Say it ain't so — this is aiptasia, isn't it?

kittenbritches

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Assuming it's a yes, should I manually remove or treat with a product? It's the first I've seen, but I assume it's like a cockroach. :| Should I assume there's more?

I do have a peppermint shrimp coming tomorrow. Good timing.

A59A020F-674B-49AD-A7C7-B97316E2FE90.jpeg

 

vetteguy53081

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It’s aptasia
Simply with a syringe, inject either lemon juice or kakwasser powder mixed with tank water into a paste the consistency of toothpaste and inject into the center core and it will melt away
 

Tmeyers

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Definitely aptasia. Nasty buggers. Treat as stated above or with other products like aptasis X. Follow the instructions.

My peppermint shrimp worked out great for eating off most these pest. But they also decided to snack on my candy cane coral and eat a few blue zoa polyps! So watch for that.

Try not to annoy it or remove it manually inside the tank.

I have heard many things about them releasing spores when they get mad, but also heard it's only reproduction fuilds. Either way not something you want floating around the tank.

I read one guy using a brake line bleeder to suck these little buggers from his tank... I would think this may work. But also requires a compressor. I'd love to actually try this.
 

Reeferbadness

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An off the shelf remedy is F Aiptaisia - you mix up a bit, use the syringe that comes with the product and hit them when they sprout up. I have an ongoing problem - pep shrimp didn't solve this (or were eaten by the pair of yellow coris wrasse), File fish died (2 so far) but this has greatly helped keep the aiptasia in check in my 200 g tank.
 

SDK

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Below are two statements that have been true for me over decades of reefkeeping:

1- I have "never" had an issue dealing with Apstasia or Majano Anemones, and have never lost control of a tank to them.

2- I have "always" immediately and aggressively stamped out any sign of them the minute I see them.

I will let you do the decision making for yourself. However, if it was my tank, I would advise you not wait to see how the Peppermint Shrimp does. They can be hit or miss, and if you miss, the Apstasia will be spreading while you figure that out. Peppermints can happily live on whatever else you are feeding your reef...
 
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kittenbritches

kittenbritches

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Below are two statements that have been true for me over decades of reefkeeping:

1- I have "never" had an issue dealing with Apstasia or Majano Anemones, and have never lost control of a tank to them.

2- I have "always" immediately and aggressively stamped out any sign of them the minute I see them.

I will let you do the decision making for yourself. However, if it was my tank, I would advise you not wait to see how the Peppermint Shrimp does. They can be hit or miss, and if you miss, the Apstasia will be spreading while you figure that out. Peppermints can happily live on whatever else you are feeding your reef...
I don't want to risk it spreading, so I'm definitely going to get rid of it now. I hope it's an isolated thing, and if not, that between my eagle eyes and the shrimp we can keep it from spreading like wildfire.

Only reasonable option is burn the house down and move.
This was my first instinct, actually. Glad we're on the same page. :D

It looks like the coral and frag plug is in the sand bed by itself. Take the coral out of the tank, remove the aiptasia outside of the tank, and then add the coral back to the tank.
That's what I plan to do! :)
 
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kittenbritches

kittenbritches

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The bad news:

Aiptasia on Zoa.jpg


The silver lining: I'm not mounting these guys until the weekend, so I can reinspect, nuke aiptasia, re-dip if needed. But friggin A, man.
 

Spare time

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Super glue is the best way to kill it. You can't let any of its polyp escape. I've kept a commercial system free of aiptasia without a QT by simply doing searches on every shift and using superglue.


DO NOT use aiptasia X or similar. It needs to be encased and trapped.
 

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