|
04/01/2013, 08:56 PM | #26 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: New Orleans, La
Posts: 1,919
|
I'm in the process of using nudibranchs on my outbreak. They have been in there for about 3 weeks now. I'm hoping for results around week 8.
__________________
Steve - Retired from reefing, for now. |
04/01/2013, 09:17 PM | #27 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 289
|
Time to buy about 30 peppermint shrimp and let them do their jobs...
Then sell them back to the LFS at a heavy discount (-60-70% purchase price) for store credit... Problem solved. Make sure you get the 'good kind' that eat aiptasia. http://suite101.com/article/peppermi...posters-a42649 Last edited by ReeferBatman; 04/01/2013 at 09:22 PM. |
04/02/2013, 08:38 AM | #28 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
Peppermint shrimp - I have yet to see eat one of 1000's of aiptasia that where at close range and monitored. Soon as I added the peppermint shrimp to my DT I was down to 6 instantly. I do think the odds of having a few peppermint shrimps survive long term in a reef tank is highly unlikely. I have had blood fire shrimp and skunk vanish with in 6 months, peppermint shrimp are almost invisible and the best time to spot them is at night. They do a great job of keeping LR free of new aiptasia. I see now why they do the job but they won't touch anything that's visible.. Which is fine since once your aiptasia is manageable your shrimps will take care of the rest. Its also tough finding the peppermint shrimps that will eat aiptasia. I would cut down on your frozen foods aswell as the peppmint shrimp may become dependent on eating just that. It's not cheap buying/replacing/losing peppermint shrimps. I spend $40 on 8 (few weeks later) I have 2. Lucky for me my LFS really has no marine aquarium business so they usually always have them b/c no one in clearfield buys shrimps for $6 a pop..Which is cheap to me
Last edited by ashish; 04/02/2013 at 08:48 AM. |
04/04/2013, 05:09 PM | #29 |
Premium Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 309
|
I had very much the same problem in my 200 gallon display and I tried every mechanical means of removal except removing the rock and letting it dry out.
My cure was the purchase of a copper band butterfly fish that ate every single one within a few weeks or so... This is just one large rock in the mid section of my 7' tank.
__________________
A salty enthusiast since 1986 Current Tank Info: 200 gallon Oceanic display, 120 gallon nem tank & 300 gallon Rubbermaid sump |
04/04/2013, 05:13 PM | #30 |
Premium Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 309
|
Had one hitching a ride on a snail...
__________________
A salty enthusiast since 1986 Current Tank Info: 200 gallon Oceanic display, 120 gallon nem tank & 300 gallon Rubbermaid sump |
04/04/2013, 08:15 PM | #31 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
Quote:
They are not completely covering the LR; so can easily be target with aiptasia X. You will probably not have to remove the rock. If you want remove a few pieces kill aiptasia in a seperate tank and put them in your sump. They won't multiple fast in your sump without lighting or direct feeding. Just do a small section at a time (10-20 per treatment). Don't think you can get them all at ones or they will reproduce fast. I'd say your aiptasia problem can be solved but theres a skill in using aiptasia-x. Patients and making sure the entire oral disk is covered and then some. Good luck hope the copperband's work but they really have a track record of not surviving long-term in captivity. I wish they would just leave these delicate species in the reefs. |
|
04/04/2013, 10:32 PM | #32 | |
Premium Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 309
|
The short story:
I built a house and moved in in august of 08' at that point I wasn't ready to restart my system so I put all of my live rock to a dark sump for around 8 months. In that time it appeared that all the Aiptasia was gone however I restarted my system in early 2009 and within a few months it was clear that what I though was gone was still there only as seedlings. I spent the next 6-8 months trying to kill the F#$%ers using Aiptasia X, injecting them with caulk paste and or boiling water, taking the rock out and torching them, applying super glue over them etc... By this time I had thousands of them covering everything in my 200 gallon peninsula style tank - all you are seeing in the pic is one side of one rock. About 2 years ago I got desperate and posted a request in the WTB section for a healthy Aiptasia eating CBB. Fortunately a fellow reefer came through and shipped me one for around $100 including the shipping. As I stated within a few weeks every Aiptasia was gone. I have been pest free (more or less) since I acquired him and he is healthy feeding on a diet of mysis, clam & sheet algae - he is one of my favorite fish. Highly recommended assuming you get the right specimen. Quote:
__________________
A salty enthusiast since 1986 Current Tank Info: 200 gallon Oceanic display, 120 gallon nem tank & 300 gallon Rubbermaid sump |
|
04/05/2013, 05:25 AM | #33 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Cape Coral, FL
Posts: 10,431
|
Quote:
__________________
The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. (Neil deGrasse Tyson) Visit my build thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2593017 |
|
04/11/2013, 03:22 PM | #34 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
|
04/11/2013, 03:58 PM | #35 |
-=Snake=-
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Posts: 999
|
Geezuss guys; That's a ton of Aiptasia!!! I catch peppermint shrimp by the hundreds so I've never had a problem eradicating aiptasia from live rock. I sure wish I could send everyone of you guys with this dilemma 50 or so. I catch between 200-500 in one night at the Port Aransas jetties. Then I just give them away. They mow over aiptasia in no time if you don't over feed your tank.
__________________
-David 40 Gallon Breeder on Steroids!!! Current Tank Info: Where you'll find an Acan and Orange Ricordea Garden in Bloom... |
04/11/2013, 04:57 PM | #36 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
Quote:
for a disease.lol.. I think you could make a lot of money selling these for cheap instead of the $8+ retail price (which is to much) considering 80% don't last. You can easily sell them for $2 each but will have to box and ship. Still worth it. Last edited by ashish; 04/11/2013 at 05:03 PM. |
|
04/11/2013, 06:28 PM | #37 |
-=Snake=-
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Posts: 999
|
I've had 4 big peps in my tank for almost 2 years. They can live long in the right conditions.
