BAH! Aiptasia

[Ted_C]

I am cursing up a storm since last night. I discovered Aiptasia in my tank. My brand new tank! Took such pains to follow the rules to minimize my risk and got it anyways (by the rules - I mean Dead rock, Dead sand). I should have not added stuff from unknown sources. FYI: I am an no way singling out anyone in my source list - I'm only posting this so others can understand no matter what you go through to try to eliminate the problem from the beginning - your probably going to get Aiptasia or Majano

The only good news - I took a closer look and this is the only one I can find in the entire display tank. Lord knows whats on the rock in my sump/refugium.

https://tclaypool.homeserver.com/public_pictures/2013_01_13_Aiptasia.jpg

https://tclaypool.homeserver.com/public_pictures/2013_01_13_Aiptasia_Crop.jpg

Currently trying to figure out how to get a hold of or buy a laser to burn it up. Since the "How to kill Aiptasia with a laser" thread was started, it looks like the FDA has put restrictions on what can be purchased in the US for lasers strong enough to reach into the center of our tanks. Survival Laser has two separate sites for US and international - they sell the housings and all - but the actual diodes have to be purchased somewhere else.

Possible Sources:
Fins N Gills: One piece of live rock and 1 cup live sand.
IPSF: (bristle worms, spaghetti worms, sandbed clams, Liquid n reducer, 6 nerite, 6 strombus, Reef amphipod kit, Live sand activator (came with Hermits), ministars)
FAOIS: turbo snails
Viper: Chaeto

[aguila88psi]

Use kalk paste to kill that beast before it spreads more then it has already or try your luck with peppermint shrimp if you don't have ammonia or nitrite.

[Vpham97]

Aitaipsia can suddenly pop up in a tank without aitaipsia sighting for six months, tankthatdidnt have any new additions in the last year. No need to go on a witch hunt as you will get it again and again in the hobby. The type of rocks you have willmakeyour tanks susceptible to other pests.

I have a new bottle of Red Sea aitaipsia killer if you want to borrow or boil that rock if its not too much trouble as your tank is new.

[CrazyEyes]

I had a decent amount of aptasia when I started my 20g. Back then the newb in me thought simply pulling them off the rock would work, boy was I wrong. I put two peppermint shrimp in there and I have yet to see anymore aptasia.

[MrHarvard]

No need to stress it! It doesn't matter how careful you are sometimes it just pops up. Not a big deal just grab some aptasia x from VP or a few pep shrimp and it will be gone in no time. EVERYONE deals with it at one point or another.

[CrazyEyes]

I've also heard copperband butterflies love that stuff too. But I'm not sure what size your tank is. I've also heard they can be difficult to keep sometimes.

[Ted_C]

I figure I'll get the laser to deal with it. looks like a 1.2 watt self built will be in my future. Since I see I have it now - I figure I have more of this in my future - so the laser will have future use.

I don't know - it could have been on the rock to begin with (dead pukani rock from BRS cured for 6 weeks). Maybe there wasn't enough vinegar in my initial bath or too much light (no direct sunlight on my porch or car port - but you never know).

I want to be careful with what I add (or boil). I would like to maintain the sand bed critters as much as possible and I'd hate to kill off the Copepods/Amphibods that are calling that rock home - its the 2nd largest rock in the aquarium.

If anyone was curious - this aiptasia is less than 1/4" in diameter and height - took pictures with my samsung galaxy s2.

[oldsaint]

I would add a good QT regiment to your process.

If you're having a hard time finding a laser the Majano Wand works pretty well.

http://majanowand.com/

[Ted_C]

I'm not trying to figure out where it came from. Not bashing any stores or people. Like I said in my OP - I'm not calling anyone out.

It seems to be general consensus in the thread that this happens and there's no way to prevent it. I tried to minimize my risk and it didn't work.

I have the utmost confidence in all of the vendors I listed and will continue to buy my supplies from them.

[Ted_C]

I dont think a laser is going to work... This has to be the guy spawning all the others - and he is HUGE! Its hard to believe - but this was in my sump and it propagated to the display tank (the first pics in this thread)... Its around 2.5" when fully extended and about 2" in diameter. The base going into the rock is probably 1/2" in diameter.

The cropped picture shows two of them - circled. The green circle is some sort of hitchhiker crab. you can just barely see his little claw. Not a hermit and there are two of em - one of em is quite a bit bigger around the size of a nickel.

https://tclaypool.homeserver.com/public_pictures/2013_01_20_BigAiptasia.jpg

A little later with the lights off and flashlighting it <cropped>
https://tclaypool.homeserver.com/public_pictures/2013_01_20_BigAiptasia_Crop.jpg

I hate to put AiptasiaX in the display. Maybe I'll try the kalk paste.

