Feather Duster or Aiptasia?

[Beagles20]

Hello everyone!

First post here. Coming up on my second year of the 90 gallon tank being setup. Can anyone help me determine what these are? Feather duster that I don’t need to worry about or aiptasia? When you touch them, they shrink up into the rocks pretty fast. I have been reading and based on what I am reading I’m not sure which one it may be. If pasta, I want to take care of them quickly. I thought they were feather dusters originally, but I have a lot of them now. Please help!

 

[mcarroll]

Definitely aiptasia.

Definitely do not wait any longer to start taking them out.

Definitely stop broadcast feeding and they should slow down or stop spreading.

 

[Beagles20]

Definitely aiptasia.

Definitely do not wait any longer to start taking them out.

Definitely stop broadcast feeding and they should slow down or stop spreading.

What is the best way to treat them? I have been looking at pastes but also been looking at Berghia nudi. In my opinion, it’s better to take care of them naturally rather than using the different pastes. If paste is the best option, can anyone recommend one? I saw joes juice, f aiptasia, and a couple of others. I do have corals and some of those products mention hurting corals, which I do not want to do.

 

[Danroo]

Best way is to get peppermint shrimps. But be sure to not get the other type.

 

[Beagles20]

Best way is to get peppermint shrimps. But be sure to not get the other type.

Great! Thank you for the response! One question I have is will the eat the larger ones also or just the smaller ones?

 

[kevgib67]

Great! Thank you for the response! One question I have is will the eat the larger ones also or just the smaller ones?

They will eat the larger ones, be careful there are a lot of shrimp sold as aptasia eating peppermint shrimp that aren’t. Welcome to R2R and good luck!

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Future reference - Featherdusters look like this:

 

[mcarroll]

What is the best way to treat them? I have been looking at pastes but also been looking at Berghia nudi. In my opinion, it’s better to take care of them naturally rather than using the different pastes. If paste is the best option, can anyone recommend one? I saw joes juice, f aiptasia, and a couple of others. I do have corals and some of those products mention hurting corals, which I do not want to do.

The most direct is to use something like Joe's Juice or Aiptasia X.

I believe F-amtasia is a different type of paste....I have a bottle, but haven't used it yet, so can't recommend it yet.

Peppermint shimp are a great option as long as you want them AFTER the aptasia are gone too.....you'll need to make sure they are fed. They are more or less scavengers, but they are more than capable of shredding corals if they are starving. (Usually it seems to be because the coral has eaten and the shrimps are getting at the food items.)

But they aren't going to target your corals.

If you go this route, I would get at least 5 or 6. One is a roll of the dice whether it will actually go after them....one might scavenge enough food that it doesn't feel the need.

It's not guaranteed or easy, but it is possible to catch them out of the tank if you decide you don't want them after the aiptasia are gone.

Berghia are a nice bio-option that *will not* eat anything else in the tank.....but they are expensive, they can take quite a while to get the job done....and they might just disappear into the tank never to be seen again if your fish eat them. Go with the vendor's advice on how many to use, and be prepared to repeat the purchase if they disappear.

There's also the Mojano Wand....not exactly intended for aiptasia (they're too gooey/squishy so are a little hard to target with it compared to mojano anemones) but it can still work.

Anyone know what happened to Mojanos....did they completely die out of the hobby??? Been years since I've seen one or even heard of anyone seeing one.