aptasia

[Toua]

anyway glass anemones i believe they were called. i just moved and am currently trying to set up a nano with just some small soft corals. the lr that i will be using is comming from my old system and they currently have some aptasia on it. whats the best way to rid of them? another cycle is not a concern because i am in no hurry.

[ariesgow76]

Joes juice is one way of getting rid of them and a certain shrimp I cant remember the name of it but thats mainly what it eats.

[Toua]

the shrimp is the peppermint shrimp but some people said it's hard to tell a true peppermint shrimp because there were two that looks alike. one doesn't eat the aptasia. anyway of just starving them?

[benihana]

Boil some water, draw it up in a syringe, and expell it as close to the aptasia as you can get. You will see it wilt, and it will die within a few minutes. If you have a bunch to do, I would reccomend not doing more than 1 or 2 every few days as the die off may be a bit much for some tanks

[Irenicus]

I've had tremendous luck with Peppermint Shrimp. You need to feed them sparingly so their appetite is directed toward the aptasia.

[mattb]

I've tried Joe's Juice, kalk paste, and they seem temporary. Peppermint Shrimp do take care of them though... when you first put them in, don't expect to see them munch on your aptasia. It took a couple of days to notice their effect on the aptasia...

[oyam123]

I like a little Aptasia in my tank.

[wes]

careful with peppermints as when the aiptasia are gone, they can switch to eating other cnidarians. kalk is a piece of cake, too. 1 peppermint and kill the ones you see is my MO

[David Grigor]

I prefer to keep them under control via manual ways such as with Joes Juice and/or Kalkwasser. Like Matt mentions you think you get them sometimes only for really small aptasia to pop up so not 100%.

I personally am not fond of pepperment shrimp/hermit crabs or other crabs. particularly in a nano setup becuase they are always crawling on and picking in/around zoanthids & mushrooms and other misc. corals on the substrate and rock and irritate them. In a larger tank with more real estate doesn't seem to be an issue for me.

[hypertech]

I've been dealing with just a couple aptasia.

Try 1 - Peppermint Shrimp. Worked great - ate all but one. Then he ate a frogspawn frag so I got rid of him.

Try 2 - Inject with lemon juice. Seemed to work - was back after about a week and a half.

Try 3 - Inject with kalk. I couldn't inject it directly, so I spewed it all over the little spot in the rock it was hiding in. Hopefully this worked - just did it yesterday.

[mattb]

There's always the ole reliable... cover them with epoxy :) Lemon juice, interesting..

[GVR-4579]

Try 2 - Inject with lemon juice. Seemed to work - was back after about a week and a half.



I have had the same luck with lemon juice, i just dont think it is strong enough.

[Toua]

There's always the ole reliable... cover them with epoxy :) Lemon juice, interesting..


yeah since i was going to be removing the rocks for awhile from my current tank and put it in the nano when i get it i was thinking about the same thing. but i've read that they can just pop out of another hole in the tank? i thought they stayed attached because when i bought the coral it was on the rock it came with like 3 of them. now they are not in the coral rock anymore but in my bigger rocks :(. still just 3 of them. can i juice them out of the water? all livestock are gone so there's no worrying about killing any fishes or inverts.

[spectrum]

I have one peppermint shrimp and he keeps it under control very nicely and i use vinegar for any too larger for him to eat. It might take a few times with the vinegar. but its easy.

[MNGold15]

Joe's Juice works wonders. I just zapped two today with it, and they were shrunk up and gone within minutes.