I just found my first Aptaisa, how do I get rid of it without killing my coral?

[BeachPlease]

I just found my first and hopefully my only Aptaisa! It’s on a rock that I can remove from my DT but the rock hosts one of my corals (can’t remember what coral my LFS said it was) I’ve had this coral at least 4 months but it’s just now made itself known. I’ve attached some pictures. Im new in the hobby and I buy things as I go so I don’t have any treatments specific to Aptaisa. Of everything that I’ve read, that only thing I could do right now is put it in a bucket and inject it with boiling water or hydrogen peroxide. A few questions:
1) do I need a syringe with a needle (which I don’t have) Or can I just use a little 1mm dropper/syringe?
2) will either of these methods harm the coral? Because I imagine whatever I squirt on it will also get on the coral?
3) OR can I remove the coral from the rock and throw the rock away? The only tool I have that would come close to a table saw is a dremmel..I don’t suppose heavy duty pruning shears would work? lol

 

[LiLinka]

Kalk paste it with joes juice or a similar product as soon as you can. Otherwise you will definately have more to come.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Take it out and use a chisel to break off the piece of rock its on. The other things on the rock are vermited snails, and you should either crush those or cover them with coral glue. Also the inverts in the rock are amphipods, which are beneficial detritus-eaters and are a part of most reef ecosystems. Make sure not to break the actual aiptasia itself as they can regenerate from a single cell. Toss the rock fragment the aiptasia is on. Also the coral is a gorgonian

 

[ReefingDreams]

The coral will be fine out of the water. Just take it out and it would be super easy to chip a small bit of the rock off with a hammer and screwdriver. Remove those vermetid snails with the screwdriver while you have it out of the water as well.

 

[ReefingDreams]

Take it out and use a chisel to break off the piece of rock its on. The other things on the rock are vermited snails, and you should either crush those or cover them with coral glue. Make sure not to break the actual aiptasia itself as they can regenerate from a single cell. Toss the rock fragment the aiptasia is on. Also the coral is a gorgonian

Great minds think alike! Think we posted at the exact same time. It does look like man made rock, which may make breaking it more difficult.

 

[BeachPlease]

Great minds think alike! Think we posted at the exact same time. It does look like man made rock, which may make breaking it more difficult.

Ah! That makes sense! Ok, I’ll attempt to break the piece with the gorgonian off. What happens if the rock cracks or breaks the foot of the coral?

 

[BeachPlease]

Oh, wait. I think I misunderstood. Am I just trying to break a piece of rock with the Aptasia off?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just found my first and hopefully my only Aptaisa! It’s on a rock that I can remove from my DT but the rock hosts one of my corals (can’t remember what coral my LFS said it was) I’ve had this coral at least 4 months but it’s just now made itself known. I’ve attached some pictures. Im new in the hobby and I buy things as I go so I don’t have any treatments specific to Aptaisa. Of everything that I’ve read, that only thing I could do right now is put it in a bucket and inject it with boiling water or hydrogen peroxide. A few questions:
1) do I need a syringe with a needle (which I don’t have) Or can I just use a little 1mm dropper/syringe?
2) will either of these methods harm the coral? Because I imagine whatever I squirt on it will also get on the coral?
3) OR can I remove the coral from the rock and throw the rock away? The only tool I have that would come close to a table saw is a dremmel..I don’t suppose heavy duty pruning shears would work? lol

Keep it simple. Using a syringe or pipette, inject either lemon juice or better yet. . kalkwasser powder mixed with tank water into a paste the consistency of toothpaste and inject into the very center core and it will melt away

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Oh, wait. I think I misunderstood. Am I just trying to break a piece of rock with the Aptasia off?

Yep, just the corner the aiptasia is attached to, and toss the piece its on. gorgonians are pretty resilient so it shouldn't be bothered to much.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

To be honest, this will not be you first and last aptasia. Yes you can chip off a piece of the rock. If I did that every time I had an Aptaisa I wouldn’t have an Aquascape. Carefully take the rock out out of the water and poke the Aptasia to make him small and cover it in crazyglue. Those vermited snails can be more of an issue.
Bumble Bee snails to take out the vermited in your tank. Probably half dozen to start and Peppermint shrimp for the aptaisia.

 

[BeachPlease]

Thanks you guys for the help!

 

[BeachPlease]

To be honest, this will not be you first and last aptasia. Yes you can chip off a piece of the rock. If I did that every time I had an Aptaisa I wouldn’t have an Aquascape. Carefully take the rock out out of the water and poke the Aptasia to make him small and cover it in crazyglue. Those vermited snails can be more of an issue.
Bumble Bee snails to take out the vermited in your tank. Probably half dozen to start and Peppermint shrimp for the aptaisia.

I haven’t seen my peppermint shrimp in months so I’ll grab another one of those. As far as bumble bee snails, my conch eats any and all snails that he can catch. Including a $140 small maxima clam

 

[JoJosReef]

I wouldn't chip the rock. I would carefully take the rock out. Don't bother the Aiptasia or it might release planula.

Gorg is fine out of water for a bit. Have some boiling water ready. Take up some boiling water with a feeder pipette and blast the Aiptasia (well, don't put too much PSI behind it). I find this actually kills the suckers, whereas Aiptasia X and F Aiptasia seem to get rid of them temporarily -- I think they are fine shrinking to nothing and waiting it out or finding a different hole to come out of. They don't survive boiling water.

You could manage that without ever touching the gorg and without spending a dime!

 

[JoJosReef]

I wouldn't chip the rock. I would carefully take the rock out. Don't bother the Aiptasia or it might release planula.

Gorg is fine out of water for a bit. Have some boiling water ready. Take up some boiling water with a feeder pipette and blast the Aiptasia (well, don't put too much PSI behind it). I find this actually kills the suckers, whereas Aiptasia X and F Aiptasia seem to get rid of them temporarily -- I think they are fine shrinking to nothing and waiting it out or finding a different hole to come out of. They don't survive boiling water.

You could manage that without ever touching the gorg and without spending a dime!

Alternatively, I can sell you a surefire product. We'll call it JoJo's Juice. It is fully tranparent and reef safe. You heat it up a lot and then apply it to the Aiptasia. Guaranteed not to come back. $39.99!

 

[arking_mark]

Lots of advice here. Based on my experience, most of these solutions will be temporary.

I started with one aipasia and just removed the rock from the tank. Several weeks later another couple show up in different places and I go the AiptasiaX route. Several weeks later more Aiptasia pop up. Next I go overkill with a bunch of peppermint schrimp. Despite ensuring these were the Aiptasia eating kind, they did very little to combat the Aiptasia. Then I went expensive with berghia nudibranchs... they wiped out my Aiptasia and then starved to death. Several weeks later another Aiptasia popped up! I finally landed on a single Aiptasia eating filelish. Over time, all my Aiptasia was removed... and while I have plenty of Aiptasia in the sump, nothing ever shows up in my display tank. The Aiptasia eating filefish keeps it in check.

One Aiptasia eating file fish in a 108gal tank does the job.

 

[Keeper5221]

can confirm that boiling water works very well. Especially pieces that like that can be removed from your DT just hold it so the aiptasia is upside down and blast it up into the hole it retreats into with a syringe no needle needed. Ive done this on 3 separate rocks and *knock on wood* 5 months later nothing has come back.