K, so I tried this, hope it works and I didn't torch something cool :eek:

I don't know how to get rid of mine. Got peppermint shrimps and it did nothing, got a copperband butterfly and he does not eat them, tried Aiptasia X and it does not kill them and they just return after a week. My next option if I can find them will be berghia nudibranchs.

The most anoying are those that are popping in the middle of my zoanthids colonies and stopping the zoanthids from opening.

daniella i was plagued with them i had over 300 heads in a 33g check out my zoa tank journal and look at the pics they speak for themselves, i have a snowflake eel so shrimp isnt an option, my tank is too small for any butterfly, too many for lemon juice or kalk...............all my zoas were dying not many opened it was sad for sure. i had success with a matted filefish in my 110g reeftank and figured i would try a juvie for my 33g.

unlike my adult one i had who picked at nothing the juvie nips alot and even wiped out a half dozen heads of nuclear greens and rpe's i had on plugs. all in all though just a few weeks later and im aiptasia free minus a few small ones hes finishing up.

so i lost a few nice ones but recovered my whole collection i say a win in the end.



i also tried breeding nudis its not hard to do but they dont work fast and they will work even slower on a bigger tank i stopped after my second batch of young, they were put into another 30g tank that still had aiptasia the day i tore it down and there were still some nudis to be found:)

I think I found the trick, at least for my tank, when using joe's juice or aiptasia x.

First you need to follow the instructions and drop a little in their mouth and cover the oral disk. Once that starts to disolve, shove the metal needle end into body of the aiptasia through where the oral disc was to the bottom and squirt the stuff all the way through it.

This is the only way I found, using these products that actually works to get rid of the whole anemone.

The aiptasia X product I used could not go through a needle as it was too tick. It would simply block the needle. I had to use just a seringe and just drop it on the oral disk, but a week later the aiptasia was back.

I wish there was this tool available with electricity to zap them. From the bottle I bought there was no metal needle.

When I use Aptasia-X I cover most of the aptasia with the solution. In about 1/2 hour the aptasia has mostly melted away. It definitely does not come back. On some of the bigger ones I don't get enough on them and have to come back and treat them again.

My new tank that I am setting up is going to have sterilized rock. There is not going to be any aptasia in it!

Ok but what about the pods and other liveform that are benificial? as well as the good bacterias?

sterile rock or not the beauty about aiptasia and mojanos are they are the BEST hitchhikers out there, you can try every trick in the book and all it takes is a baby head to be stuck in a crevice on a coral frag that enters your tank unknown and spreads in no time.

the best defense is knowing how to deal with them, manual removal works great(lemon juice,joes juice,kalk,aiptasia x,lime juice,boling water)when there are managable numbers but once you hit plague status theres not a needle in the world or a solution that will get them all as some of the baby heads are about 1/5 the size of a green pea:):)

once you hit plague status you really need to consider something that eats them:):)

thats always my concern too, im weary about adding store bought solutions to my tank on such a large basis, 1 head or half a dozen then fine......300 and thats alot of aiptasia x or lemon juice or kalk or anything to be adding to my system of just 33 g:)

The best method in my opinion is to smother the SOB. Works great with a lot of hitchikers. Smother them with epoxy. I recently layed down a mat of epoxy 5"x3" to smother some Xenia and GSP that got out of control. Works with mushrooms too! LOL. In some cases you may have to irritate them first so that they deflate. Or in the case of Xenia and mushrooms, scrape their heads off. Then, spread out a sheet of epoxy to the affected area. If any managed to peek through just repeat. After a few weeks I'll maybe take off the epoxy if it is unsightly. The area underneath is remarkably clean :D

Aiptasia in particular I have found quite easy to remove with this approach. A little ball of epoxy, smother over aiptasia, done.

Anyway, yes Doug, this is why I buy so much freaking epoxy :lol: