Beautiful Hitchhiker

[TnFishwater98]

I'm going to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the whole Aiptasia belief trend with my personal experience regarding the large ones. (Again, just my experience.) I also had a large one like this that I could not get to due to it's position in the tank. So I started planning on how to get rid of it. With so many cures being hit or miss, I figured Berghia nudibranchs would be my best bet. But buying a bunch of Berghias for one Aiptasia seemed a little overkill for critters that only ate Aiptasia. So I decided to wait until it started to spread... and waited and waited and waited. The "Aiptasia" just kept getting bigger and bigger and never did spread. After 3 years I picked up a Copperband which slowly whittled it down by eating the tentacles causing it to shrink down into oblivion. I have never found another. Doing a little research, there are so many anemones that look very similar. Are they all super spreaders?
Has anyone else ever experienced a similar situation with a single "Aiptasia" that did not spread? (@revhtree , QOTD idea.)
@Charley75 , how long have you had this one?

Yes! Thank You! I feel like like if it’s a wild anemone and you don’t buy them in LFS the immediate response for most people is ...Aiptasia ! Kill it!

 

[Charley75]

It’s been there for over a year when I started my tank. I bought my LR from someone tearing down a tank. I’ve had a few others that I could reach and kill successfully. I’ve tried F Aptasia on it 2 or 3 times and smothered it pretty good I thought, but this one always comes back.

 

[Cell]

It probably needs a name.

 

[Cell]

Your GSP is like, "I'll still take over this rock."

 

[Goaway]

Yes! Thank You! I feel like like if it’s a wild anemone and you don’t buy them in LFS the immediate response for most people is ...Aiptasia ! Kill it!

Thats with everything including worms.
I think it's too big to be aiptasia. Gulf coast has a lot of anemones that look like aiptasia for sure.

 

[Timfish]

I'm going to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the whole Aiptasia belief trend . . . Has anyone else ever experienced a similar situation with a single "Aiptasia" that did not spread? (@revhtree , QOTD idea.)
@Charley75 , how long have you had this one?

Yeah, I've had a few over the years. I've also seen them dissappear without doing anything. But trying to control them when they start spreading can be a real headache.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Lightbulb

Just to show, kinda of my point. I know there are several species of Aiptasia and not all are considered highly invasive like the famous
‘Pale Glass, brown anemone. I have two small tanks That I use for observing creatures that I do not want in my DT. It hard for me to kill things unless I just know it’s bad. Diversity is fun to watch. I got LR from the gulf and it had multiple species of anemones. You guys may think I’m crazy but some of these species are pretty cool. Their disk is cool colors (photos don’t do justice) a very 3D space universe looking. I know the3rd and 2nd to last pic is a lightbulb anemone. The biggest one I have hasn’t reproduced in over 6 months pic 3. All of these might be types of Aiptasia anemones but they all aren’t the highly invasive species.

 

[TnFishwater98]

This was the Light Bulb anemone after I capture it cleaning and QT’ing my LR