I have had about 3 aiptasia in each of my overflows. I have been able to get a few out of the overflows in the past but these guys are in spots I cannot get to. Now I have 4, 3 are new and one has been there for a number of months in my main tank. Two are on rocks I can get out and deal with. I have tried the boiling water trick on the one that has been in there for a while but no luck. I cannot get kalk paste on him as he is out of reach of my hands. I am a bit alarmed as 2 of these suckers just showed up in the past few days. I feel like this could get out of hand quickly. My peppermint shrimp I had in the tank disappeared over the course of time so I am not to sure about adding anymore, I think something is having my shrimp for dinner. I have lost 5 shrimp over the course of 1 year. I think the aiptasia in the overflow are the problem. Any suggestions?
aiptasia in impossible places to reach
- Thread starter slojmn1
- Start date
mariner, no ball valve on the overflow. I have a lot of life in my overflows, numerous pods, worms, bristleworms. I would think that killing everything in both my overflows with boiling hot water might be a problem for the rest of the tank, maybe an ammonia spike. I like your creativity though.
I have about 30 of these in my 29 gal. And have had no ill effects form them. I used to think that they were bad ,and figured once I had a good number of them I would get a copperband butterfly to eat them ,(as I wanted one any way).But 6 months later and there still not a big problem. Will they become a problem? I don't know. If the numbers were to climb into the hunderds maybe ,but so far the seem to get along fine with all other corals. I have noted that they even seem to move away from other corals ,such as my finger leather ,to get more light. So IMHO I don't see the panic of having them!
Well, I went a huntin today. I think I came out ahead. Time will tell. I scraped three aiptasia from one overflow and two from the other. I was able to collect the parts and slime and remove from the overflows, at least for the most part. I lost two down the overflows into my sump. One may have made it to a pump and either turned into a million pieces and I will have aiptasia everywhere or it will pop up in the sump somewhere trying to grow. The second one I found in the sump and removed. I was able to move some rocks and get to the two in my tank and cover them with big wads of epoxy. Hopefully they will die in the next week or two and then I will remove the epoxy chunks. There were two others on a rock I removed. I dug one out completely over the sink and got him. The second one I got most of but may still have left some on the rock. I will be able to watch the spot and if he grows back I'll get him the next time. All in all a good morning. It's just that one missing guy in my sump that has me worried. I hope I got to the pumps in time.....
Hopefully they remain gone, but if they come back and you can get something straight to them I would suggest, and bear with the oddity- a modified Kalk needle.
If you go to a vetrinary supply store and pick up a syringe with a 18 gauge needle and have the Kalk to boil, tie wire and a dowel you are in business. You need to tie wire the body of the syringe so it remains stable when you hold it (use one piece of wire around each "wing" and attach them to the one long piece.) Next you crazy glue the dowel (whatever length you need) to the plunger. Insert the plunger into the body of the syringe, draw up your boiling Kalk and use the dowel to hold it and guide it into the body of the aptasia. While holding the body of the syringe from being pushed down with the tie wire press the dowel and kill the critter.
It may sound odd and somewhat ridiculous, but I think I may just patent it.
Good-luck,
-Danny
If you go to a vetrinary supply store and pick up a syringe with a 18 gauge needle and have the Kalk to boil, tie wire and a dowel you are in business. You need to tie wire the body of the syringe so it remains stable when you hold it (use one piece of wire around each "wing" and attach them to the one long piece.) Next you crazy glue the dowel (whatever length you need) to the plunger. Insert the plunger into the body of the syringe, draw up your boiling Kalk and use the dowel to hold it and guide it into the body of the aptasia. While holding the body of the syringe from being pushed down with the tie wire press the dowel and kill the critter.
It may sound odd and somewhat ridiculous, but I think I may just patent it.
Good-luck,
-Danny
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