Aiptasia??

[rhailey931]

Attaching photos from my tank. Just got the rock in a few days ago and I see several suspicious anemones lurking about. I'm hoping that I've just got some friendly little hitchhikers, but... Pic 1047 there are two right under the rock. 1103 bottom middle of rock. 1118 there are two, one on either side of the snail.

Thanks!

 

[Sidvicious]

You’ve got aiptasia for sure, eradicate now if you can or you’ll have a serious issue on your hands in no time. They are an absolute nightmare and the only true way of complete eradication is the use of an aiptasia eating filefish, apart of the trigger family. Downside they can and will eat zoas, LPS, etc. The only corals I’ve found them not to munch on would be shrooms, GSP, gorgonia, and the likes.

 

[Auquanut]

+1 aptasia. Sorry. I've actually had luck with peppermint shrimp. Do you have any fish that wold make a meal out of a couple of peppermint shrimp?

 

[Fishko]

That guy is still pretty small you can probably take out the rock and scape it off or super glue it

 

[JCOLE]

How big is the tank? If possible, then I would remove the rocks and remove the aiptasia by hand out of the tank.

 

[sfin52]

I recommend taking it out scraping it off and super glue or epoxy over it

 

[sharpimage]

little kalk paste right in their mouth. Gone

 

[Sidvicious]

The problem with using products like aiptasia x, joes juice, kalk paste, etc is that once you zap the little buggas they release spores into the water column and just multiply. Like stated earlier, once introduced into the home aquarium the only sure fire way to get rid of these pests is the use of an aiptasia eating filefish or Copperband Butterfly though they are much more difficult to keep than a filefish.

 

[rhailey931]

It's a 32 gallon tank, and the only fish are two small (~1.5 inch) Ocellaris clowns. Two of the rocks I can remove and physically scrape/seal with superglue. The large rock (shown in the third picture, has a zoa colony and some mushroom corals on it.

 

[Sidvicious]

If you’re not that bothered about losing your zoas I’d say go with a small filefish, neat addition and will keep those pests away forever! I had an RSM250 that was bombarded with aiptasia, literally hundreds if not thousands of them. I had no choice but to add one, literally within a couple weeks every single aiptasia was gone. Unfortunately, my zoa gardens, frogspawns, torches and hammers were all gone as well but I looked at it as a reward for getting rid of those pests and didn’t have the heart to get rid of him. Hasn’t touched my current corals which are various shrooms from bounce (sold as rhodactis) to rhodactis, GSP, gorgonians, and I also have a carpet anemone.

 

[rhailey931]

Went to the LFS armed with y'alls advice. Opted to start with a two pronged approach. I'll remove two of the affected rocks, scrape and seal the aiptasia. Purchased a couple of peppermint shrimp to maintain the tank. LFS owner said my 32 gallon tank is a bit on the small side for a file fish. For the two on the rock with the zoa colony, I'm going to try injecting them with lemon juice.