It's a bit late, but I'll chime in anyways. I never had a single aiptasia anemone on any of my live rock because my local fish store sells their customers the best live rock they have! However, out of curiosity, I asked the owner about killing the anemones. His reply had quite a few solutions, but some of the most important solutions he came up with were:
1. A good curing process - My LFS cures their live rock in a "curing vat" where they expose only four hours of light over the vat. This kills off the zooxanthella living within the aiptasia, while it still provides enough light for the coraline algea to live. While curing, any aiptasia they find they cover in kalkwasser or boiling water in a sryinge.
2. If any live rock sprouts any aiptasia in your tank, you can remove it with peppermint shrimp while it is small. Also, I hear that "joe's juice" works well with repeated attempts to kill the beasts. Just as mentioned above, kalkwasser is another effective cure.
3. Copperbanded butterflyfish eat aiptaisia, but I don't think it's the best way. If you keep them "hungry", then not only will they eat aiptasia, but also clam mantles, lps, and other invertibrates you don't want them to eat.
4. Other than Joe's Juice, Stop Aiptasia by Chem-Marine as well as Aiptasia Control by Blue Life works very well to eliminate such boogers.
The one thing I don't recommend is to physically sever or to stab the anemones. Any of the four stated solutions should work out, but like I mentioned before, I never had a single aiptasia anemone so I don't know the perfect solution. |