Aiptasia

[CornishCrustyCorals]

So today I pulled some live rock out of my tank to deal with some green hair algae I have a little tank I've put it in so it doesn't dry out whilst manually removing the algae I noticed 4 very large aiptasia they were on the bottom side of the rock so would have been in the sand in the tank.

Now I'm 99% sure there is none in the rest of the main tank I've been through every piece of rock and stirred up the sandbed. Unless they are so small I've missed them(hope not).

This is a live rock i bought from a LFS so kinda ticked. At this point as I'm only a couple months into my tank im thinking of ditching it all and getting marco rock and starting all over again.

I'm thinking if I keep the rock I have for now and buy the marco rock I could cycle it In a separated tank and once its been through a cycle I could break down the current tank pull the sand etc out and place the marco rock in the tank and then dip everything and remove all the corals from the rocks and place them in a QT tank with the fish before adding again to the DT.

Or would it be best to try and deal with the aiptasia or just bin the rock with it on and hope that there is no more in the DT.

I need to get more rock anyways as there is very little rock left in the tank now. I know I won't be getting more live rock as I just don't know what I'm getting on it and so far its been nothing but trouble.

What would you do?

 

[RedFrog211]

You have a good plan of attack, but I humbly think it’s a bit overkill. I haven’t personally ever had a huge aiptasia problem, so maybe others can chime in with horror stories, and I’m sure your reasoning is 100% justified. With that being said, your plan definitely seems like a foolproof plan to rid the system of any potential aiptasia

If it were my system, I’d leave it as is and just closely monitor it. Good luck!

 

[billyocean]

^^^ agreed. You can kill it with F-aptasia, aptasia x, I've heard of people injecting them with boiling water. I killed mine with a small syringe and lemon juice..just inject them as close to the base as you can. Keep an eye out because they multiple quick if unchecked. Wouldn't tear down tank..you do this long enough you're bound to get them.

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

So I have the infected rocks in a separate tank. You think watch the main tank and if I see any in that tank treat them.

Then the rocks I have in the separate tank I should treat them and monitor them separately and if none come back then re add them to the tank.

I would probably just try the lemon juice boiled water method

 

[billyocean]

You can remove the rock and super glue also..may take a few tries with leom juice. You can go to pharmacy and ask to buy smallest syringe they have..just explain the situation so they know its not drug related..lol..pics help

 

[Alchameth]

I got one on a coral I bought. I've seen 3-4 ones pop up in my tank as a result and I've had good luck annoying them so they retract and covering their base with superglue. I found gel glue works best for this.

You could also take that rock and put it in some water so the aptasia are out of water but most of the rest of the rock is submerged. An airstone if you have one to help limit die off on the rock while the aptasia dry out, probably 2-3 days.

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

Well that was the most awkward thing I've ever done. Got myself some insulin syringes and some lemon juice. The phamisist didn't want to sell them to me lol.

Kinda hard to take pics of the little pests as soon as I go near them they retract so much they look like a little brown blob

Do I inject the lemon juice into the foot part? Or do I have to go through the middle of the head

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

dang lemon works well so decided on treating the rock going through it with tweasers and needle inject lemon literally makes them let go of the rock.

Going through removing all the really tough algae as well. It was covered in mini feather dusters too so I guess if they survive it will be good to have those

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

OK what does this looked like i had to really pull it out of the rock was stuck almost like a limpit or something think I damaged it whatever it was as a bit of the grey looking food was left on the rock.

 

[Midrats]

I don't sweat them at all. I've never had a tank in the past thirty years where one didn't pop up somewhere. I just monitor them and if they look like they might bother something I take action. They are easy to keep in check unless you are broadcast feeding Reef Roids daily or something. Side note, my ancestors are Cornish miners that came to the States to find their fortune.

 

[RedFrog211]

My guess would be slipper limpet

 

[dvgyfresh]

Ye aptasia is going to happen, just use lemon juice and if it ever gets crazy buy some berghia nudi

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

Yeah I guess all I see is people going argh aptasia stinging this that and the other so I panicked.

Found another one of those limpit things in another rock.

I guess now I'm combing through my rockwork I got to know it better. This wiry green moss stuff is really tough to remove sat here with the tweesers going at it for some time now should look good when its done I've left all the sponges and the red algae.

The red is one of the nice looking ones

 

[vetteguy53081]

OK what does this looked like i had to really pull it out of the rock was stuck almost like a limpit or something think I damaged it whatever it was as a bit of the grey looking food was left on the rock.

Looks like abalone or cone snail

 

[ShepherdReefer]

I keep mine away using a Filefish.

 

[DinoMagnet]

Peppermint shrimp. Took care of 20 big aptasias I had in 24hrs.

 

[billyocean]

Haha..it is awkward! Glad it's working..just keep your eyes on it

 

[vetteguy53081]

For aptasia, simple method is to mix kalkwasser powder mixed water into a paste and using a syringe, inject this solution into the center core of the aptasia and watch it melt away

 

[CornishCrustyCorals]

In total removed 8 aptasia

The 2 rocks i hated and were covered in wiry green moss from when I first bought them had the majority of them.

I was going to bin them but spent hours pulling all the moss stuff off and getting tweesers down every clevis to make sure I got all nasties out. They had some of that purple cement on them that people use to join rocks so I cracked that all off and now I have some live rock which actually looks OK. I managed to save a nice chunk which has a little cave full of mini feather dusters in it. Hopefully they open up again but for now I'm going to keep it all in a QT tank just to monitor it over the next few days for aptasia.

Lemon through a insulin syringe worked a treat and I have 20kg of marco on its way which il start cycling as well to add to the DT in time.

Thanks guys.