Oh that crazy we have had many tanks but never had these. I thought they were good anemone and I told my son in a letter all excited. He was very surprised but now I am bummed that they are not from the other anemone.
That happens a lot with this hobby, they can hitchhike on coral frags, rocks, pretty much anything that has been in a tank with aptasia. Don't worry about it, there's not much you can do besides purging it from the tank once it's there.
Got added at some point, that is a for sure.
The bottom line is that they are there. It looks like a few people have already told you how it can happen. Now I would be focused on the removal part. Don’t forget you have a head start with what people have been explaining and maybe Google can help with more info on hitchhikers in reef tanks and how they get there.
Working on the removal part now! Wish me luck
I wish you luck! Go get those jerks!
It's a type of nem called aiptasia. There are a few solutions, one sure fire way is the aiptasia eating nudibranch, if you have wrasse they will been eaten. They will also die once the aiptasia are gone. They are also the one reef safe way solution. Cooper banded buttfly MAY work, aiptasia eati file fish sometimes work ( but they also eat coral). Peppermints are also hit or miss and can also attack corals. It is not the end of the world. There are some chemical remedies non of which I personal experience with, so lean on the forum for that one. Good luckMy son is at boot camp and I am taking care of his small coral tank. Before he left maybe around April we had an anemone in the tank but it died maybe the first week of May fast forward to June and a notice what sort of looked like brown sea weed or a plant that I couldn’t figure out how it got there then I went to feed the snails and noticed the “anemone” grabbing the shrimp pieces and upon closer look there were about 17 smaller ones and they are literally everywhere. My son is not coming back until next week and I am not even sure what kind he had.
Took three years before they showed in my tank. Then it was 6 months after I added a couple of corals before I saw them. I'm trying Aptasia-x, but I'm having limited success. It will knock one down when I apply. I usually follow up with more doses for several days. In almost every case, they still come back. I have a copperband butterfly in QT at the moment preparing to move to the tank. I fear it will also be hit or miss when I get him into the tank with the aptasia. I have also found aptasia in my overflows and sump, so I doubt I will ever have a completely clean system.
That's what I use. It is strangely and disturbingly satisfying....
Oh, they were there. You didn't do anything wrong. They just had time to grow and become obvious.
But make sure you cover the entire area, into the rock, or they release babies (essentially) from the base) If that one is in sand, just scoop the sand out and toss it out the window. If it's on a rock and nothing else is attached, take the rock out. But, there are pro ably more. It's a war you win, 1 at a time.
You inspired me!!!! I've been (embarrassingly) watching 3 in my tank over the last ** months and been avoiding taking them out because they're underneath rocks, a left-handed approach and, frankly, I can't see that far to judge my aim....( Enter next excuse here). The filefish and wrasses are totally fired. Useless hangers-on...
