Aiptasia? Zoa growth?

[LMDAVE]

I'm new to the reef hobby, going on my 3rd month. Of all the information overload I've had over the last couple of months I've heard of the term Aiptasia but just never stop and focused on it. I saw this growing out of a zoa frag and I actually just though that was the beginning on a new polyp. Also, all of my zoa polyps were growing up and away from the front of the display tank, I thought this may have been a lighting issue and they were grow towards a different light source, so I move my LED light strip further to the front.

But...now that I actually looked up aiptasia, apparently this is what is growing out of the frag, would that explain the zoa growth now of it growing up and facing the back of my tank because of this nuisance? I saw one other of these aiptasia heads coming out of one of my rock crevices, so I need to start the eradication process. But mainly wanted opinions on if this is why my zoas were growing long and facing the back.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I'm new to the reef hobby, going on my 3rd month. Of all the information overload I've had over the last couple of months I've heard of the term Aiptasia but just never stop and focused on it. I saw this growing out of a zoa frag and I actually just though that was the beginning on a new polyp. Also, all of my zoa polyps were growing up and away from the front of the display tank, I thought this may have been a lighting issue and they were grow towards a different light source, so I move my LED light strip further to the front.

But...now that I actually looked up aiptasia, apparently this is what is growing out of the frag, would that explain the zoa growth now of it growing up and facing the back of my tank because of this nuisance? I saw one other of these aiptasia heads coming out of one of my rock crevices, so I need to start the eradication process. But mainly wanted opinions on if this is why my zoas were growing long and facing the back.

While the picture isn't all that clear, it does appear to be the tentacles of an aptasia anemone. And yes if the aptasia is bothering your zoas they'll either close up or try to stay away from it. Your best course of action would be to get a peppermint shrimp to consume the aptasia. I wouldn't try scraping it off or anything like that as you risk upsetting the zoas.

 

[LMDAVE]

I just bought a scarlet back cleaner shrimp this weekend, I probably would have went the peppermint shrimp route had I knew this before then. I may try Aiptasia X stuff with a syringe also. At least now I have some sort of explanation of why the zoa patch was growing like it was.

And yeah, I wish I could have gotten a better detailed picture.

 

[fyler83]

Looks like aptasia tentacles. Could pull plug out and cut off close to zoas and get rid of aptasia before it spreads

 

[LMDAVE]

I used the Aiptasia X yesterday. I worked great. Even though I only had two heads of them, It was amazing to see each one implode and disappear seconds after giving the treatment.