# Aiptasia



## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

My lovely fiance bought a nice rock covered in mushrooms for Valentine's day. It is a nice set of mushrooms, and have opened up beautifully. For the first month it showed no sign of aiptasia, but over the last two weeks, there has been a small outbreak around the rock. What is the best method of getting rid of this pest? I heard that peppermint shrimp eat aiptasia, but can also eat mushroom corals...Is there any fish, or supplement that can rid me of this problem?

Sorry I did not give params, I haven't taken them this week. My last params as of a week ago were:
trates - <20 ppm, trites - 0 ppm, ammonia - 0 ppm, ph - 8.3, salinity - 1.023 s.g., calcium - 400 ppm.

inhabitants - hippo tang, pair of percula clowns, bangaii cardinal, frogspawn, hammer, zooanthid polyps of various colors, anthelias, mushrooms, ricordias, ss starfish, emerald crabs, fire shrimp, cerith and nassarius snails, hermit crabs and a RT bubble anemone.

tank - 46 gallon bow-front, 15 gallon sump, a hydor koralia 3 on during the day and a koralia 2 on at night, a coralife 65 gal superskimmer (I just switched from a seaclone 100), and a current USA nova extreme pro 36" T5 light, I just switched from MH lighting.

thank you.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

lemon juice in a pipette or needle works or joes juice, aptasia X... 

and for the heads up that hippo is going to out grow the 46 in no time, if it hasnt already.


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

Thank you for the aiptasia advice. Also, I was wondering if peppermints would be dangerous to the shrooms.

Every time I mention this hippo, I get this response. When he is too big, I will remove him. Or upgrade. Right now he is about 3" and is swimming fine. I cannot catch him, and I have tried extensively. I understand that one day my hippo will be gone. My LFS guy is under the impression that these fish grow to their enviroment, and that was why he sold it to me. If I knew that he just talking, then I would've reconsidered. 

Please keep the posts related to the topic, I understand this is the wrong size tank for the Hippo.

Thank you


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

i wasnt sure if you were aware or not so i mentioned it to see what was up, if anything it at the very least allows anyone and everyone reading/following this thread to know it isnt alright to put a tang in this size tank.

back to the aptasia, they seem to come randomly but some pure lemon juice in a needle squirting it at their mouth seems to work. im sure the products sold to do the job are more effective but usually lemon juice is found around the house. just be careful when you go to inject it by them that you dont bump them because they will shoot into the rock and hide before you even get a chance.


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

Thanks.

Are the peppermint shrimp an option? Do they eat corals?


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

theres a chance it could nip a coral but theres more of a chance as to whether it will eat it or not. ive heard its the wild caught specimens that do eat it and tank raised dont bother. im not 100% sure on that though.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

For what its worth... keep in mind, the answers we provide on these threads are read by many other people. The response is not just for you, but for the reader. Most readers will never post their own questions, so it is very important that we at least point out problems and solutions.

Also... have you tried feeding your fish using an aquarium net? It takes about 1 week and the conditioning kicks in. Your fish will almost jump in the net for you. You can catch almost any fish in a heavily aquascapped aquarium using this technique.


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## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

I understand that this could be educational for other readers, but last time I posted my inhabitants, the post went off topic and I had to filter through a lot of argument to get the answer to my question. 

Besides that, I have tried net feeding. The clowns are very responsive, and my fire goby was too, but whenever the tang sees the net, she hides. I tried this for about a month (I feed every other day). This was a couple of months ago, she had ich and I was going to throw her in a hospital tank, but to no avail.

When I upgrade to the 125, she should be fine. She is only about three inches right now, and hasn't really grown that much.

Anyway, this post has again gotten off topic. Is there anything I can use that isn't "direct" application? I have a hard time getting my hands in some areas that its growing...


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