Aptasia on a frag at LFS, worth it?

[04mach1]

Saw a zoa frag at LFS that had an aptasia in the center of the zoas. The guy working there put it in a take with some pep. shrimp that made quick work of it. My question is would it be safe to buy and put in my system or would the aptasia still be in the rock and spread?

[phantomg23]

id say it was safe, but watch it

[heatdissipation]

You could also put it in a qt tank and keep your eye on it before putting it in your display tank. That's what I would do if it was something I really wanted.

[neuro]

how imbedded is it? you can go through a dipping regiment, but it may not kill it unless you actually scrub it.

i personally would be dipping and lightly brushing my zoas before putting it into my tank regardless. you should be ok if you do something similar.

[mayjong]

cut the zoas off, glue to a fresh plug

[04mach1]

cut the zoas off, glue to a fresh plug

To many on the rock. Thanks for the suggestions.

[dan1789]

Personally I wouldn't risk it.

[vanbro1]

berghia nudi - then it doesn't matter :)

[sanababit]

Kalk it, before putting it into tank

Sana

[OrQidz]

maybe they will knock off a few $$ off the price and you can kill the aiptasia and QT for a while, see if it comes back.

[silleb]

Get a couple pepermint shrimp to go along with it!

[Photobug]

Are you telling me you have an aptasia free tank yourself? I did not know that existed. If so I would never risk introducing a possible source for them. Either quarantine or leave the frag at the store.

[uny2bld]

You could also put it in a qt tank and keep your eye on it before putting it in your display tank. That's what I would do if it was something I really wanted.

+1 - I do this with every purchase regardless if I have seen a pest or not. It makes dealing with issues easier

[accordsirh22]

Are you telling me you have an aptasia free tank yourself? I did not know that existed. If so I would never risk introducing a possible source for them. Either quarantine or leave the frag at the store.

i have an aiptasia free tank, basically always have. always kept peppermints too and never bought anything with aiptasia on it. so yea, its VERY possible

[JohnV8r]

I'm an aptasia war veteran.

The frag will be fine after the LFS has put it in a tank of Peppermint Shrimp. There is about a 0.0001% chance that there is anything left on it. If you want to eliminate that 0.0001% chance, take a Peppermint Shrimp from the tank that he put it in home with you. Peppermint Shrimp are great at killling small aptasia. However, not all Peppermint Shrimp immediately eat aptasia. If you have seen Peppermint Shrimp in a specific holding tank at your LFS eat aptasia, get one or two. They are priceless guardians IMO.

Kalk is a bad idea on a zoa frag. The likelihood that you accidentally kill the zoa is high.

After having an unbelievable aptasia outbreak that I could not get under control, I tore my tank down. When I set it back up, the first thing that went in were Peppermint Shrimp. Peppermint Shrimp are only effective on aptasia of a certain size. IMO you should have Peppermint Shrimp first, then add frags. Don't wait until you have an issue and then add the shrimp. It won't always work if the aptasia have reached a size that the shrimp won't eat.

I have not had an aptasia since 2008.

[borderreef]

Kalk it, before putting it into tank

Sana

+1. If you want it, take it. But take precautions. Make a paste out of kalk and smother it. Keep the rock qt'd for observation. If it or any others show up, kalk again or shoot it full of lemon juice.

[biggles]

As others have said, just kill it with kalk paste etc and watch the frag to make sure you nuked it completely. Aptasia is easy to deal with manually in small numbers.

[chrismayu]

+1 on the peppermint shrimp

[SushiGirl]

Since the peppermint shrimp already ate the aiptasia at the store (not sure how so many people missed that part of the post!), take both with you. Still dip the frag (dipping wouldn't kill aiptasia anyway, but other possible pests will be removed). QT the coral.

In other words, I agree with JohnV8r LOL.

[ashish]

Don't do it unless you have aiptasia (which from the looks of it you don't)
Only way is if you quarantine it for at least 4 days and make sure you aiptasia-X frag until gone. Then your good but putting it strait in DT is a NO NO

[Michigan Mike]

Unfortunately. I'm starting to get more aiptasia all of the sudden. I went a year and only had 2 that I quickly got rid of. Now I even have a couple on the glass, deep in the rock work & a bunch of small ones are popping up, I hate them so bad as I did really well for a while.

Aiptasia-x or other things won't work so I'm thinking of getting a couple burghi nudibranchs.

Oh, I wouldn't get the frag but its possible to remove it, I just wouldn't if I was starting over.

[HUNTER1]

They multiply so fast. I started with nothing and now I have at least 20 babies and few mothers. Fortunately my tank only has Xenia and GSP and I just had back surgery and
cant deal with them. So aiptasia farm in the works. My wife likes the look of them.

[reeftobe]

If you really want it , qt for a while to be safe.
Otherwise pass. The same zaos will be available again probably

[Pallobi]

Don't be foolish, don't even bother with it... Jmo...

[Chief Hill]

I had the same situation. I pulled the rock and found the tiny tunnels the 3 aiptasia were in and simply put a couple drops of CA glue, aka crazy glue over the hole and its a gonner seals the hole so nothing can get out. I had the rock for 7 months now and have not seen them since.
One other rock I had with 2 on it I hit with syringe and boiling water and that killed them as well.