Aiptasia (sp) removal ?

[my2rotties]

Thanks for the info. I decided not to do freshwater... I will do piece by piece and managed to get the big colony. Of course my rocks will never be the same now... How I managed to get them they way they were, is beyond me. I have a large coral coming home tomrrow anyways and will need to rearrange to make space for it anyways. My tank is 30" deep and although it looks cool, it sucks to do anything with it.

Originally Posted by 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

IMHO the BEST way to deal with Aiptasia is Berghias (although they don't fix the problem overnight). I had a very major problem in my 135 - started out with a couple and over the course of about 6 months ended up with literally hundreds of them everywhere. I tried Peppermints (didn't work - they wouldn't touch the bigger ones), Joe's Juice, Lemon Juice, Kalk Paste, etc. The problem with all these is you always leave some behind to reproduce.

Finally I added 4 Berghias. I didn't see them for about 3 months, and thought they had died or become fish food. Then I started to see the odd one. About a month later, I started to see more and more. At their peak, I had probably about 100 visible during the night. It was really neat to see the Aiptasia disappear a little more every night. They found their way into my sump, refugium, overflows, everywhere. Within 1 month of their becoming visible, every trace of Aiptasia was gone.

The good part about them is there is no place for the Aiptasia to hide from them - they will find it in every crevise. One of the best $50 I ever spent (bought mine from Coralscaping). Totally non-invasive to your tank, 100% successful, and no effort on the part of the Aquarist. Great combination!!!

[naesco]

How many berghias do you now have in your tank?

Originally Posted by naesco

How many berghias do you now have in your tank?

After the last Aiptasia disappeared (about 2 months ago), they slowly started to disappear (it's their only food source, sadly). I saw one last week, but they have now pretty much disappeared, along with any trace of Aiptasia. It amazed me how they found it all - I had some in some very difficult-to-access spots on my return plumbing - they got it all.

I don't know how toxic they would be to fish - all of my fish seemed to know that they were to be avoided - I saw my trigger, flame angel and hawkfish all pick up one, and immediately deposit it back where they found it...

[naesco]

Originally Posted by dstasiuk

After the last Aiptasia disappeared (about 2 months ago), they slowly started to disappear (it's their only food source, sadly). I saw one last week, but they have now pretty much disappeared, along with any trace of Aiptasia. It amazed me how they found it all - I had some in some very difficult-to-access spots on my return plumbing - they got it all.

I don't know how toxic they would be to fish - all of my fish seemed to know that they were to be avoided - I saw my trigger, flame angel and hawkfish all pick up one, and immediately deposit it back where they found it...

Than I guess it would not be the best solution for aiptasia as you had suggested.
A better soluiton would be the other options suggested that did not result in the starvation of 4 critters, eh!

[my2rotties]

Of course I am doing research now, but wonder how toxix they are to fish. I have a BIG puffer that loves to eat things. He really limits my capability of having anything productive for my tank. He's a BAAAAAD boy, but I love him, so I work around him.

Originally Posted by dstasiuk

IMHO the BEST way to deal with Aiptasia is Berghias (although they don't fix the problem overnight). I had a very major problem in my 135 - started out with a couple and over the course of about 6 months ended up with literally hundreds of them everywhere. I tried Peppermints (didn't work - they wouldn't touch the bigger ones), Joe's Juice, Lemon Juice, Kalk Paste, etc. The problem with all these is you always leave some behind to reproduce.

Finally I added 4 Berghias. I didn't see them for about 3 months, and thought they had died or become fish food. Then I started to see the odd one. About a month later, I started to see more and more. At their peak, I had probably about 100 visible during the night. It was really neat to see the Aiptasia disappear a little more every night. They found their way into my sump, refugium, overflows, everywhere. Within 1 month of their becoming visible, every trace of Aiptasia was gone.

The good part about them is there is no place for the Aiptasia to hide from them - they will find it in every crevise. One of the best $50 I ever spent (bought mine from Coralscaping). Totally non-invasive to your tank, 100% successful, and no effort on the part of the Aquarist. Great combination!!!

[Whatigot]

sigh...
Every couple of months, I just load a syringe up with concentrated Kalk/RO water mix and decimite every little nem I cam find.
Tanks looks great for a good while, I don't consider this to be the more tiresome of the regular tank maintenance I do either.
Kinda satisfactory actually...