aptasia

[cocoa_pleco]

are they a threat to anything? I just read that there are products to kill it. Are they violent to other anenomes or something?

[Fishguy2727]

I know many people have problems with them taking over tanks. I am not sure what the actual threat is. It may just be like green algae in a fw tank, looks bad and not what you got the tank for, so you don't want them. I am not sure though, best to check with a good sw forum.

[cocoa_pleco]

i found a nano-reef forum

I actually like aptasia, its like a mini anenome thats really hardy. If theres no threat, and its just a pest like algae, im fine with it

[Fishguy2727]

They kill corals and anemones. Best control is a peppermint shrimp (must be the warm water carribean species though).

I checked one of my books. I thought it was somethign worse than an eye-sore.

[2manyfish]

Aiptasias are more then just an eye-sore. They will sting corals and they reproduce quickly. They will spread and spread if not stopped. Peppermint shrimp will sometimes eat them, sometimes not. Copperband butterflies are the same hit or miss. Copperbands BTW are very delicate and not something I would recommend. There are a couple of things that will kill them for sure.

The first is the easiest. A berhgia (sp?) nudibranch. Aiptasia is the only thing this nudibranch will eat. The biggest problem with them is once the aiptasia is gone, they will starve. So it's important to pass the nudi on once the aiptasia are gone. Most stores will be happy to take them as lots of people have problems with those pesky anemones.
The second way is more labor intensive. There is a product called Joes Juice. You buy this (I think it comes with a small syringe) and you inject each and every single aiptasia. They will die if you can inject them!

Good luck!

[cocoa_pleco]

can i just manually take out the aptasia?

[2manyfish]

You can manually remove them but you must make sure that the entire thing is gone. Leave a little bit and it will regenerate. In fact, that's one of the ways they reproduce. When they move (and they are very good at moving) they will leave small bits and pieces of themselves attached to the rock. These bits and pieces can become a clone of the parent anemone!

IF you wanted to try the manual method, then you might want to remove the rock(s) from your tank, scrape as much of the anemones off that you can, then rinse the area really good with tank water. Don't let this water back into your tank!!

Good luck!

[cocoa_pleco]

the aptasia are mainly gone now. I think the condylactis can take care of the rest since they sting other anenomes