Getting rid of one aptasia

[Porcupine Reefer]

Hello so I have one aptasia in my tank and I'm wanting to know the solutions to get rid of it, my tank has a porcupine puffer and a snowflake eel so I don't know about invertebrates so what would be the solution?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

do you have kalk (pickling lime) , if so mix some in a syringe and hit the atipsia with it.. it will melt it.

 

[LivingroomDiver]

I used Berghia nudibranch worked great. Ate them in no time

 

[Lavey29]

Squirt it with boiling water so the rest of the aptasia in your tank waiting to surprise you know that you mean business.

 

[Fish Styx]

Where there's one, there's likely more. There are a number of commercially available products, but a simple kalk slurry is (IMO) most effective. As far as control goes, the holy trinity are peppermint shrimp, matted filefish, and berghia nudibranch. Copperbanded butterflies to an extent as-well, but are tricky fish and most aquarists don't have a good track record with keeping them. Same can be said, actually, for the matted filefish. Not that they're tricky, but more that they can develop a taste for coral. Berghia can be expensive, and if there isn't enough aiptasia in your system, they will starve to death.

Best bet is to nuke it with a kalk slurry, keep an eye out for more, and invest in a peppermint shrimp or three (lysmata wurdemanni).

 

[Fish Styx]

Squirt it with boiling water so the rest of the aptasia in your tank waiting to surprise you know that you mean business.

You win the internet today!

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

unless your really sure your reef is at reef like parameters i would not suggest a berghia nudibranch as they dont tend to do well in a tank thats got eels and puffers. if the parameters on the tank are not good enought.. the puffer and the eels can live in worse conditions.

 

[brandon429]

also found in this thread: how to kill all of one's fish by importing disease via hopeful indirect controls skipping all forms of biosecurity.

you know, with a flathead screwdriver and a tap hammer we could fix that one aiptasia. I have an article work thread I've been trying to build for 1.5 years but so far everyone wants to farm the anemones vs just end it at 1.

you would need to remove the rock, set it on the counter, and do what we do with precision to win and frankly 99% just won't, they're too scared to win and in the end:

(searching for the pic of 500 aiptasias on one rock, brb)

 

[Cthulukelele]

also found in this thread: how to kill all of one's fish by importing disease via hopeful indirect controls skipping all forms of biosecurity.

you know, with a flathead screwdriver and a tap hammer we could fix that one aiptasia. I have an article work thread I've been trying to build for 1.5 years but so far everyone wants to farm the anemones vs just end it at 1.

you would need to remove the rock, set it on the counter, and do what we do with precision to win and frankly 99% just won't, they're too scared to win and in the end:

I usually agree with your opinions on here, but typically on posts about having one aiptasia, there are actually dozens and most unable to be seen. The screwdriver war is often a futile one in these sorts of posts especially if someone doesn't go the extra mile in removing 100% of the nem

 

[brandon429]

I've already been doing it this way with pico reefers at nano reef.com for about 20 years, it's why you don't see pico reefs with aiptasia issues unless they're newbs. pico reefers have full access to their system, that's key. large tankers invent 12 reasons they can't/won't access.

-my tank is too big to reach
-my rock stack is glued
-they'll reproduce anyway
and then 9 more varied reasons to let an anemone exercise it's will on a human vs other way around

I think we should test my claim live time right here for sure. PR, is there any reason you won't lift out that aiptasia rock, set on the counter, and let me work that bad boy remotely so I can add you to the build thread. when we get enough entrants, proofs for large tankers, a writeup ensues. I only do writeups after copious work threads make the proofs. I'm having the hardest time getting anymore than that the single correction job from a big tank we already have on file. his aiptasia was on the side of a frag plug

we didn't inject it, we used a knife and whittled it right off the plug taking some cement with the footing. then it was permanently gone and did not become 500. he was the only taker I've found, the rest are hesitant and fearful anemone farmers.

*I dont blame anyone's skepticism though, these things are tank wreckers for sure in the ways the masses advise each other to handle them or inject them.

 

[Cthulukelele]

the catch is, I've already been doing it this way with pico reefers at nano reef.com for about 20 years, it's why you don't see pico reefs with aiptasia issues unless they're newbs. pico reefers have full access to their system, that's key. large tankers invent 12 reasons they can't/won't access.

