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Is this Dangerous?

bluespotocto;144146 said:
Well i tried the boiling water and started a siphon. IT WORKED!:shock: THats the approach you should use if you need to get rid of them.

If you happen to have kalkwasser powder (calcium) handy it's the same thing as Joe's Juice... you can buy enough to dose your tank for calcium many many times (if you have a reef setup it's more practical) and it's cheaper than a tiny vile of Joe's Juice. You can make a paste out of it and a mixture of water from your tank, suck it up in a syringe, feed it to the anemone/aiptasia, and "So long sucker". They melt.

If you use a ton of it, it can throw off your pH, but just injecting a few won't hurt anything and it works every time.
 
AM,
I tried the home brew method with the ones in this tank (kalkwasser, calcium hydroxide, is pickeling lime and you can buy a pure can of it really inexpensively at the grocery - MrsWages states on their website: Food grade calcium hydroxide with no additives or preservatives.) I am not sure if JJ is ONLY kalkwasser though. Either these particular anemones are resistent to PH change (the result of using kalkwasser) or JJ has more in it. One thing to note though, if using JJ or you are making your own brew, I have found that microwaving the mixture helps keep it in suspension. I will report back after using JJ on these critters (I had not tried my own concoction before) to see if I see a difference.
 
have you tryed getting rid of them with Sodium Hydroxide 100% Ko rate... Only set back is its very powerful stuff not recommend but apparently gets job done.
 
Just my 2 cents... I have used Joe's Juice on aptaisias in tanks with delicate rose bubble tip anemones with not ill effects. You need to apply it directly in the center, it will make them melt and them I use a turkey baster to such out the remains of the aptaisia.

A few years ago my young daughter had her very own 2 1/2 g. pico. She desperately wanted an anemone. Her uncle gave her an aptaisia from one of his tanks. That satisfied her, she was happy although clueless, poor thing. It got food when the tank was fed and it started to grow and grow until it was enormous. It was rather prettty for an aptaisia, it had delicate stripes and had the quickest feeding response I have ever seen, it ate everything and anything. (wish I had photos, never wanted to show anyone, I was embarassed) It was around 3 or 4 inches across. It never reproduced in the 1+ year we had it. Durring reaquascaping, it was damaged removing it, my brother kept it and it healed but never regained it's glorious appearence that it had in Sam's pico. I think Dave still has it, he thought it would be a shame to destroy it, it really was pretty.
 
Unfortunately, the one tank I have with a problem is a nano and the rocks are covered with zoes that I don't want to kill (along with an anemone or two). Everytime I knock them back they return and grow bigger and stronger and repopulate. I think my attempts to eliminate them set off reproduction. I can't seem to keep a pep in the tank to eat the small ones. I think Mr. Green Jeans (green serpent) must catch them.

All other problems with them I have conquered with Joe's Juice and peppermint shrimp, just not this tank and these aptasia.
 
Have you ever tried Berghia Nudibranches, sea slugs that solely eat aiptasia anemones? There were a couple guys around here that were trying to raise them a while back. The problem with these nudis is that they only eat aiptasia, once your supply is gone, they will die and of corse they are expensive.
 
No one has mentioned peppermint shrimp. I'm not sure whether they will take on the relaly big ones, but they will control smaller ones (at least up to an inch) very well. I used the boiling water in a syringe for the big ones, and peppermint shrimp for the small ones. If you have an octopus in the tank at the time, the peppermints might become dinner!

Nancy
 
I use peps to control them normally with great success (as noted above). It may even be that the Joe Juice has always only knocked them back (like in this tank) but the the peps consume them when they return. I have put at least three in this tank but they just "disappear". Mr. Green Jeans (my green serpent star) my make a meal of them at night. The other slight possibility is the overflow to the back sump (it is a nano) but I put a relatively large one in the other day and have not seen it since.
 
I have a 14g biocube. I put a single peppermint shrimp in there many months ago, noticed a couple aiptasia. The aiptasia were still there weeks later (Joe's juiced them)and the peppermint was never to be seen again, or so I thought. The other day I saw it alive and well. I don't know where it's been hiding in such a small tank, kind of wierd. :roll:
Maybe it will show up, you never know.
 
Ours disappear and reappear frequently (especially in the largest tank). I can always find the one in Creepy's tank and I suspect they are nocturnal (that tank is very dimly lit and has a 24/7 red light). Unfortunately, I have lost every one I have tried in the nano and I just don't know if Mr. Green Jeans gets them or it is something else that makes them disappear.
 
I would disagree about being nocturnal. The peppermints in Ollies tank are always out all day long. Although I do see them when I feed him too after lights out but it could be they are used to me feeding at this time and they are chow hounds. It could be my single and yours hide as we approach during the day, just a thought.
 
I have wondered if there are different kinds. The one in the reef is rarely seen and we often think he has finally passed on. He is quite large for a pep and when he does show up, we see him for several days and then he disappears again (but then my Trigger fish does this too, sometimes for a month). The one in with Creepy can always be found and never hides in the rockwork even though there are lots of places he can shelter without being seen. That one is most interesting and I can tell when Creepy has changed locations to somewhere near the shrimp as it will dash to the other side of the tank just before an arm appears.
 
The peppermint shrimp do work very well. Don't expect that the issue will be solved overnight. In my 125 reef overflow I had a massive growth of them at the bottom. I purchased a couple of peppermint shrimp and within 2 weeks the aiptasia were gone. I keep them in my sump becuase I am trying to ensure that they don't get back up into the display (aiptasia that is). So there are a couple of natural predators, obviously the peppermint shrimp and the other is berghia nudibranch (make sure it is Berghia verrucicornis). The nudi is a bit expensive and then once it has done it's job - it will perish if it doesn't have more to eat. They are available on the web, seem to be around $15 and up per nudi plus shipping. As far as over the counter the Joe's juice works, but the solids in the mix seem to harden and not redesolve - so once you open the bottle and use it, then put it back on the shelf sealed again....it never really mixes up and there are little rocks in the bottom of the bottle where the kalk solidified. I have gotten fond of the Red Sea Aiptasia-X. Comes with a straight tube and bent end syringe to assist in the delivery of the fluid.

There are several types of pest anemone: common aiptasia which is typically the brownish color and stringy tentacles, there is the glass anemone about the same shape but looks very clear like glass - quite pretty actually, and then there are the manjo anemones. They are particularly interesting when they get larger. I have never had one, but their tentacles are stubbier and I have seen them with green tentacles - looks almost like a giant zoanthid. Hope this little bit helps, this is just my experience. I am currently keeping 4 peppermint shrimp in the 125 to make sure there aren't any aiptasia before the cuttles are ready for release. I use the Red Sea Aiptasia-X on the ones in the DT that I see and it works with one application.
 

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