To make a long story short :)

K

Kitty

Howdy! Long time no see, guys!

I've come back to this board, because I know there is some guru out there that can answer this, despite the fact that searching all over the 'net has yielded no answers :lol:

For more than a year, I have been battling aptasia. Believe me, I've tried everything. The Joe's Juice, using a needle and injecting Super Calcium mixed with vinegar (burned, but they came right back within a week), to taking the rocks out and drying them - but only one at a time. (This one lead to a particular disaster that nearly killed everything in the tank - there were some zoos that had not completely died.)

Part of the problem is, I can't reach the bottom of the tank. (It's a 140 tall) and they have grown there, so there is no way to totally rid the tank of the aptasia.

Anyway, this is what I want to try next, and I'd like some opinions - and facts, if you have them! - about which method would be best. Since the aptasia have gotten over 3" long, and COVER a lot of the rocks, I'd like to take out ALL of the rocks - start over. I'll keep the large rocks as base, and order fresh stuff for the rest.

Would it be better to leave the rocks in a tank of FRESH water, and see if the ap's die? Or leave the rocks outside to totally dry? Since most of the life I do have are zoos or polyps, I don't particularly care if they die, too. (I'll save what I can, but they are WAY overpopulated anyway.) I do have a plan for saving my fish, and the very few corals that I have ...but I'd like to save as much coralline as I can, so complete dry-out, or leave in fresh to try and save what I can, and still kill the ap's....ugh.

And for the question of copper in the fresh water - I could use RO/DI, or just test ans see if my local supply has copper in it or not.

What do you think?
 
Hi,

I would get a green filefish, an Auriga butterfly and 10 -15 large(so the filefish can't eat them) true peppermint shrimp. :D Make sure you remove any sps/lps that you want to save first. A lot less traumatic imo.

Cheers,
 
I did peppermint shrimps and they worked good for me. I got 6 peps in a group buy with Marc for like $24 bucks they're smaller but still do the job quite well.
 
Thanks guys! But you see, that's another part of my problem - things (quite literally) disappear in the tank. Recently, I purchased a copperband butterfly, two cleaner shrimp, and four peppermints from Frank's Tanks. After two days, what do I have left? ONE cleaner shrimp. That's it. No parts of the fish, no parts of shrimp. And nothing big enough to eat these things!

I have a black hole in my tank, and it applies to the sump - in that I've put in four peppermint shrimp, and not seen them. I expected that, though. But they haven't eaten any aptasia, either.
 
@Kitty wrote:
Thanks guys! But you see said:
I had the same problem and added some peppermint shrimp about over a year ago. I too had aphasia down in the tank where I could not reach it. Since adding the shrimp it is all gone and have not seen any aphasia in over a year. By the way I only see the peppermint shrimp sometimes early in the mornings when it is still dark and I am feeding some of the corals before the fish come out. I can go several weeks without a sighting.
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Does your tank look like this? That's a 12+ inch long queen parrot in the photo taken at the Bermuda aquarium. Those Aiptasia are huuuuge.

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You could try something like relocating them to the fuge for nutrient export. Some people are using them in fuges. Might be able to trade some liverock for liverock. I know some people are also wanting to feed their copperband butterflies and other aptasia eating critters. Or if your attached to your rock you could seed your rock in other members tanks for them to eat the aptasia and have them give it back or something.


I heard some people putting the LR in the freezer helps.
 
I just got a matted filefish and he cleaned up the aptaisia in 3 days. This guy was perfect for the job and did it really fast. Highly recommend getting one.
 
Well, the end of the story is...I took out the most infected rocks, and let them dry. They are now for sale, totally clean - and totally dead, so good for base rocks.

After two tries, a copperband butterfly - fairly large-sized! - seems to be the answer. After about a week of settling in, he / she wiped out every aptaisia I could find. I threw in rocks from my sump that were covered - and they are now clean, too! I'm only afraid that the poor thing will go hungry before I find out what else it eats - so far, all offerings have been snubbed.

So, if anyone wants base rocks (even some are live with stuff on them) - they are in the For Sale. If anyone has a rock that has aptasia, bring it on by! My professional cleaner will have them off in no time!
 
@Kitty wrote:
Well said:
Try PE Mysis or clam on the half shell. I have yet to see a copperband not eat PE mysis which is strange, they did not eat the smaller mysis but went crazy for the PE mysis. Go figure.:D

Cheers,
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Great to see you back on again!

Good to hear you are getting under control. by some live clams from the chinese market (or whole foods if you want to pay a lot) Try giving these to the copperband. I had one that would not eat for a couple weeks and that did the trick. After that he started eating mysis form the shell, etc. With all the other fish it may be an issue getting it to him so you may want to put several around so he has his choice. Take them put within an hour though as you don't want them fouling your tank!
 
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