[Ted_C]

Ok - Kalk Paste and Laser treatment complete. I used Kalk Paste on the original piece I saw in the display and on the big aiptasia and the one next to it. I say it seemed to work well - because, well, you'll never really know if you got it all and did a good job until more start showing up or not.

After about an hour of letting the kalk paste sit on these guys, I cleaned out my syringes (10 ml and 50 ml syringes) and used the 50 ml to suck at the hole where the big guy used to sit pulling out the remains.

It's a shame that the one was fairly attractive with the striations and all in the tentacles. But they have to go - right?

Got my laser last night, put it together and burned the rest that I could see. it does a real good job and is super powerful. I accidentally burned a hole in my golf jacket when I turned it on.

Oh - that crab that I saw - that was about the size of a nickel - I got a better look at him - he was a brown hairy crab with sharp pointed claws. I hated to do it - but he had to go. I saw other opinions to put him in the sump but I was worried he'd go after the live stuff in my sump like the mini-stars, bristle worms, sandbed clams if he got hungry enough. I used a steak knife to impale him.

So, if anyone would like to trade services to burn pests in their aquarium - let me know. I'll travel from Largo to Land O' Lakes to Bradenton to Tampa.

[Ted_C]

Ressurecting one of my old threads - the original picture I took of the aiptasia / sponge anemone / whatever it was in the main display continued to come back. The problem was it is growing in a rock and I was unable to get to the base of the thing with my laser. SO I'd burn down the tip and the base would remain.

I had other outbreaks of these things - I noticed some growing on the rocks in my return well in the sump, some was growing on the egg crate I was using to elevate my skimmer in the skimmer well, some was even growing on the sand bed / glass interface in the display.

When I could get to the buggers - I just removed it manually - usually by taking it to the sink and scrubbing with a toothbrush. For the guys on the large rock / live rock that couldn't be removed - the only thing that worked was Kalk Paste.

I've since given away my laser (it was upwards of 1.7 watt - plenty powerful) and will stick tot he kalk paste method as it seems to work well.

[gambitcobra]

just pull the rock out and blow torch them. Cook them for a good min or two and then put back in the tank. Trust me thats what kills them

[ReefKeeper64]

This is my experience... I was using a new laser to kill em a few months back but babies would still keep poping up out of nowwhere. I suspect that frying them may have caused them to release spores but I'm no biologist so that is just a swag. After about a month of doing a laser treatment every few days to no avail, I went back to my old ways and picked up a couple of $2 peppermint shrimp. The babies stopped appearing within a week and most (but not all) of the larger aptasia disappeared.

There was this one aptasia that remained and I don't think the shrimp were finding it because it was up high on a rock where they didn't venture. I pulled that rock out of the tank and placed it in a 10 gal refugium. A hungry peppermint shrimp in there found that remaining aptasia within a day and it was gone!

HTH

[imchris]

I used peppermints on mine too and they did the trick within a couple weeks. Haven't seen any more pop up(it's been a couple years) so they must have gotten them all. I haven't seen the peppermints in a long time either. Is that all they eat? Did they starve afterwards?

[Ted_C]

I think the same thing Chris - burning them they didn't curl up and take it - they actually had pieces sliced off that spawned new ones.

The kalk paste is working great for me - luckily all mine are visible and can be gotten to.

[Vpham97]

I'm sure you already know to cut the water flow, apply the kalk, let it cover and syphon out.

[Ted_C]

re-opening this topic. I saw some aiptasia growing in the display and the sump again. The bad news - I couldn't get to the ones in the display as they were growing on the back wall of the rock work or inside the aquascape. I couldn't bring my self to tear down the aquascape once again to try and kalk paste next to my gorwing corals.

The good news:
many thanks to FAOIS - they sold me a large mature copperband butterfly (Chelmon rostratus) that came out of someone's 90 gallon they had broken down that was a garanteed Aiptasia eater. He's a big sucker! around 5 inches I think. Quite a shock to see such a large fish in my 120 when my largest is the bellus angel. They also educated me on all of the different species of peppermint shrimp and why only one species eats aiptasia. While I could have taken a chance on a less mature copperband butterfly, I didn't want to take the chance they wouldn't eat aiptasia.

He's only been in my display for two days (since saturday). I noticed on sunday most of the aiptasia colonies are gone. I placed my algae covered / aiptasia covered live rock which I think was the original source of these pests into the display - I'll let him clean that off too! I might lose some feather dusters from the rock but it is what it is.

By the way - I know I didn't quarantine like I should. This was the one exception. I wouldn't have taken this chance with anyone else's fish but FAOIS.

[CrazyEyes]

Interesting on the peppermint shrimp. I wasn't aware of it. Hope the copperband takes care of it all.