Aptasia in the middle of a Zoa colony

Bam327

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My favorite palys, Nightmares, haven’t been looking so hot this weekend. After testing all my parameters which turned out in check I was starting to get baffled. Half the colony is closed up so it took a closer look and there are 2 nearly transparent aptasia’s in the middle of it. I’m glad I found the culprit, but how to I get rid of these? I typically use kalk paste which works great, but I’m worried about using that so close to the zoas.
 

JustDewwit

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Some Peppermint shrimp will clear it up and make sure Aiptasia does not become a major problem. I had over 100+ in my tank at one point. I used AiptasiaX religiously over months to attempt eradication only to raise my alkalinity and tick off more corals. AiptasiaX works but using runs the risk of getting in some zoas, Just make them close and keep all flow off for a reasonable time after application if you do use. The bad news is you more than likely have more than one. I purchased 2 peppermints from WWC for my 32gallon, 10 days later no more aiptasia. Nearly 14months ago and the peppermints are still in the tank.
 

Zoajohn

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I second the peppermint shrimp. See if you can find a local hobbyist who has one that eats aptasia. If not, I’ve gone 2/3 on buying store peps that eat aptasia which is pretty good.
 
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Bam327

Bam327

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Thanks guys. I didn’t want to go the peppermint route because I have a 120 with a lot of rock and if I even did get one that ate aptasia it could take months for it to find the only one in the tank (at least the only one I can see causing problems). I just blasted it with kalk paste. If I lose a couple polyps it’s better than losing the whole thing and giving those little devils a chance to spread. This isn’t the only one I’ve had but I’ve kept them under control so far. This was the first one I had that was in the middle of a colony. I appreciate the responses.
 

josephxsxn

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I used AiptasiaX for a while, but as people say you can burn other corals with the paste. I have also just used frag glue to cover them up, this works great in some areas were the AiptasiaX would be a bit dangerous with corals around.
 

jeffchapok

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I had a similar problem today, and I turned off all flow and squirted lemon juice into the aiptasia with a small syringe and let it sit for about 10 mins before turning the flow back on. The aiptasia is no longer visible. The nearby zoa polyps have closed up, but I'm confident they'll come back in a day or two.

Here's where it was.
IMG_20200809_182524602~2.jpg
 
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