Help noob and i think i have aiptasia

[jeepfish]

I started my tank about a week and a half ago now and i added my live rock this weekend, when i came home tonight to admire my beauty i saw these little guys and i think the might be aiptasia? can any one tell me they are and what do i need to do if they are aiptasia? i know the cell phone pictures are crappy but its what i had at hand. help!

 

[user 26995]

Yes, you are correct. Those are aiptasia. If you can, and it looks like you probably can, take the rock out of the tank and scrape that part of the rock off and dig out any hole it might have set its foot into real good. Rinse it off in fresh rodi water. You dont want to do it in the tank becuase they will send out spores and you will have a bunch of them. Look at the area real good where they are so you can tell where to dig the rock out at, becuase they will dissapear into the rock when you pull it out of the water.

You could also take the rock out and fill the hole with superglue.

 

[eww]

Yep that's aiptasia. To get rid of it you can try aiptasia x, joes juice....however if you see two there are probably more you don't. Best to remove the rock and cut the portion that the pest is on off

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[Dmcbride]

the middle pis is for sure, bottom probably hard to see. I now most places carry Aiptasia-X, never used it so can't really recommend it myself. I was told, and tried successfully, to use a syringe and regular distilled vinegar injected into the tube (stem), easier if they are big and not able to pull into a unreachable hole. I've also heard of lemon juice. I have only done it a few times with vinegar and it worked. Also, only do one or two at a time to potentially avoid a ph change. Someone else on here more experienced and not just learning like myself may have a better suggestion. Good luck.

The other suggestions were not on here when I went to post (yay for dial up). That would be easier since you have nothing in there yet. Has anyone else tried the vinegar method?

 

[mcoomer]

Since it appears that your tank is very new I'd pull all your rock and bake it. Fill some 5 gallon buckets with fresh water (tap is fine), rinse the rocks, then put them on the BBQ grill or in the oven. Don't use very high heat and don't leave them in long. Once they being to heat up you can pull them out and set them aside to cool. Once that's done give them a quick rinse in a bucket of RO then back in the tank.

Normally, I would simply use epoxy or super glue to cover the hole this critter is living in but with a new tank I think it's best that you start pest free. After baking you can be assured that you don't have any unwanted pests in the tank. Yes, you'll have to reseed the rock to replace the beneficial growth that may have already started but if you start your tank with a pest problem you could find yourself fighting it for a long time. Not my idea of fun.

Mike

 

[user 26995]

Mikes right, its not fun!!! My tank was a few months new when they started popping up. I had coral and fish, I couldnt pull all the rock out. I pulled the rock they were on out and removed them. When you do start getting coral and any new rock, you want to set up a qt tank for it to observe it for a while. Dip all coral and rock for pests, but that wont work on aiptasia. I have found the stuff on the bottom of frag plugs. About two years later I was kalk pasting and lemon juice injecting about 5 or 6 a day. My overflow was jam packed full of them. The tank is clean today, but at the time it was a royal pain. It was a lot of work to get rid of them too.

 

[TJL]

Great advice ^above^ better to be a little delayed and pest free. Then prepared for the future by having a QT of some sorts to observe all additions going into DT for a period of time.

Cheers, Todd

 

[chickenofthesea]

I agree with removing the rock but I did want to confirm that lemon juice works great. I had some show up on a piece of rock that a frag I purchased was on so I injected it and it died very quickly never to return. I had only a small rock to do, you have an entire tank full of rock that may be invested. Also, if the tank is cycled, you could get am aptasia eating file fish. Ugly little suckers in my opinion but interesting enough and they eat the aptasia so they score points with me. Be aware that file fish may also pick at other corals I have heard but you have nothing in there at this point.

 

[jeepfish]

Thanks for your help Guys, the 2 rocks I see it on are really small (less then 1 pound of the 21 that's in there) I'm just gunna pull them and cut my losses thanks for your help again

 

[jrgilles]

You could pull the rock out, and pour boiling water into the spot where the aptasia is. Make sure it gets 15 to 20 seconds of exposure, and it will be dead.

In my tank when I see them, I kill em with kalk paste and then syphon them out. Mix kalkwasser powder with salt water to the consistance of a paste (doesn't take much water), then shut the power heads off, and use a syringe to squirt the paste into the aptasia hole (or you may even be able to get the aptasia to eat the paste.) Wait 5-10 minutes, then suck out all the paste using a syphone hose. Watch the tube for the little brown spot that is the aptasia to come through, then throw it away. Works pretty well.

 

[user 26995]

Dont just toss the rock. You could boil those two and let them dry out and put them back in the tank later. If they are that small, they wont cause any issues putting them back in later. Inspect the others real close. Like eww said, if you have those, there will probably be others.

 

[Crack31]

Some peppermint shrimp eat aiptasia.