Aiptasia (sp) removal ?

[baker_jeff]

Why in the dark? I picked up two the other day and put them in during the day...

[naesco]

Originally Posted by baker_jeff

Why in the dark? I picked up two the other day and put them in during the day...

Because even a fish that would never attack any shrimp in the wild may attack a shrimp(or a very small fish) as you drop it in your tank. The fish thinks you are feeding it.
With the lights off this won't happen and the shrimp scurries safely into the rock.

[baker_jeff]

Ah yes I see. Luckily my two little guys are doing great!

[my2rotties]

Peppermint shrimp are not an option for me since my large puffer would eat them in a split second. I have one shrimp but he went to my overflow and is now hiding in 120pounds of live rock in my sump.

I don't know if it is breeding season for aiptasia or what... but I suddenly have a pretty serious outbreak. Of course they are on impossible to reach places, and I know I am in trouble here.

I know I can take the rocks out, and soak them, but these little buggers hide so well I know I won't get them all. I also have so much like in my rock and I don't want any die off. I also have over 200 pounds of rock in my display... All stacked into tunnels and caves which I will never be able to get this way again if I touch it. It took six hours or more to get it like this...

What do you do when there is a big issue with this pests? I am thinking I will have to take the rock out piece by piece and hope I can get the pests with lemon juice when they pop up in some salt water in a boucket. I have the chemical which I would use outside of the tank. I have tried to nuke the odd one in the display but my fish always come up to my hand and I don't want them burned.

I notice the lemon juice in the needle has not worked on the ones I just tried to get within my reach. I keep staring at the problem, and think I have to reserve myself to more invasive and time consuming methods. What have you done?

[reeferious]

i have 6 peppermints in my tank LOL i'm an all around shrimp fan but i find they'll go after small aiptassas but not larger ones nor will they touch mojanos which used to be my major headache. last cbb i had lasted 2 weeks and just faded away(cyanide caught?) then i considered seagrass filefish which would make short work of any anemone but probably end up finishing off most of your corals. came across an article on reefcentral concerning using electrical current to fry up these pests and so i more or less built something similar and tried it out of tank on a large rock covered with mojanos and a few attached corals. i noticed current charge will kill only targeted things and not affect others next to them,very fast very efficient killing method. next day i spent around an hour going through pests in tank and am happy to say i'm now pest free and have even chose to let the prettiest ones let live. correction on power source i tried 9,12, and 18 volts power source i think you should start off with atleast a 12.

[my2rotties]

Do you have a link or website where I can find out more about this? I saw a few CBB for sale at a few LFS but after reading how they are caught, I decided to try to combat this on my own. I am getting my arse kicked since the large ones laugh at the lemon juice.

Would a quick fresh water rinse kill them? I am concerned about everything else living in the rocks though. However I think one or two rocks need more then a quick remedy at this time. I have a large colony of big aiptasia n the back side of a rock that supports all the others. I cannot reach it, but I can see them...

Originally Posted by reeferious

i have 6 peppermints in my tank LOL i'm an all around shrimp fan but i find they'll go after small aiptassas but not larger ones nor will they touch mojanos which used to be my major headache. last cbb i had lasted 2 weeks and just faded away(cyanide caught?) then i considered seagrass filefish which would make short work of any anemone but probably end up finishing off most of your corals. came across an article on reefcentral concerning using electrical current to fry up these pests and so i more or less built something similar and tried it out of tank on a large rock covered with mojanos and a few attached corals. i noticed current charge will kill only targeted things and not affect others next to them,very fast very efficient killing method. next day i spent around an hour going through pests in tank and am happy to say i'm now pest free and have even chose to let the prettiest ones let live. correction on power source i tried 9,12, and 18 volts power source i think you should start off with atleast a 12.

[reeferious]

i suppose extented freshwater soaking could kill a few along with everything else living on rock (inverts seem much less tolerant versus fish regarding freshwater). anyway just found article discussion on reefcentral. advanced topic, 2nd page, thread how to rid a tank of majanos