Aiptasia control

Don Geddis wrote:
wrote on Tue, 30 Oct 2007:
Pszemol wrote:
The best product I can recommend is buing some peppermint shrimps.

Tried them; they don't work.

Yeah, I've got tons of Aiptasia too. My peppermint shrimp doesn't seem to
make any difference. Perhaps my tank is too big, and I need more of them.
Perhaps it's getting plenty of food from the fish leftovers. I don't know.
But I've never seen any specific Aiptasia in my tank disappear unless I kill
it myself.

I tried the calcium injections, but that didn't work.

The MarineDepot newsletter had 3 similar products listed; Joe's Juice,
Chem-Marin, and the Blue Life. Joe's Juice actually had a higher
rating, but my local LFS don't carry them.

Don Geddis

Not from San Francisco, are you?

Mike

wolfdogg wrote:

what i use is lemon juice, i take a syringe and pull in about 1cc of
lemon juice and give them a dose internally. ya gotta be quick. dont
squeeze out more than 1/10th of that cc, usually it takes about 1/20th
of a cc, if you get it inside them. then you can stab the rest of
them until your cc is gone. if you have good alkalinity it will
buffer the acid. the tank shoudl be able to handle the additional
organics and process them, and its a relatively safe method.

I didn't try lemon juice, but I couldn't get calcium to work.

also, i fully agree with pszemol, natural biological control is always
better than chemical control, in ANY circumstance, human or fish. but

Agreed, when it works. When it doesn't...

p.s. i wonder if you tried to use a syringe for your product if it
would reduce surrounding carnage

That's the plan for today; I'll use them on the smaller buggers.

Mike

Not true. The only reason that they eat the
tentacles is to keep from getting stung. They would
much rather eat the body.

Wayne Sallee


wrote on 10/30/2007 7:45 PM:

When retracted, they are no longer interesting to the butterfly
fish, which typically begins eating the tentacles.

Mike

Wayne Sallee wrote:
Not true. The only reason that they eat the
tentacles is to keep from getting stung. They would
much rather eat the body.

Which isn't what I said; I said they begin eating at the tentacles.

Mike
Wayne Sallee


wrote on 10/30/2007 7:45 PM:

When retracted, they are no longer interesting to the butterfly
fish, which typically begins eating the tentacles.

Mike

wrote in message ...
I put a few drops on a few of the buggers, and looks like it kills
them. Any long-term effects? Any other products recommended?

The best product I can recommend is buing some peppermint shrimps.

Tried them; they don't work. Neither did copper-bands.
I had one actually eat flake food instead.

Of course shrimp will eat flake food - why are you surprised?

The copper-band is a butterfly fish. One could look it up.

I know what is fish and what is shrimp.
We were talking about shrimps originally and it was not clear
which was eating flakes causing your surprise...
In both cases they will prefer flake food as easy food source.

If you have a copper-band which eats flake food, you have
an unusual fish, as is noted in most of the literature.

So make your mind - was yours eating flake food or was not? :-)

Note, Aiptasia will also eat flake food, so if you feed too much
and flakes float in the water you are feeding the pests, too...

In any event, I'd still like some feedback on the Blue Life, if
anyone's tried it.

Mike, are you the manufacturer rep? ;-)

I must have mistaken this group for one which discusses issues
surrounding reef tanks. I seem to have wandered into one where
people change questions to ones they can answer. My apologies.

You asked us for opinion - you got it:

No, I did not get it.

I got an opinion on shrimp, which is available in all the standard
books.

So you decided throw away proven and safe method
and go with unknown chemical in a pretty bottle instead... :-)

Pszemol wrote:
wrote in message ...
I put a few drops on a few of the buggers, and looks like it kills
them. Any long-term effects? Any other products recommended?

The best product I can recommend is buing some peppermint shrimps.

Tried them; they don't work. Neither did copper-bands.
I had one actually eat flake food instead.

Of course shrimp will eat flake food - why are you surprised?

The copper-band is a butterfly fish. One could look it up.

I know what is fish and what is shrimp.
We were talking about shrimps originally and it was not clear
which was eating flakes causing your surprise...
In both cases they will prefer flake food as easy food source.

If you have a copper-band which eats flake food, you have
an unusual fish, as is noted in most of the literature.

So make your mind - was yours eating flake food or was not? :-)

I did not realize this was confusing. Copper-bands are notorious
for being picky eaters. I had one which wasn't.

Note, Aiptasia will also eat flake food, so if you feed too much
and flakes float in the water you are feeding the pests, too...

In any event, I'd still like some feedback on the Blue Life, if
anyone's tried it.

Mike, are you the manufacturer rep? ;-)

I must have mistaken this group for one which discusses issues
surrounding reef tanks. I seem to have wandered into one where
people change questions to ones they can answer. My apologies.

You asked us for opinion - you got it:

No, I did not get it.

I got an opinion on shrimp, which is available in all the standard
books.

So you decided throw away proven and safe method

No. As I mentioned above, I tried perppermint shrimp, in addition to
copperbands. It is in the included text at the top of the post.

As mentioned above, neither the shrimp nor the copperband worked.
At least one other person responding on the thread mentioned they
had no luck with peppermint shrimp, either. Additionally, they
will eat other cnidarians, which seems to be a potential problem.

That would seem to fall short of either "safe" or "proven".

and go with unknown chemical in a pretty bottle instead... :-)

As the bottle was in a box, its relative attractiveness was
immaterial to the purchase.

However, curiousity compels me to wonder why, if you know nothing
of the treatments involved, and seemingly are unaware of the
consequences and failure rate of (eg) shrimp, you feel compelled
to promote your opinion as somehow more valid...

Mike

wrote:

Now, could you direct me to a group where people actually answer these
questions? Thank you.

This group has already answered your question. You asked if anyone here has
tried this stuff, and the answer is obviously no. You have gotten several polite
suggestions about things that people here *have* tried with success, and gotten
nasty about it. Take your attitude elsewhere.

George Patterson
If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess
to anything.

wrote in message ...
also, i fully agree with pszemol, natural biological control is always
better than chemical control, in ANY circumstance, human or fish. but

Agreed, when it works. When it doesn't...

Tell me about your tank... how big is it.
How many aiptasias?
How many shrimps you get?

Maybe there is an obvious reason why shrimp method did not work for you
but it works great for many other people including me? :-)

wrote in message ...
However, curiousity compels me to wonder why, if you know nothing
of the treatments involved, and seemingly are unaware of the
consequences and failure rate of (eg) shrimp, you feel compelled
to promote your opinion as somehow more valid...

You will understand when you try to find contents of the chemicals
in the bottle - are they listed on the label?
If not - that is a perfect reason to not use it in my tank.

George Patterson wrote:
wrote:

Now, could you direct me to a group where people actually answer these
questions? Thank you.

This group has already answered your question.

Not really.

You asked if anyone here has
tried this stuff, and the answer is obviously no. You have gotten several polite
suggestions about things that people here *have* tried with success, and gotten
nasty about it.

No, I got nasty about people who did not read properly, and suggested
remedies I tried, which failed, and then waxed sanctimonious about the
dangers of "chemicals".

Take your attitude elsewhere.

I'll file your suggestion where it belongs.

Meantime, at least a couple evinced some interest in whether the
process works out. I will keep them posted.

Mike