Aptasia

[WickedReefer]

I have a problem in which I hope someone can help me solve. I have a aptasia problem in my reef and I can't put peppermint shrimp in the tank due to a lovely pair of blue jaw triggers. I tried the joe's juice and the kalkwasser (even warming it up in the microwave for extra kill) but neither worked. They just keep coming back. I was wondering is there a fish that can eat them and not harm corals and clams. I heard a copperband works but I'm kinda looking for semi-out of the ordinary fish.

[johnny313]

I had the same problem. I have a 65 gallon tank but i had the Mojanos which are very similar but they don't do as much damage as aptasia. water quality is the most important thing. use distilled water to replenish the fresh water and ro/di for water changes with a good quality salt. get an eye dropper and mix kalk with ro water into a paste...thick enough to where it can squirt out of the dropper and inject each aptasia u can find but make sure the aptasia closes after you inject it.. your calcium level should be 450ppm too, it seems that they dont like calcium

[DevilBoy]

From my experince with these pests i have not seen a higher level of ca keeping them away. They can live in pretty much anything. Good water quality, bad water quality, low light, high light, no light. and even out of water. The way i kept them away and still have trouble today keeping them away was joes juice and some caribbean peppermint shrimp.

[dc_909]

peppermint shrimp and CBB have worked for me.

[WickedReefer]

yea I tried both methods johnny 313 and DevilBoy but they just keep coming back. I guess i just have to bite the bullet and get a CBB or a longnose and hope it doesn't mess with my corals.

[HiJacK]

Check out this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1502897

Tom suggests Berghia

[MMOORE0324]

CBB and Caribbean peppermint shrimp work well. But if you have a ton of these little pests... you'll need to get rid of them first then the CBB and shrimp will keep them at bay. I used a mixture of things.. i found that each little aptasia was different. So on some I used a Kalk paste... others Joe's Juice... the most effective is boiling ro water. I'm not talking warmed up water in the microwave.. but rolling boiling water... This works the best.

[Jova]

I would recommend taking out any rocks that dont have any desirable corals growing on them, and burning the aiptasia off with a cigarette lighter. As for the others that you can't remove via this method: I would try the peppermint shrimp. I understand that you have a pair of triggers in your tank, but from my experience, triggers don't always eat shrimp. I've had a niger trigger in my tank for several months, and all of my peppermint shrimp are still alive and thriving. So it's worth a shot. Best of luck!