One aiptasia- what to do?

[scotty333]

Hi guys
I’ve spotted 1 aiptasia after putting my binoculars on to inspect a coral and saw the little bugger, it’s on a rock at the bottom of a structure which would mean a big job to get the rock out
What would you do?
Peppermint shrimp?
Bergia?

Leave it be?

 

[Doctorgori]

make a kalkwasser OR baking soda paste ..
get a syringe and smother the lil booger in a pile

 

[Reeferbadness]

Off the shelf good spot eradication tool is F Aiptaisia. If u have 1, more likely to follow

 

[DED65]

Kalk paste, F Aiptasia, or Aiptasia X. Keep an eye out for more. Those suckers can be anywhere on the rock, especially in the places that you can’t see!

 

[Doctorgori]

Kalk paste, F Aiptasia, or Aiptasia X. Keep an eye out for more. Those suckers can be anywhere on the rock, especially in the places that you can’t see!

Aiptasia LOVE sumps and overflow boxes

 

[Lavey29]

You can say a prayer that there won't be 3 tomorrow but unfortunately God seems really busy right now because he didn't answer my tank aptasia prayer.

 

[DED65]

Aiptasia LOVE sumps and overflow boxes

I’ve got them in the back chamber of my AIO. At first I was concerned, then I gave up. I put Peppermint shrimp back there and now they do whatever they want to.

 

[brandon429]

you are literally at step one choice of millions of aiptasia-lost tanks

your decision is where all of them wish they could rewind to

hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions collectively, lost due to following what the masses always do when they see the very

first

aiptasia


hint: in your opening descrip, you entertained the idea of leaving it in then doing X in hopes it might work


that's what they all did

they all did not do the one single hard thing in the description.

curious: let's say you had that rock out and right in front of you, what then? how thorough can you remove it among 30 ways I can think of (hate to see you do all that effort then select: squirt it with joe's juice!!)

remember: if you do what the masses do in any way, you get their results. from the recommends you see here, ask yourself if the action has been recommended before in aiptasia threads. if so, don't use those options, or you'll get those results.

 

[BrokenReefer]

CA glue, also known as super glue.
Epoxy paste

Booger it up and move on with your day.

 

[Biokabe]

How big is your tank? The answer to that will determine what your action should be.

If your tank is large enough to accommodate either a Copperband, Pyramid or Kleini (blue-headed, per @vetteguy53081) butterflyfish, then my recommendation would be to include one of them in your stocking list. A single aiptasia is not a threat; it's a plague of aiptasia that's a problem. Those butterflies will likely not eliminate all of your aiptasia, but they will keep it in check so that it never develops to a plague.

Peppermint shrimp are problematic; while there are documented examples of them eating aiptasia, not all peppermints will eat aiptasia, and they will also prey on other fleshy corals (or damage corals to steal food from tehm). If you decide to get a peppermint, you should do so because you like them and want them in your tank, not because you expect them to deal with aiptasia.

Berghia are one of the only things guaranteed to eat aiptasia, but they're small, expensive, vulnerable and slow. Given time and the opportunity to breed they will knock down an aiptasia plague, but until you have a plague of aiptasia they're really not the right choice.

Chemical and mechanical solutions are risky when dealing with single aiptasia. Aiptasia are quick to release planula larva when they detect a threat, and all it takes is for one or two of those larva to make it free and grow into new aiptasia. Still, if your tank is too small for the piscine solutions and the invertebrate solutions aren't working for you, this might be your only choice.

If you're going to use a chemical or mechanical solution, best thing to do is to remove the rock that the aiptasia is on and apply the treatment outside of the water. In air, planula larvae can't escape from the parent anemone, and you can more perfectly seal it/scrape it off.

Trying to directly attack aiptasia leads to temporary relief until the new anemones begin to grow. So in short:

Fish-based solutions are best, but you need to carefully select the fish that has the least chance to attack corals. Most fish that will eat aiptasia will also eat corals. Invertebrate solutions are acceptable but hit-and-miss, and you may need to try multiple times to get them to work. Human-based solutions rarely succeed and should really only be attempted outside of the tank.

 

[Doctorgori]

Just a modifier to the previous excellent post

Peppermint shrimp are problematic; while there are documented examples of them eating aiptasia, not all peppermints will eat aiptasia, and they will also prey on other fleshy corals (or damage corals to steal food from tehm). If you decide to get a peppermint, you should do so because you like them and want them in your tank, not because you expect them to deal with aiptasia.

This statement is why I do add them to my sump…for whatever reason Aptasia show up here ….Id would at least add a couple here….cant do much harm

 

[Biokabe]

Just a modifier to the previous excellent post

This statement is why I do add them to my sump…for whatever reason Aptasia show up here ….Id would at least add a couple here….cant do much harm

True, in-sump peppermints have no issues. They won't help with display aiptasia, but if they eat the in-sump anemones they can reduce re-colonization.

 

[scotty333]

CA glue, also known as super glue.
Epoxy paste

Booger it up and move on with your day.

This was an idea I also had , a chunk of epoxy smothered in super glue and shoved over it

 

[scotty333]

Or a good excuse to get a copperband