Aiptasia - salinity reduction

[Lynnzer]

Got an infestation of the dreaded aiptasia after putting in some shop bought live rock with frags on them.
I can quite easily remove all the coral frags from the rocks, and remove the fish, shrimp and snails, so I would like to try the shock removal of the aiptasia by lowering the salinity.
My water is at the recommended 1.024 at present and I believe that lowering it to 1.01 will do the job. If that's the case then how do I work out how much water I should use. I have a couple of gallons of R.O. I can use so is there a formula to guide me. Or, would it just be as easy to just do an overkill with the R.O. as there won't be anything else in the tank that would be affected.
Also, how long should the water be left with the lower salinity to do its job.
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OK then. Just done a clean with ordinary tapwater on a couple of bits of live rock. Of course I know that any other live critters, corals etc would die back but I had none on the rocks to worry about.
IT WORKED. Not only that but it managed to instantly kill 4 bristle worms I knew were in there somewhere but so difficlut to catch and remove.
Instantaneous death. The worms just curled up and exuded a light foam. The aipstasia just dropped and fell down to the rock surface.
I've now got a bottle of beneficial bacteria to add into the tank, though there's still a good lot of live rock in the tank anyway.

 

[Donya]

You got rid of large, visible ones, but keep an eye out for a few weeks before declaring success diffinitively - Aiptasia can sometimes survive brief exposure to extreme salinities (fw dip or high salt dip) and planula can hide in places that may not have been dipped. If there are planula tucked into crevice that just got dipped but didn't wash away, they can come back. Similarly they can repopulate from tiny things hidden on coral frag bases or in the sand, circulation pump, etc. Ditto for bristle worms. While dipping, boiling, etc a heavily infested rock may help knock back the population it doesn't guarantee the tank is free of them.

 

[threecharacters]

Even if you kill every bristle worm you see the tank will still probably have bristleworms. They're seen as beneficial though so there is no need to get rid of them besides the fact that some think they look gross.

If the aiptasia come back consider getting a peppermint shrimp. Mine did eat my aiptasia, but it did take him a while to get around to it (like a month or more). If you do get a peppermint shrimp make sure it's actually Lysmata wurdemanni and not another species (here's an ID guide). Some species don't eat anemones.

 

[Gaz111]

Ye you shouldn’t really be killing bristleworms as they are cleaning up the food not being eaten. Reducing amount of waste food laying around will reduce them.

aiptasia X is a good product used it for years get it in their mouths and they are done. Dealing with aiptasia should just be seen as standard maintenance as it’s almost impossible to keep out of the take tank as you end up with them in the pipe work and all sorts of places. I never let it bother me to be honest just knocked them back as I saw them. I wouldn’t be taking rocks out of the tank but my rock was true live rock so benefits far outweigh a few hitchhikers

 

[Lynnzer]

Ye you shouldn’t really be killing bristleworms as they are cleaning up the food not being eaten. Reducing amount of waste food laying around will reduce them.

aiptasia X is a good product used it for years get it in their mouths and they are done. Dealing with aiptasia should just be seen as standard maintenance as it’s almost impossible to keep out of the take tank as you end up with them in the pipe work and all sorts of places. I never let it bother me to be honest just knocked them back as I saw them. I wouldn’t be taking rocks out of the tank but my rock was true live rock so benefits far outweigh a few hitchhikers

I already saw some comments about bristleworms being fine in a tank, but I was concerned about them nevertheless. I really don't overfeed my fish, and in fact mainly use live copopods, brine shrimp and Mysis shrimp so there really isn't much to rot on the bottom. I saw a worm curled around a snail as if it was going to try feeding on it so that made my mind up.
There was one piece of live rock that I removed, about the size of a tennis ball, maybe a bit smaller, that had been bought with some nice coral on it. I removed 7 worms from it. I also hopefully took out 5 aiptasia. Time will tell on those I guess. If I can eliminate them, I will and as long as it doesn't interfere with the tank I'll do it as soon as I spot one.
I am in the process of adding a shrimp and goby right now. I have the Sulphur Goby in the tank already and was just considering shrimp options so the peppermint looks a good partner.

