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justchillinuno 
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 Topic: Aiptasia outbreak in HOB refuge
Posted: July 18 2013 at 9:36am |
Hello all,
I am currently having a HUGE outbreak in my hang on back refuge on my 55 gallon. I removed some cheato a week or 2 ago to look for a sea hair... I removed a couple small aiptasia's from it... then it seems like overnight it BLEW up with 100's of lil ones... Im considering getting some shirmp to eat it, but what other options do i have? Here are some pics!!!
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55g - RIP - Moved to 90g
36g Bow holding tank
90g Reef Tank
Dreams of many more!
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Ann_A
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 9:50am |
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Dry it out, get peppermints, or use a manual treatment (aiptasia x, kalk paste, laser, etc.). Personally I'd chuck three peppermints in there and see what happens.
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Molli
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:17am |
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If it were me, I'd dump everything in the fuge and start over again. Your real problem is that now you are going to finds lots of aptasia in your tank.
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justchillinuno
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:40am |
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Im moving from my 55 to 90g in a couple weeks, I am getting a couple peppermints to throw in there in the mean time... when we move to the 90g im using this on my 36g Bow and will start from scratch... so far the 2 large aiptasia i have in my 55 havent created more... Im just hoping it doesnt explode in the next few weeks...
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55g - RIP - Moved to 90g
36g Bow holding tank
90g Reef Tank
Dreams of many more!
|
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Ann_A
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:54am |
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Maybe put 3 in the fuge and 3 in the main tank. They do great in trios.
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justchillinuno
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:56am |
I have 5 peppermints hiding out in my 55, they have NEVER touched the aiptasia in there... but when i got them I was never told they had been fed aiptasia... dont i have to buy ones that have had spirulina flakes fed to aiptasia so they would eat them first? Or do ALL peppermints eat it?
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55g - RIP - Moved to 90g
36g Bow holding tank
90g Reef Tank
Dreams of many more!
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jason
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:02am |
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Pepermimts are hit and miss bergia will take care of the problem
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if wishes were fishes we would all have some
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justchillinuno
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:04am |
Ahh nice, anyone know where i can get some bergia locally?
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55g - RIP - Moved to 90g
36g Bow holding tank
90g Reef Tank
Dreams of many more!
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1stupidpunk
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:06am |
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Most peppermints will eat the aiptasia from my experience, the key to it is to not feed them for a few days so they are hungry enough to hunt some food down. Aiptasia X works well for the ones you can see, you can also try injecting with lemon juice.
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AcroNem
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:39am |
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I hate aptasia in a display tank. But in a refugium they can actually be pretty good living filters with a ton of them. If you want them gone a group of peppermints or a bergia will do the trick :)
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Akira
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:48am |
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I just nuked a couple with a needle and lemon juice, I used the same method previously but also added a few peppermint shrimp and they ate all new comers. Just make sure they are peppermint and not just look alikes. I would add peppermint now but my wrasse would make a snack of the shrimp.
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Ann_A
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:49am |
I got 5 berhias for my tank and never saw any difference in my aiptasia population. This was probably because I added a wrasse two days later, but I was told they were nocturnal and would hide from wrasses during the day.
I added 15 peppermints to my tank and my aiptasia population immediately began decreasing. The trick is to get a good amount of them and keep them hungry as they will go after other sources of food before aiptasia.
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chuckfu
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 12:24pm |
 Akira wrote:
I just nuked a couple with a needle and lemon juice, I used the same method previously but also added a few peppermint shrimp and they ate all new comers. Just make sure they are peppermint and not just look alikes. I would add peppermint now but my wrasse would make a snack of the shrimp. |
+1 to the lemon juice. Make sure you inject enough and into the stalk. I had two large aptasia's that would spawn off babies. I added two peppermints and they would not touch the large ones. I injected the large ones with lemon juice ( had to do it twice ) and didn't feed the tank for about a week. One morning all the aptasia was gone!
I tried Berghia ( with no wrasse ) and I would see them cruising around but after about a week they eventually died and were never seen from again. They did not help the aptasia problem. Also tried the Kalk paste. It would make the aptasia retreat for a few days and come back smaller but the only thing that would KILL it was the lemon juice.
I've heard the laser's are bad news as they can actually spread the " spores " while you are cooking them.
Good luck!
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Try, try, try, then give up!
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chuckfu
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 12:25pm |
Akira wrote:
I just nuked a couple with a needle and lemon juice, I used the same method previously but also added a few peppermint shrimp and they ate all new comers. Just make sure they are peppermint and not just look alikes. I would add peppermint now but my wrasse would make a snack of the shrimp. |
+1 to the lemon juice. Make sure you inject enough and into the stalk. I had two large aptasia's that would spawn off babies. I added two peppermints and they would not touch the large ones. I injected the large ones with lemon juice ( had to do it twice ) and didn't feed the tank for about a week. One morning all the aptasia was gone!
I tried Berghia ( with no wrasse ) and I would see them cruising around but after about a week they eventually died and were never seen from again. They did not help the aptasia problem. Also tried the Kalk paste. It would make the aptasia retreat for a few days and come back smaller but the only thing that would KILL it was the lemon juice.
I've heard the laser's are bad news as they can actually spread the " spores " while you are cooking them.
Good luck!
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Try, try, try, then give up!
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Akira
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 1:09pm |
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Ty chuckfu, to be clear I used needles for diabetics , bought from the pharmacy. It can be a bit tricky but if possible move it where you can get a good angle to hit it in the stalk . Then fill with juice until u see a puff of juice it will look like a small cloud and has always worked like a lucky charm !!!!!
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jason
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 3:06pm |
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alantic peppermint shrimp work the best of the peppermint shrimp but they are scavangers and will eat snails as well and also small crabs I wont use peppermint in my reef tank for this reason. bergia eat only aptasia (assuming you get the right type of nudi)but the problem with bergia is that they are at the bottom of the food chain.
I wish I could grow aptasia like you are lol ive been breeding both peppermint shrimp and bergia.
look for green eggs under the peppermint shrimp there are usually the type you want if u go the peppermint shrimp route.
whatever you do don't starve the shrimp if they don't like aptasia they will eat snails anything else first just a fair warning.
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if wishes were fishes we would all have some
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jason
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 3:08pm |
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also be carefull you can cut the feelers of on aptasia and they will grow into new ones also stress on the colony makes them reproduce
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if wishes were fishes we would all have some
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DLindquist
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Posted: July 18 2013 at 3:53pm |
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Sounds like you're upgrading very soon to a 90G. Will this set up include a sump? If so, I couldn't imagine you'll be using the HOB system any longer. Save your self the trouble and ditch the HOB now. If you're worried about lossing the filtration from the macro, simply place some of it in the display for now.
Edited by DLindquist - July 18 2013 at 3:54pm
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