Feeding Apista A Ball Of Death?

[dixaisy930]

I found three considerable sized apista in my tank, hiding behind a rock (too big for the peps to eat I'm guessing). Now, I seem to recall something about making your own kalkwasser with baking soda. True? And I also remember reading about someone having success with making "balls of death" with mysis juice and baking soda. Does this sound like it would work? I've only had one other apista I've had to rid my tank of, and I was able to take the rock out it was on and squirt lemon juice directly into it. Worked perfectly, but I'm affraid of putting lemon juice in the tank.

I'm blaming these apista for the disappearance of my panda goby. They aren't big by any means, but unfortunately I think they were big enough.

 

[sianeds]

I assume you are talking about Aiptasia? If so then yes kalkwasser or baking soda will work. You can try lime/lemon juice also as a cheaper alternative to joes juice. Just be careful when you inject it as even moderate amounts of any of these will potentially affect your pH.

If you have a syringe already you could try my favourite method.... suck the guts out of the little bugger I put the syringe onto the Aiptasia and suck it off basically. You will get a load of pinkish stuff first then you will see it slowly disappear into the syringe. You will be left with a small whiteish mound which will melt away over a couple of days. You do have to be sure to get all of it though and not let any escape into your water.

But it is very satisfying to physically murder them

 

[dixaisy930]

See, my peps have been doing such a good job, I don't even know how to spell these things properly.

Since I have three that need to be "delt" with, I think I might try a different technique on each one.

 

[sianeds]

yeah good plan you can see what works best

 

[BigIan]

as for worrying about the water quality after using something to deal with the aptasia. what we did when we used chems on ours was we had lots of Ro ect ready and mixed up and as soon as we`d finished we did a largeish water change.

And as it only takes 1-2 ml of whatever chem your using to kill them then changing 10-20 litres of water certainly dilutes out any possible harm you can do

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, I know I've injected 1cc of lime juice into aiptasia and mushrooms without any adverse effects on pH or other corals...

 

[sianeds]

Yeah I admit it's a small risk but a risk nonetheless so it's always best to be prepared

 

[dixaisy930]

Ok, I'll make sure I pick up some RO water before I go home. I'll let you know what works the best.

Oh, when you inject directly in the aiptasia, should I use a needle on the end?

 

[sianeds]

I do yes. It will contract down to almost nothing as soon as you approach it which can make it difficult to inject, especially with small ones. You may have to let it grow a bit. Otherwise you can just squirt the poison at it's mouth

 

[Matthew5664]

It's all to do with the Alk of your tank if its in the reigon of 10-12Dkh you'll be fine! (remember that Alk in the buffering capacity of the tank water to nutralise an acidic compound)

If your tanks @ 8-10 then a 10% WC wouldn't hurt!

8 or less then you may see some advirse reactions in you corals


(I'm sorry for the spelling but my little mans still not well and I've been up for about 72H ish)

 

[Allen]

where do you get these syringes with needles ? (apart from the local kids play area)

Im in the UK.

 

[sianeds]

You get them in the box with Joes Juice or similar, otherwise I go to my local chemist. Yes they do quiz you on why you want it, at first it took alot of explaining to get a big syringe only They think I'm mad there now. You could also try your local vets, they can be a little more understanding