Pico reefs it makes sense for sure.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

Where there's one, there's likely more. There are a number of commercially available products, but a simple kalk slurry is (IMO) most effective. As far as control goes, the holy trinity are peppermint shrimp, matted filefish, and berghia nudibranch. Copperbanded butterflies to an extent as-well, but are tricky fish and most aquarists don't have a good track record with keeping them. Same can be said, actually, for the matted filefish. Not that they're tricky, but more that they can develop a taste for coral. Berghia can be expensive, and if there isn't enough aiptasia in your system, they will starve to death.

Best bet is to nuke it with a kalk slurry, keep an eye out for more, and invest in a peppermint shrimp or three (lysmata wurdemanni).

the porcupine and eel won't eel won't eat them? my eel is still relativly small and may puffer is about six inches, if I kept them fed would that work?

 

[Roatan Reef]

Find each one, pluck it out with coral tweesers, or a coral grip tool or your hands/fingers....keep an eye on your tank!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hello so I have one aptasia in my tank and I'm wanting to know the solutions to get rid of it, my tank has a porcupine puffer and a snowflake eel so I don't know about invertebrates so what would be the solution?

Aiptasia as a Pest - and HOW to get rid of it

I think that's one of the most popular and common pest in our reef system, and I don't saw any in the hobby to say "I never - ever got Aiptasia in my reef system" I want everyone of you who got problem with or just found his best solution to share it here. Like the TITLE say, can we collect many...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Fish Styx]

the porcupine and eel won't eel won't eat them? my eel is still relativly small and may puffer is about six inches, if I kept them fed would that work?

It isn't unheard of for some puffer species to munch on them from time to time, but to my knowledge (I may be mistaken), it isn't too common. As far as the eel goes, I don't believe so, no.

 

[Porcupine Reefer]

do you have kalk (pickling lime) , if so mix some in a syringe and hit the atipsia with it.. it will melt it.

where do I get that?

 

[Jmp998]

If you really think you may have only one Aiptasia-make an aggressive attempt to seal it in with kalk paste, glue, etc. Even better if possible just remove that rock or chip out the area where the Aiptasia is. However if it has been in your tank any length of time, there is a good chance it has already spread tiny babies, and you may just be stalling rather than curing.

If you have multiple Aiptasia and try Berghia, add them at night after your puffer goes dormant for the night. The Berghia will be active/out only at night until they run out of Aiptasia. If you add them during the day, the puffer may eat them before they can hide in the rocks.

The kalk is just a paste of water and Kalkwasser-you can get the kalkwasser from any saltwater LFS, Amazon, BRS, etc.

Adult Berghia are not demanding of good water quality in my experience.

 

[java]

I killed some aptasia with kalkwasser slurry and ended up spiking my alk and my tank crashed. Lost some sps and my torches receded a lot. And I still have aptasia.

 

[Mike Butler]

Where there's one, there's likely more. There are a number of commercially available products, but a simple kalk slurry is (IMO) most effective. As far as control goes, the holy trinity are peppermint shrimp, matted filefish, and berghia nudibranch. Copperbanded butterflies to an extent as-well, but are tricky fish and most aquarists don't have a good track record with keeping them. Same can be said, actually, for the matted filefish. Not that they're tricky, but more that they can develop a taste for coral. Berghia can be expensive, and if there isn't enough aiptasia in your system, they will starve to death.

Best bet is to nuke it with a kalk slurry, keep an eye out for more, and invest in a peppermint shrimp or three (lysmata wurdemanni).

I purchased two small stippies who were recommended to fix my small aptasia problem. Nothing happened for about two weeks and then, overnight no aptasia at all. Thoroughly recommend them. Hardy, personable and easy to keep. Unfortunately not so the CBB's, beautiful fish VERY hard to keep in my experience.

 

[maroun.c]

what is it on? if on a small stone or coral you can take out to kill the aptasia and make sure none of its residues goes back to the tank that would be the best bet.
is it on a rock edge you can maybe snip with a coral cutter and take it out without injecting it and risking stressing it and causing it to multiply.
it might be your lucky that you caught a single aptasia that came on something but most commonly as mentioned when you see one then there is many still unnoticed or hiding.