lemon juice for aiptasia?
 

i just found out lemon juice is supposed to work to cure aiptasia anyone have any experience with this remedy? i guess you are supposed to inject 5ml with a needle right into this monsters mouth i have a few aiptasia in my tank now and want to get rid of them before they spread:twised:

I have never tried lemon juice myself, but I have always had good luck with boiling water and a syringe. If the lemon juice fails you may want to give it a try. I have also heard of people using vinegar.

works well for me! I dont inject into the mouth though, I stab the beast in the side and inject there... doesn't allow the anemone to spit the stuff out. If there is a patch of them, i just throw the rock in the sink and pour a full kettle of boiling water over it (overkill). imo boiling water in the syringe allows the water to cool too much... or maybe im just too slow :D

i use vinegar with good results :)

Lemon Juice is my prefered method. I think I love it best because they swell and turn a bright purple! Like Justinl said make sure you get the stalk rather then the mouth.

im a newbie to the "marine" end of things do I just leave the rock in the aquarium when i inject? will it affect the fish and crabs i have? i was also told that removing or otherwise disturbing the rock will cause the aiptasia to populate my tank even worse

I have used lemon juice in the stalks with good success...Leave the rock in the tank, if killing multiple heads only do a couple at once if you have a small tank, or your PH will swing!!

yes just leave the rock in the tank after ''extermination'' :lol: , no it won't affect the fish and inverts i've done it to dozens of aiptasia. I'm almost positive that aiptasia anemones populate themselves when they move around at night, please correct me if I'm wrong though, pretty sure I've read that several times. again keeping in mind you use the pure stuff. I always use the Real Lemon brand, seems to be working for me.

ya michika I'm pretty sure they do change color when you get them, probably the only fun part about having aiptasia

is 90 gallons considered to be small in marine?

general rule is imagine the smallest tank you'd ever want to have and double it. again keeping in mind what livestock you plan to have, a 90-gallon gives you alot of options, for instance fish that favor long narrow tanks with plenty of swimming room. 90-gallon is an awesome choice IMO

is it just me or did that not make very much sense? :wink: yeah 90g is a fine size. Small in the hobby is on the range of 5-10g.

I also forgot to mention that you should turn the pumps off during the injections. helps keep the juice in place even if the beastie spits some out. You can leave the rock in the tank... if you take it out the aiptasia will close up and you might lose track of it as it retracts into a crevice or something.

bv_reefer, night or day doesn't matter to these guys, if they break a piece of themselves off and that frag hits rock, it will regenrate itself into a full aiptasia... they're actually remarkably resilient... if a lil more than annoying.

i read that one from the conscientious marine aquarist, if you're wondering..

*smallest size you'd want then double it

how about peppermint shrimps? or butterfly fish? nudibrances? pros? cons? just trying to cover all the bases i wanna know if any of these work too without any adverse affects

these things are driving me bananas, they are multiply big time too. Luckily just to one rock.
Im still in my cycling stage, near the end so there is no livestock.

Ive tried the injecting and its not working,
so ive let the rock sit in a bucket of freshwater....

If this dont work, do you suggest the boiling water? or wait till my cycle is over, and give the peppermints a shot, id like to get rid of them before that step.