__________________
-David 40 Gallon Breeder on Steroids!!! Current Tank Info: Where you'll find an Acan and Orange Ricordea Garden in Bloom... |
04/14/2013, 04:09 PM | #38 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 78
|
How do you catch them?
|
04/14/2013, 04:30 PM | #39 |
Coral Hoarder
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Miami, FL
Posts: 2,247
|
I just lost my pepper, it was almost 3 years old!
__________________
Alex FMAS Member Current Tank Info: 400 Gallons of frags... 30 gallon Deep Blue mixed reef ... 70 other tanks throughout south FL |
04/14/2013, 06:38 PM | #40 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
I got 8 in feb 13, and now I have 2. These 2 seem like survivers; wonder why the other 6 went to fast. It's almost like I dropped 8 in and there was only 5 the next day...Next time i buy peppermints I think i will put them in the LR section of my filter so they are 100% acclimate.
|
04/15/2013, 10:27 AM | #41 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Longmont, CO
Posts: 1,889
|
Quote:
Unfortunately, my tank currently looks a lot like the OP's. Ever since my copperband died they made a comeback. Not one in sight when my CBB was alive.
__________________
Some days it's not even worth chewing through the restraints. Current Tank Info: 250g starphire: 72x28x30, BeanAnimal drain with an oversized non-durso emergency drain, 4 inch DSB, 3x Reefbreeders Value LED fixtures, SWC/MSX 300A skimmer, Geo kalk reactor, 3 Vortechs w/bb, carbon reactor, and a RKL |
|
04/15/2013, 03:24 PM | #42 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
comeback..lol
Mine are making a comeback, in my overflow,My tank is so nutrient free that they don't stand a chance with my 2 peep's..if i lost them I'd cry |
04/17/2013, 09:09 AM | #43 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 12
|
Congrats on an awesome job well done. I have to admit, I had a nano tank with the same level of outbreak and I just called it quits. It is good to see the good guys win once in a while.
|
04/24/2013, 10:32 PM | #44 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
yeappp they can be controlled and turned into a positive (food source for the shrimps).
Still haven't had to use my aiptasia X for over 2 months... |
06/29/2016, 08:46 PM | #45 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 209
|
Well my 2 cents on this...and I'm sure I will get nailed to the cross here. Man o man...okay reefers. You guys have a civic duty to do AS MUCH FOR YOUR FISH AS POSSIBLE. I dont care what the circumstances are you take care of that damn tank. BEFORE YOU GET INTO THE HOBBY, you need to make sure you have back up contingency plans. Meaning, you are willing to spend whatever money you need to take care of the tank. If you are going to quote unquote "Be away from home" from home for a while you beat you sweet a** you need to find away to hire someone to watch over it. Okay...so I get the people saying "Well hey man we didnt know we would be gone that long". It's called proper planning guys and gals. So basically its like saying "Well lets get a dog babe" You and your wife get the dog and then figure it out as you go. No...not the way it should work. Its not fair to the animals or what have you. I keep seeing all these post of, well the power went out and I lost everything, well this happened and that happened. Look...no literally look at your tank everyday. Make a journal, spend good money on good equipment, read and research...do lots of this. Then use common sense and logic...along with what the majority says and you should be okay. I'm so sick and tired of people not doing extensive research before hand and getting into this hobby. I ready books apon books before I embarked on this stuff and to this day have had zero problems minor small things.
|
02/03/2017, 03:15 PM | #46 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
The tank is still going strong. The Aiptasia never came back and going on 4 years after original posting.
|
02/03/2017, 07:25 PM | #47 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, MY
Posts: 813
|
Kill it if you see one!. Letting it grow a bit will be your worst nightmare. The moment i saw one, even a tiny bit of it will be "kalked" straight away.
__________________
75 gallon DT, 5 gallon sump, DIY LED bar with moonlight, DIY Arduino controller Current Tank Info: 75 gallon/Arduino Controller |
02/03/2017, 08:08 PM | #48 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: New Brunswick Canada
Posts: 627
|
In my tank, none of the other fish pays any attention whatsoever to my matted filefish. Its taken care of my aiptasia for months now. He likes to curl up like a dead leaf and float along the bottom, but spends most of his time pecking around the rocks. Never touches a coral. Recommended.
|
02/03/2017, 10:44 PM | #49 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bridgewater NJ
Posts: 500
|
Peppermint shrimp X10 will eat them before you even see them. the ones you miss just wack them with aiptasia X. Oh and buy the big refill =)
|
02/25/2017, 12:53 PM | #50 |
Registered Seaweedist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 5,807
|
I'd like to share a method I stumbled onto that kills aiptasias too.
First let me say I had some success with peppermint shrimp and filefish. The problem for me was that they both go after other stuff that I didn't want them eating. So after removing them, the aiptasias came back. I then invested in Berghia nudibranchs, which also are effective, but awfully expensive. They are, in my opinion the best aiptasia controller, and an elegant, natural solution. Then my tank got ICH. I decided to treat it with hypo salinity, in my display rather than QT, as I was unable to catch the fish. Long story short, two weeks into treatment, and my aiptasias are gone. So I will toss this method into the ring! Hypo kills aiptasias. Obviously, this method will not be practical for many, but it is another way to do it. If you are in a situation where you don't mind treating your whole display, this could be an effective (and cheap!) alternative.
__________________
As many naturalists and environmentalists have suggested, we should set aside our arrogance, our desire to conquer and control everything, and walk hand in hand with Mother Nature. -Walter Adey Current Tank Info: 180g Seagrass Sandbar Lagoon, START DATE November 28, 2018 |
Thread Tools | |
|
|