Anyone fighting aiptasia with lemon juice?

[MZabel67]

Have you now, recently or in the past?
I have my own method but have never tried lemon juice.
Interested in hearing what y'all have to say.
For those of us who can't have nudis or peps, what other alternatives have you tried?
Did they work or is it just a losing battle?

Tried it without much success. Using F- Aptasia (not an ad/no affiliation) to spot treat, works well. Would love to have a Copperband but too big for tank.

 

[armyvetheather]

Ah, didn't realize you were up there. I had a small patch ,used f aiptasia and now have 4 large patches. Was gonna put an order in with Dr Reef but ouch $215. Glad to hear your tangs have allowed it to thrive as that was my biggest concern. We have the same tangs except I have a naso and Achilles but no yellow. The sailfin has taken to smacking the foxface around a little bit here lately but she deserves it. I hope they leave this little guy alone.

Look at Reef Beauties or NY Aquatics for CBB. They both have them on sale and a two-week guarantee.

 

[Dburr1014]

Have you now, recently or in the past?
I have my own method but have never tried lemon juice.
Interested in hearing what y'all have to say.
For those of us who can't have nudis or peps, what other alternatives have you tried?
Did they work or is it just a losing battle?

I use lemon juice only if I have one or two.

It's a slow method, you need to shoot it at the foot for the most part and it will release from The Rock.

My full method for using lemon juice is to drop some in the mouth let it close up. I use a turkey baster to suck up some of that lemon juice and anything that the aiptasia shoots out. Then I start going after it's foot. I also use tweezers to grab a hold so it doesn't float away. So basically when it's closed up I use tweezers to hold it, lemon juice to shoot its foot, when there's enough lemons using the water I suck all that out. Then I go back to its foot with lemon juice. After a good five or 10 minutes it should be released and just pull it out. It's a very long process and tedious but it does work and I've never had one come back that I did this way.

 

[Chuck_e]

Have you now, recently or in the past?
I have my own method but have never tried lemon juice.
Interested in hearing what y'all have to say.
For those of us who can't have nudis or peps, what other alternatives have you tried?
Did they work or is it just a losing battle?

In the minority, but I did have success with lemon juice. The caveat is that I caught it really early - just a couple of sprouts on a new coral frag. One treatment got most of them, a second treatment finished them off. Syringe with the pink plastic end from a Salifert test kit, but you have to be fast to get the juice in before the aptasia closes up. Spillover didn't bother the zoas very much, but I don't think anything does...

 

[Tcook]

Losing battle. Might win if I was persistent, but I keep going days and days between Aip hunts.

I am currently using a combo of boiling water for the isolated Aips and kalk paste to the face for Aips around/between corals.

Wow. “Kalk paste to the face”. That would make for a rough shave

 

[Dburr1014]

OP, why can't you use berghia nudibrachs?

Just curious, I've used them with wrasse and have no problems.
The biggest thing is you need to add him at night and you need to let them crawl out on their own of their container. At night wrasse are sleeping. During the day the nudies are sleeping.

 

[Elie Chammas]

Tried everything … Lemon , vinegar, kalk, boiled water , highly concentrated salt… nothing works . À Rangoon butterfly was the best solution

Have you now, recently or in the past?
I have my own method but have never tried lemon juice.
Interested in hearing what y'all have to say.
For those of us who can't have nudis or peps, what other alternatives have you tried?
Did they work or is it just a losing battl

 

[GreyJediReefer]

Have you now, recently or in the past?
I have my own method but have never tried lemon juice.
Interested in hearing what y'all have to say.
For those of us who can't have nudis or peps, what other alternatives have you tried?
Did they work or is it just a losing battle?

I got a file fish for my seahorse tank. Was trying F aiptasia but couldn’t get ahead of them. File fish took care kid the issue in less than a week

 

[Delatedlotus]

Lemon juice works but... I use white vinegar as they cant close there mouths at all and they go right down dead. It's just like carbon dosing vinegar. I carbon dose Vodka, but with vinegar you have to use quite a bit more than Vodka, IMO a little extra vinegar will never hurt... and it works fantastic!

 

[reneeL]

I used lemon juice and boil hot water with a needle syringe years ago. It did work, just kept at it. Super glue I used for a large one that I could not get to.

 

[jlitz]

Look at Reef Beauties or NY Aquatics for CBB. They both have them on sale and a two-week guarantee.

Reef beauties will not cover a CBB for two weeks. Or even a weekend in my experience. They have a disclaimer for “expert” fish. That said, I like that company and have got healthy fish from them. It’s just a tough fish, so I get it.

 

[armyvetheather]

Reef beauties will not cover a CBB for two weeks. Or even a weekend in my experience. They have a disclaimer for “expert” fish. That said, I like that company and have got healthy fish from them. It’s just a tough fish, so I get it.

Well I know that NY Aquatics at least says that their CBBs are eating before they're sold.

 

[reneeL]

Got my CBB from Dr. Reef. He is still swimming 2 months. Eats off the rocks all day long. I still do not see what he eats but he is looking great.

 

[jlitz]

I found this old video from reefbuilders and can say their concoction melts aiptasia in my tank. That said, it scares me to put in my tank, so I only use it on big ones near expensive corals. I have an order of Berghia nudibranchs coming from reeftown.com

 

[00W]

I got a file fish for my seahorse tank. Was trying F aiptasia but couldn’t get ahead of them. File fish took care kid the issue in less than a week

Looking into a Filefish.
They've got 4 @ the LFS.
I'm aware of the risk here but everything in my tank could use a trim.

 

[00W]

Lemon juice works but... I use white vinegar as they cant close there mouths at all and they go right down dead. It's just like carbon dosing vinegar. I carbon dose Vodka, but with vinegar you have to use quite a bit more than Vodka, IMO a little extra vinegar will never hurt... and it works fantastic!

Yes agreed!
That's what I'm doing now using my daily dose on them instead.
It works, but I can only use so much so the question of lemon juice was posed to get around the carbon dose scenario.
I'm already taxing ph and I know lemon juice will lower it too.

 

[00W]

OP, why can't you use berghia nudibrachs?

Just curious, I've used them with wrasse and have no problems.
The biggest thing is you need to add him at night and you need to let them crawl out on their own of their container. At night wrasse are sleeping. During the day the nudies are sleeping.

I've thought about it believe me.
I've got a long nosed in one tank who's completely active at night.
He's taken out 2 shrimp so far and anything else he can find.
He's super cool though so I just go with it.
Trigger in the bigger tank who basically will eat anything but coral and aips, chews up rocks like he works in a quarry.
He might find them who knows.
It's still an option I'm considering.
Just wish these things didn't grow so fast.