 

[Gaz111]

I already saw some comments about bristleworms being fine in a tank, but I was concerned about them nevertheless. I really don't overfeed my fish, and in fact mainly use live copopods, brine shrimp and Mysis shrimp so there really isn't much to rot on the bottom. I saw a worm curled around a snail as if it was going to try feeding on it so that made my mind up.
There was one piece of live rock that I removed, about the size of a tennis ball, maybe a bit smaller, that had been bought with some nice coral on it. I removed 7 worms from it. I also hopefully took out 5 aiptasia. Time will tell on those I guess. If I can eliminate them, I will and as long as it doesn't interfere with the tank I'll do it as soon as I spot one.
I am in the process of adding a shrimp and goby right now. I have the Sulphur Goby in the tank already and was just considering shrimp options so the peppermint looks a good partner.

Sorry didn’t really word it well. It wasn’t a dig at you its was aim for anyone reading this in the future as there is a lot of miss information on the internet involving critters in reef tanks (mainly Facebook) just think they get a hard time live rock has lots of nooks and crannies people will be surprised how much can build up of time. You probably notice it when you lift up a rock or get a turkey bastet and blast the rocks.

A peppermint shrimp won’t partner up with your goby. Better looking at pistol shrimps as they form a symbiosis relationship as they both benefit from each other. Whereas a peppermint will do its own thing. It’s great to watch and once paired they never leave each others side

 

[Donya]

Ye you shouldn’t really be killing bristleworms as they are cleaning up the food not being eaten.

Bristleworms may be "harmless" the majority of the time and in the majority of tanks, but they aren't necessarily very beneficial when a sufficient CUC is in place. There are many other less annoying worms that can fill the gap for that. If bristleworms are cleaning up uneaten food that the CUC isn't getting to, there is too much excess food happening or too many particulates. Personally I remove bristelworms if they come out where I can see them and if they stay put long enough for me to grab with tongs. When they get big they are a real pain if you accidentally smack one with a bare hand and I've just had enough of them in my tanks so I keep things that eat them oppotrunitsically (large hermits and coral banded shrimp). They can also create problems for fish that dig in the sand. And if you solve the food problem that was creating them, they can become significantly less beneficial by going and finding other things to eat out of desperation (it's not just Hermodice that will do this). Not trying to fear monger about the common species of bristleworms, but they can be a real nuisance in some situations even if most of the time they are relatively innocuous.

 

[Lynnzer]

Just had a good look over the rocks in my tank. There were lots of aiptasia on them. They are hard to define exactly as the surface ripple shadows fall across them.
However, I know that as soon as I try to poke one with the tweezers they immediately withdraw into the main body. I have some that are in places not easily reached without taking the rock out of the water which I may do later if necessary.
In the meantime I got my fry feeding needle and syringe out and injected those I could get access to with tap water. Dead as dodos. The arms are completely helpless and turned white and just out of control in the water flow. It really does look like a damn good way to kill these buggers off.
It would have been better if I had a proper hypodermic needle to use though as it would have a much finer gauge point that would penetrate the main body easier. Not being a druggy, I don't know how to get my hands on one. Not my arms -- my hands

The worms are different although the freshwater treatment does indeed work. I didn't choose them. They hitchhiked on live rocks from my LFS that I got for the frags on it.
I don't think I overfeed the tank and have hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp and snails aplenty that are good cleanup crew members.

 

[Lynnzer]

I think that the freshwater injection didn't work as well as I thought it did because I now seem to have more of the damn things.
I found a filefish in my LFS and bought that but it's so small it won't make a real impact. In fact placing it in a tank with only a single piece of rock with an aiptasia on it didn't appear to excite him.
I'm placing this in a new setup tank that won't have aiptasia from the word Go. If any appear after that he may have grown sufficiently to start eating them.
Anyway, I found another LFS that I had never heard of before in Hartlepool. I dropped in on Tuesday and bought 3 peppermint shrimp. I can see them right now getting stuck into the aiptasia. There's a noticeable difference already. The one thing I wonder about is if the aiptasia throws out spores whilst being eaten.
The new LFS is also breeding the slug thingies - Berghia Nudibranch. He even keeps a tank stuffed full of aiptasia so there's always something for them to eat. If you need some just search for Sandgate Aquatics. It's only a new startup shop but he has some amazing fish for prices that are mostly a lot cheaper than my other LFS's and breeds his own clownfish, many types of them.
His website isn't very good, not at all up to date with live stock etc so phone or drop in for updates.