quiet... im hunting anemones

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jessie

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Mar 3, 2004
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So im looking at the tank, decide to blow some of sand and stuff the tangs stir up off the rock. The enemy is spotted, one tiny, maybe 1/4 inch aipastasia, i quietly load the plastic seringe with a lethal dose of joes juice. POW.... hes hit and going down. when the warcries of the fallen anemone subside, i decide to take a good look around, the more i look, the worse it gets. charlies numbers are greater than i have ever dreamed. every rock i look at is covered with the little buggers, so deciding i am outmatched i beat a hasty retreat to regroup and assess the situation. when i infultrated the group, i discovered that i was getting a mass importation of the anemones from a lfs that i buy my grape culupra from. i interregate the remaining calupra and find several dozen tiny charlies hiding amoung its twisted vines. This is war people, and im loosing. how does one rid a tank of hundreds of the tiny little pests, without tearing down the whole system. i really dont think that taking them on an individual basis is gonna work. so the question i put before you, good people of AC, is there a way, can the war be won, and how?
 

Oliver

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Jan 17, 2005
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First of all I want to say how sorry I feel for you! How big is your tank?? What fish do you have? I suggest that you should get a copperbanded butterfly fish that would hopefully eat the aiptasia. There are some other ways but I think that a fish is the best way to fix it. GOOD LUCK!
 

mogurnda

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Apr 29, 2003
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Have you got peppermint shrimp? I have seen the occasional aiptasia, but never had an outbreak, maybe because of my peps.

If you can get hold of some berghia nudibranchs, they are supposed to be great for long-term control.
 

BBN

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I had a bad outbreak and a peppermint shrimp cleaned them up in a couple weeks. BTW, are those shrimp bad on other coral and polyps?
 

jessie

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i have one peppermint, but i think he is a premadonna, i might get a couple more to see if that works. and im not kidding, they are everywhere. the bad thing is that they came from a place that usually has their stuff together. its a 135 with 2 percs, a sailfin, a hippo, an algae blenny and a flame angel. off to research the nubabranch.
 

mogurnda

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BBN said:
I had a bad outbreak and a peppermint shrimp cleaned them up in a couple weeks. BTW, are those shrimp bad on other coral and polyps?
Mine have never harmed corals, but will snack on small, mobile invertebrates. The true peps (Lysmata wurdemani) that I have now are pretty well-behaved. I have had peps that were downright obnoxious, but I think they were another Caribbean species (L. rathbunae). The rathbunae are darker red, at least in the photos I've seen. If you get captive-bred peps, they will be wurdemani.
 

LordsSoilder

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Aug 29, 2005
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Ok, I'm a newb with the same problem, I bought a rock with them from an lfs I won't go to anymore. They were rude and took advantage of the fact I'm new...

anyway I've got a nice collection of aptasia and need to know more about them. My good lfs suggested peppermint shimp and sold me one cheap for $4 (he cut me a deal) they are usually cheap though. He also suggested joes juice, but i'm leary off adding stuff to my tank. He suggested taking the rock out and squirting it directly to the aptasia. Is that how I should do it? Also I take our the big ones with a pair of hemo's (scissor like grips). I grab them fast and cut them off at the neck... Is this a bad idea?

I also notice they eat the flakes I drop for my fish, will this make them grow faster?

Best of luck with your war Jessie, hope charley goes m.i.a. soon...
 

Gealcath

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Nov 9, 2003
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If you cut them it will spread it faster, the only way to kill an Aiptasia is to kill the whole animal in one blow, and cutting them wont do it.
 
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