High Tide Aquatics

Going to try lemon juice injection for aiptasia

Vincerama2

Vincerama2

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OK, so I'm running out of expensive Aiptasia-X, and as I learned over and over, an ignore, it is more like "Aiptasia Super Grow". I dunno, it looks like they die, then you go on holidays, come home and they are all back.

My aiptasias, FYI are like two inches long. That's the small ones.

So, I ordered some pokey syringes on Amazon, mostly to avoid the stink eye from the local pharmacist.

I will try this weekend to see if directly injecting lemon juice into their "trunks" will actually do anything.

I'll keep the thread posted.

V
 
xcaret said:
Mix your own fix, kalk and water to make a paste.
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Ive done pickling lime and water paste as well in the past. Turn off all pumps for an hour and then return pump only for the next hour. I havent had aptasia in a long time. Majanos though seems to always come back for me so I just pull rocks out or cut underneath the rock at the foot. Good Luck!
 
The best success I’ve had with aiptasia control and eradication has been a C. declivis

Wiped out all in my sump in days.


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I put two peppermint shrimp in my overflow box and they cleaned out all the aiptasia within about a week. I mix up kalk with RODI water to squirt into the tentacles using an old Red Sea syringe...works pretty well
 
If I remember correctly AiptasiaX is just a combination of lye and kalk. I've done the DIY kalk paste through a very large needle. I find if I inject a lump in the hole the aiptasia is in, then shoot it a bit and dig around, then bury it (and I mean that) with kalk paste, that they don't come back. Physical removal first is preferable if it's an option, but still bury the area even if I shave them off.
I've had two experiences with berghia. The first was highly effective after a pause while they multiplied and there was no recurrence. The second time didn't work at all. They laid eggs but for some reason were not successful breeding and it didn't work out.
I have seen peppermints manage the issue, but never eradicate. I have eradicated successfully with kalk, but you have to get ALL of them, so it's really only feasible if there aren't a ton, particularly where you can't get.
I've tried lemon juice, it knocked the big ones back, but didn't 100% kill each one, so they came back. Same with boiling water.
I've heard decent things about green filefish, which are mostly usually reef safe.
Same with copperbands but mine doesn't like aiptasia, nips at some LPS, and copperbands have a very poor success rate.
There are plenty of other butterflies that will clear them right out, but they aren't exactly reef safe.
 
I remember putting 100% muriatic acid (or whatever the bottle has, I didn't dilute it any further) in a container with a rock with aiptasia on, what happened is the rock started to dissolve but the aiptasia didn't, not sure why but I was expecting to see them melt before my eye, only reason they came off the rock is that the rock they were on dissolved from under them. Quite sad actually.
 
Btw, in case you might not know, aiptasia can reproduce/ regenerate via a single cell...so I've read.

The best way I've found is to burn them with a soldering iron. I dry out the spot they're on and imediate surronding area. Of course, this assumes you can get the rock out or drain the water enough. Doing that this weekend on some of my stuff, in fact. Smells like grill fish but works wonders
 
Chipping them off of the rock and sacrificing the rock has typically been my "in tank treatment" of choice. If there are so many of them that is not feasible, get rid of the rock or bleach it. If they're all over the glass/overflow, then get yourself some biological control that can continuously chomp on them, because they ain't going anywhere.
 
NanoCrazed said:
Btw, in case you might not know, aiptasia can reproduce/ regenerate via a single cell...so I've read.

The best way I've found is to burn them with a soldering iron. I dry out the spot they're on and imediate surronding area. Of course, this assumes you can get the rock out or drain the water enough. Doing that this weekend on some of my stuff, in fact. Smells like grill fish but works wonders
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My understanding is also that...and quite often when you're injecting with your flavor of choice, they release planula which then grow up to be a nasty aiptasia and the cycle repeats itself.
 
I deal with them about once a year. When they get a bit out of hand I get some peppermints, put them in an acclimation box with some small rock with aiptasia, then release them once confirmed.

I used to do the whole aiptasa x thing but it is very much cat and mouse.
 
Apon said:
My file fish has done wonders!
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I keep walking into Ultimate Aquarium to buy a file fish, then leaving without it, for fear that it would eat other corals. However I'm getting to the point where it's getting intolerable. The kids don't want the filefish for fear it will eat the BTAs.

The most successful bio-attack I've had was in my old 58G, I had a klien butterfly (who died when my return pump failed). I went on vacation for a week, came back and it had eaten all the visible aiptasisa. I've had less luck with two replacement kleins that died (one jumped out of the water onto a cover over my overflows and baked in the MH glow).

Aiptasia-X, Joe's Juice and Kalk Paste SEEM to work, then they come back with a vengence.
 
I've come to grips with the fact that my tank will have them forever. I just need to get them under control and start a monthly routine of executing the ones that offend me.
 
Vincerama2 said:
I keep walking into Ultimate Aquarium to buy a file fish, then leaving without it, for fear that it would eat other corals. ....
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I didn't know ultimate aquarium still existed. Their website is gone.

I tried a file fish. It was hit/miss with zoas and other softies that look like anemones.
But it was fine with other coral.
The problem - they don't eat that quickly, so cannot get rid of big infestations.
 
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