New Print and eBook on Amazon:   Anemone Success Doing what it takes to keep Anemones healthy long-term by Robert (Bob) Fenner

Aiptasia and freshwater       7/3/13
Hey guys,
<Scottie>
Thanks for all of the great information found on the site, it's helped me out more times than I would like to count. I bought some awesome coralline covered LR months ago but later discovered it had Aiptasia on it. I set up a new tank and have been doing all I can to keep it from entering my new tank. I ended up soaking the LR in de-chlorinated fresh water, twice, for 8 hours each time and so far so good. Most of the coralline has stayed on the rock after 1 month which is great. I did setup a QT tank for some of  my corals but the Aiptasia made it into there as well. The Ricordea, I am just going to get to release from their rock or cut them from the LR then transfer them to the new tank. There are a bunch of blue Zoas that have Aiptasia on their rocks and this could get tricky. Does  Aiptasia grow on the actual Zoa polyp or mat?
<It does not; Glass anemones attach directly to hard substrates>
If not, I can try and slice the Zoas completely away from the LR and rinse before transferring them.
<Do take care if/when handling Zoanthids (gloves, eye protection). See here re: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ZoCompF3.htm
 Im also wondering if you have any idea of how long Aiptasia can survive in a FW dip.
<I don't think it can for hours>
I was thinking I could do a couple of FW dips/rinses, to hopefully kill the Aiptasia and not the Zoas before transferring to the new tank. If Aiptasia does make it into my display, I will have to put some biological controls in place to keep it from taking over.
<This last is best; is the route I would take>
Thanks again, looking forward to your insights.
Scott
<Ah welcome. Bob Fenner> 

Unwanted Pests, Who, What 10/10/07 Dear Crew, <Josh> I have a 70 gallon set-up with about 5 inches of sugar fine aragonite. The tank has been home to damsels for several months. <Insure you have plenty of sand sifters with that deep a bed.> I have recently purchased 90#'s of live rock. I have been curing it for almost 3 wks now. My question is in regards to "unwanted pests". I have read thru the posts regarding pests and related topics. The curing instructions provided with the rock suggests submersing the rock in 1.035 to 1.040 specific gravity water for about a minute. It then goes on to instruct the removal of unwanted pests and bristleworms. This is very general. I have read a lot about Bristleworms. I have read that they go into the sand. I have also read that they can make a meal out of coral. Could you offer a definitive idea of what I should I be looking for with regards to unwanted pests? <Unwanted pests can be anything that may do harm to your inhabitants, too numerous to mention here. For starters, large Bristleworms, Mantis Shrimp, Aiptasia Anemones, most large crabs, etc. If an unknown critter is found, best to isolate until it can be identified as friend or foe. Thanks you. <You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)> Josh

Hyposalinity & Aiptasia 10/8/05 Hello,  <Hello Katja (unique name)> I would very much appreciate your feedback :>. I just had a huge outbreak of tiny, clear Aiptasia (glass Aiptasia??) in my seahorse tank possibly due to excess freshly hatched brine shrimp.  <Yikes, but are you sure that is what they are? Unlikely they would have resulted from a shrimp hatch.>  They cover everything...glass, gravel, rocks, plastic plants. I have set up a baby horse tank so as to  1. protect babies from being stung and  2. stop feeding the main tank so well.  Can I starve the Aiptasia somehow?  <Unlikely as such, they produce much of their own food. Could try completely covering the tank so no light enters...heavy black sheet etc. I'm thinking if we take away the light source they require, they can't produce any food. Can't really tell you how long this would take.> I cannot obtain true peppermint shrimp (only camel back), Nudibranch nor red legged hermits. Do other varieties of hermit shrimp .i.e...... very small & black help?  <Never heard of others helping>  I suppose anemone shrimp would not eat them  <No> (only shrimp safe with baby horses due to small size). Would you know of any other biological methods safe with seahorses? Chemical injection and even Kalkwasser etc methods would be near impossible due to the sheer number and tiny size (needle pin size for most). However if I remove my horses (I assume I would need to do this?)...how long would I need to run the tank at ca. 1.01 salinity to ensure it is effective? And given that I have live rock and associate crew, will most of the micro-live e.g. bristle worms, Brittlestars die thus causing a ammonia spike and recycle of the tank? If yes, how long before it would all stabilize again do you think? Also would my mushrooms (morphs) and one soft coral survive?  <I don't think much will survive at 1.010. You may have to take it down lower to insure an effective kill of your Aiptasia along with any other living organisms on your live rock. If your tank is large enough, Copperband butterfly fish are good eradicators of Aiptasia but the care level is not easy.> Maybe I need to simply start afresh i.e. strip tank...soak in freshwater for a week.. ?  <This might be your best bet. I'm wondering if you added something else in your tank that would cause this kind of outbreak. It sure doesn't sound like Aiptasia. I know they are prolific breeders but not in the amounts you describe. James (Salty Dog)> Thank you in advance. <You're welcome> 
Hyposalinity & Aiptasia Follow-up 10/8/05 Thank you James :>. They certainly are Aiptasia as I tried to kill an adult several weeks ago (silly me) and thus spread its tissue to happily regenerate across the entire tank. But I'll either start afresh OR try to get some Stop Aiptasia from Carol Keen in America. Cheers Katja <OK, good luck with your eradication. James (Salty Dog)> 

