Ah man! Aiptasia!

[suep]

I've _never_ had aiptasia! So, I'm quarantining my new Pajama Cardinal, and I dumped some cheato from a friend in the tank. I thought it was kind of dirty, had some kinda funky spots that I figured were uneaten shrimp or something. So, the cheato has been in my tank for a week or so and I just walked by and checked the fish. (The only plug I had left on the power strip puts that tank on a reverse light cycle.) There's a long tube-like anenome stuck to the glass in the cheato ball!

And some of that chaeto was also sitting in the HOB refugium on my d/t!! ARGH! That peppermint shrimp in the display tank better be able to earn his keep!

[Phurst]

That's a bummer. It's really not so bad though, especialy if you catch it early. Let the pep do his job, or get some Joe's Juice.

[lReef lKeeper]

you can also use liquid calcium in a syringe and inject tha aiptasia in the stalk.

[PhotoJohn]

they are not that big of a deal. My pep shrimp have taken care of any that was on my rock when i got it...2 or 3.

[suep]

Yeah, I know. Thanks for the calming thoughts, everybody.

I'm going to try to reframe this into "Sue's Fascinating Science Project." I'm also going to drop by the lfs and pick up a peppermint shrimp for the quarantine tank. When I take that down, I'll pop him in the 20 gallon d/t. I'm assuming 2 should be OK in 20 gallons?

[PhotoJohn]

should be fine

[veriann]

yeah im down for joe's juice, doesn't taste real nice - but it works a treat on safe nuking abilities.

[suep]

Cool, I'll pick up some Juice if I end up needing any.

As it is, I had my hand in the tank grabbing a couple frags of green star polyps to take in (he gave me $15) and I pulled off the chaeto closest to the aiptasia and wiped it off the glass. I tossed it in the bag with the gsps, and told him about it when I handed it over. He didn't seem too bothered. We'll see if any come back...

[lReef lKeeper]

if you did not get it all ... there will be five to take its place. i would go ahead and get tha juice and shrimps.

be careful with the juice in a small system though. if you use to much it can raise your calcium level because that is the main ingredient in Joes Juice ... calcium.

[suep]

Well, luckily it's the bare-bottom quarantine tank and I wouldn't feel too bad tossing everything after I move the fish out. But if I see any in the d/t, I'll certainly grab the shrimp and Juice. I like the pepp I have in there now. I almost never see him during the day but he's fun to watch ghosting around the tank after lights out. :-)

For all I know, he's the reason I haven't seen any aiptasia in there in the 8 months it's been up.

I do thank everyone for their reassuring comments, I was definitely feeling a bit upset last night!

[veriann]

be careful with the juice in a small system though. if you use to much it can raise your calcium level because that is the main ingredient in Joes Juice ... calcium.

That was my mistake, i thought it said blueberry Yuk!

[suep]

I'll keep an eye on it, thanks! But I've got 2 Croceas in there and I dose Calcium several times a week, so who knows, it may end up helping me!

[doctorthompson]

Originally Posted by veriann

be careful with the juice in a small system though. if you use to much it can raise your calcium level because that is the main ingredient in Joes Juice ... calcium.

That was my mistake, i thought it said blueberry Yuk!

Nope, I just double-checked... no blueberry mentioned in the patent document, just the usual "1.0 parts by volume of purified water; about 0.35–0.70 parts by volume of dry calcium hydroxide; and about 0.1–0.4 parts by volume of dry non-iodized salt". Yup, just those 3 common ingredients that you all probably have plenty of in that cupboard in your fish room... I'll bet that most of you had no idea that if you mixed those ingredients together and boiled the solution before bottling it up that you could actually resell this "salty boiled kalkwasser" solution, 20 millileters at a time, for a seriously insane price compared to the cost of the materials? We're talking possibly 4 digit markup percentages relative to the cost of the original ingredients ... a Pfizer executive would even call that "obscene". Too bad those Joe's Juice guys patented the formula and method after they discovered it -- so get those dollar signs out of your eyes and stop dumping kalk into the spouse's kettle... er... well, unless you currently have aiptasia that you need to kill and don't feel like buying "salty premixed kalkwasser" for 700-1000 times the price per mL as what you pay for the gas in your car ... I mean, that would just be stupid when you already own all the ingredients and probably buy them in bulk so it would probably cost you mere cents even if you mixed up a gallon of this stuff.

Want more details? Just search for "7179478" in any US Patent database or try freepatentsonline.com/7179478 .
--

"Hey, Joe, where'ya going with that gun in yer hand?"

[veriann]

Doc, i have no augument there brother, fueled by pure lazyness with a free pipette if you ask me, But ive got one word for you - Coke - You can buy Cocacola in the supermarkets by the slab for next to nics. ($ for you northern hemsphere folk) but that doesn't stop me buying a couple cans a day @ $1.30 a pop now does it!!

[Joyride]

I think I may have one of these in my tank that came in on a coral frag that I got at MAX about a month or so ago.

It's creating problems for my polyps, as you can see in the picture below and I'd like to get it taken care of.

Here's a pic:


Can a peppermint shrimp coexist with a pistol shrimp? I've got a pistol in the tank already and would welcome a peppermint to devour this guy and it's progeny, but I don't want shrimp wars on my hands either.

I can do the Joe's juice as well, but the peppermint shrimp idea seems like a longer term solution. Also, seems like i'll need to be careful with the joe's juice as well so as not to harm the polyps.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[suep]

By pstol shrimp, do you mean the shrimp that partners with a goby? If so, I've had two together since last fall with no observed problems.