Aiptasia

[newdamsel]

Hi guys

always tot that those aiptasia in my tank are harmless, I even thought that they are tubeworms~!!!!!! After a few pictures i got online.... ARGH~!!! They suddenly look hideous to me... I only got a 2 ft tank so i guess copperband are out.... Anyone knows which LFS sells true peppermint shrimps??? There's so much emphasis of not confusing it with the reef unsafe camel back shrimp.... How many should i get? one or two?

Thanx~!

[Morgan]

I do not think that shrimps are found in this part of the world. They are from the Carribbean. Where else the camel back can be found locally.

What I did was to use Kalk powder (the type use of calcium supplement in reef tank) mix with a little water and then apply onto aiptasia with a syringe. It work very well.

Do not do this at 1 go if you have a small tank. The PH of the water will sky rocket and you have more problem than just aiptasia.

[Tanzy]

Morgan is right. Peppermint shrimps are only available in the Carribean. Any so called 'Aiptasia Eating Shrimps' are Camelbacks which are not totally reefsafe. Inject kalk or if you have a small tank, just take the rock out and chisel the rock around the aiptasia out. Don't damage the aiptasia itself because it can regenerate from fragments. Flush with tank water and it should be fine.

[hongqixian]

Pile small and light pebbles around or on the offending anemone. It may eventually move ontop one of these and you can take it out and flush it. In the meantime make a saturated Kalkwasser solution, suck out some of the precipitate and drip it on the anemone. I've heard that some of this mixture can stick on the anemone from the outside and burn it as well as injecting inside.

[newdamsel]

Woah.. that sounds troublesome, having to move almost all my rocks and marking each individual aiptasia dwelling hole~! But i guess thats what i'm gonna do....

Thanx guys, all of you have been a great help

[BarraCudaTM]

I noticed starfish eat small anemones too, I once bought a rock anemone rock that comes with some sand anemones then they start to "migrate" and dissappear overtime, I lately found out that my common star and red general star will eat them

Somemore you can take out the starfish easily unlike fish

[clowntrigger]

pardon me guys, but what are aiptasia, a pictures will really help

[Achilles Tang]

Here's a pix.

[hongqixian]

The chocolate chip star eats practically everything the doesn't move!

[Phang]

AT,

Those pics you posted looks like yellow polyps...

or have I been keeping Aiptasias????????

[Achilles Tang]

Different Aiptasia species comes in different colours, some are brighter as they are photosynthetic.... some are duller and are found in the darker regions of your tank.

The above Aiptasia pix does look like yellow polyps at first glance.