Glass Anemones Hi <<Hi Cheryl, Craig answering for the WWM crew while they attend MACNA.>> I have a glass anemone on one of my live rocks. (the kind that is a pest weed) I have been told to put it in fresh water for two days. Will that kill the live rock? <<Yes, not a good plan for the rock.  Will pretty much kill it dead.   Many people inject Kalkwasser into them.>> I also thought  I could put the tip of the rock in boiling water (the place the  anemone is) and then after 3 min. put it back in the tank. Would that kill the rest of the live rock? <<I suppose this would work.  If you don't heat the rest of the rock too much or submerse it, only the anemone part in the boiling water would be affected. If it has coralline it will likely die off temporarily near the spot.  Probably won't take three minutes. You can poach a salmon filet in that time.  LOL! Be careful with the hot water! Craig>>

Aiptasia Removal Success (!)(? permanent) Hi Bob, I just want to thank the your site on the WWM on the suggestion how to get rid of Aiptasia. I have to admit I have tried everything, for those trying to pluck them out using tweezers you will just double their number. What I did is used a 160" ID Teflon, polyethylene is better though so you can angle shape to better reach the pest, then I connected a pointed tip at the distal end, that I took from the squeeze bottle. At the proximal end I connected a three way stop cock for easy draining to the sink, while the other end of the stop cock was connected to a biggest syringe I could find (60cc). I can't believe it that there were no scape for the Aiptasia, got sucked in, I was amazed. Thanks Bob, your site is great!  <Thank you, and congratulations on your success> Anyway about the low oxygen saturation I sent you last week, the current situation was, I tried to turn off the CO2 in the redox reading was 340, but as soon as I turn them on it went down to 290, it even went down to 250 that morning. <No real worries here...> I tried to lower the PSI from the regulator, which the company recommends 2-3psi, so I turned it down to 1.5psi, effluent PH was 6.9>>alk was 2.7, CA 410, PH8.1>>the redox is still low, my fish does not look sick, although they seem to be breathing hard than usual. I even added Mg every week since you said it might raise the CA/ALK, believe it did raise to a good level. <Yes... keep it (the magnesium) about three times your desired calcium concentration> I'm just worried about this low O2 sat, From today's FAQs you said not to worry, Even running an Ozone reactor does not help, the only thing that helps is by turning the CO2, but how can I maintain the CA/Alk when CO2 is off. Thanks, RL <All in balance my friend... Your readings are fine... keep going forward... and the growth of algae, photosynthates otherwise will straighten all of this out to a decent homeostatic arrangement. Bob Fenner>

Aiptasia i read one of the questions about Aiptasia and found if you remove the rock  from the tank and cover the Aiptasia with sea salt for about an hour then  rinse of in R.O. water that the Aiptasia just fall of in one of my tanks i  did this and have not had a regrowth. >> Thank you for your input... have heard of others "success" with real salty water, Kalkwasser... and other products... but you've got to be sure of getting every last cell... otherwise, just like an Ahnolllddd Film... "they'll be baacccckkkkk"