of HP, it was around $15-20 a gallon, a 2liter of TW is about 80 cent..
 
All the rocks are very easy to get out, haven't got around to a final aquascape since adding the liverock. I'll confirm the one is still where I think he is and then transplant him rock and all. Then I suppose I'll hit the other rock with some tonic water. I'm sure if I'm a little 1" shrimp getting nailed with cold freshwater that is fizzing around me would send my ass flying out of the hole too.

This whole little adventure is going to wait until the weekend. Part of the fun will also be destroying a couple aptasia. I noticed two of them so far. I've read in a few places now the gulf types aren't as invasive but as much as I'm for biodiversity, those things thing are going to be kalk'd, glued, and epoxied. Wife heard me say "there is an anenome" and got so excited she jumped up and ran over there apparently thinking back to the days of my bubbletips. When I said it was aptasia she still remembered that battle from when we were dating years ago and mood shifted to kill mode.

Ammonia is cruising around 0.2 still, nitrates are going to the sky, going to have to stop kicking the lights on for the kids or we will have an algae farm before I can find time to do the big water changes.

Picked up a Fluval 13.5. It was 25% off buying on line and picking up in store at Petco, $116 out the door. Not a big fan of spending money with them, but for a slick little set up at similar cost to building a 10g with a powerhead and cheapish led light I just went that route. Might turn into a great little fishless frag holding tank, at least for Zoa & LPS.

It's all Cook's fault anyhow, if his clowns were bigger and ready to go I wouldn't have gotten bored and bought gulf rock :D
 
See if you can find the recipe for dave's reef Napalm.. I think I posted the basic of it before.

Shut down the pumps, hit them with the lye paste and bang.. they melt.
 
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