Aiptasia genocide
 

Just found an aiptasia hitchhiker on some zoos that I recently bought. Need to kill him off. What is the best method. I have heard hot vinegar injected into the oral disc works. Anyone try this and have success?

Everything seems to be hit and miss. What works for some, doesn't for others. With your situation, I would use kalk paste and put it all over the aptasia. With zoos, this works because it will kill off most of the aptasia, giving the zoo time to grow over/recover. I wouldn't use anything else for fear of damaging the zoos.

Kalk paste works.. just not permanently. In your case, it will work permanently as the zoos will grow over the affected area.

Wont the Kalk paste kill the zoos as well?
I have some aiptaisia as well and was always concerned about getting the kalk on my corals or my fish eating the floating kalk.

Fish will know better than to eat floating gobs of kalk paste, but it's probably better to avoid an amount that will make a huge cloud.

What I do is use a really small syringe (UFA is one place you can pick these up), and a large gauge needle (the term is probably "small gauge" I don't know, what I mean is a large diameter tube). And inject the kalk paste. Not just kalk, that stuff is just spicy water to them. Mix up a small amount of supersaturated solution (i.e., there is powder at the bottom of the liquid even after mixing -- ergo, "supersaturated"), and inject that stuff (the powder at the bottom). And you have to be quick, as soon as they're poked, they'll disappear into the rock and if you don't get enough in them they'll just come back.

You can try feeding them first so that they can't make themselves as small.

As far as getting the kalk paste onto neighbouring zoos, it won't be great, but as long as you don't inject the paste into them they ought to recover.

I have used kalk paste on all my zoo frags and colonies for killing off aptasia. I just use a small amount and carefully place it on the aptasia.... havent lost any zoos to it yet....

I have just picked up a similar technique (from a fellow Canreefer), not toxic to zoos, but kills aptasia nontheless. Boiling hot water, treat with prime, use a syringe and inject into the aptasia oral disc. Just try not to kill too many aptasia at once, that much mortality can have a nutrient spike.

Vic

So PRIME + Boiling hot water??? Sweet.. I will have to try that.

I've been injecting calcium chloride into aptasia. Calcium chloride is the Ca additive I use to top up Ca in my reef. But at concentrated levels, it's a killer :twised:

I'll try the boiling water method first. I only have one aiptasia that I can see so far, so I don't think it should cause too great of an ammonia spike.

i have had good luck with vinegar and a syringe

I've never had luck with boiling water, by the time I get it into the syringe and into the tank, the water isn't even hot enough to **** them off :razz: . I use kalk paste and the nifty syringes that come in the salifert test kits

excellent luck with this as well but with a bit of a twist, boiling water only, no prime...gotta be fast or yeah, that boiling water will not be hot for long. i use a 10-20ml syringe with a piece of air line tube on the end for accuracy. after you shoot the aptasia, suck the remaining tissue back into the syringe. now go out and get a few peppermint shrimps!! :)

I mix concentrated kalk with a "reef chili" sort of frozen food I made for my Corals. It induces a feeding response when you poke 'em, they stay fully extended while you fill them with kalk, I do about 10 at a time, then sit back and watch them explode. I only do this with new rocks or frags, I actually don't have Aiptasia in my system, none visible anyways, the Pep. Shrimp works.

I havent had any luck with anything :( I am not trying super saturated kalk, mixed with my sea salt. having trouble findling peppermint shrimp locally (calgary) so will do this.. so far the aptaisa have not come back. but I am sure they will with a vengence :)

I have removed some rock and killed that way but its impossible to do it all that way.