Is this aptasia?
- Thread starter Brandon Trinh
- Start date
- Tagged users None
yeah. between the rockflower and zoa. If i just pluck him it will be fine? Or can i go back and dip the whole rock at this point then put it back in my tank? or will that shock the anenome too much. Hes already not in such great shape. I hope its not dying, same with the zoas. The zoas have been closed for 2 days now.
resortez
Active Member
Best to dig out the aptasia from where it has set foot & do it out side your DT or any remnants of aptasia will spawn more throughout your entire tank. Sometimes you can somewhat delicately remove it without digging into the rock, sometimes. The rock nem & zoas can take a bit of stress but what looks more worrisome is the brown algae like a form of diatom growing on the outer flesh of the zoa. Algae like that should not be present on the coral. Maybe it would be best to run a parameter test & an inspection of your tanks equipment. If any equipment or media is due for replacement or rinsing . Good luck.
If that rock is a new addition to your tank, and you have no other aiptasia present, I would say, chuck the rock, cross your fingers and if no other aiptasia presents itself the next few months, consider yourself really lucky.
Would happily sacrifice a RFA and some zoas for an aiptasia free tank. If it spreads, then you’re buying aiptasia X/joe’s juice, or spending $15 per nudi to try to take care of if...and chances are, you’ll always have aiptasia.
Would happily sacrifice a RFA and some zoas for an aiptasia free tank. If it spreads, then you’re buying aiptasia X/joe’s juice, or spending $15 per nudi to try to take care of if...and chances are, you’ll always have aiptasia.
Hemmdog
10K Club member
Wow, aiptasia isn’t that big of a deal man. Every tank has had/has/will have it. Don’t chuck your rock. So many different solutions to getting rid of it. Easiest is peppermint shrimp, second aiptasia eatting filefish, foxface, aiptasiaX, mojano wand, RODI in a syringe and poke it and it dies, any class 4 laser.
Not a big deal, grab some peppermints.
Not a big deal, grab some peppermints.
Besides the first two on your list, it’s just aiptasia management...and it often slowly gets out of control. Would add butterflies to that list, and nudis. Peppermints don’t always work, same with nudis. Butterflies are not reef safe besides CBB which are super tough to keep. If you can keep your tank aiptasia free it is worth it IMO. It’s like virginity, you can’t get it back.
ScottR
Surfing....
I recently had this problem. I had an aiptasia growing on my zoas. I only found it because two of the polyps were closed for two days. I took the plug out of the tank and squirted lemon juice directly where I thought it was. I then quarantined the zoas for a couple of days. All of the polyps opened back up and haven’t seen another aiptasia since. When you take them out of the water, you either can’t see them or they look like a brownish slime. Best to use a magnifying glass.
ScottR
Surfing....
That’s definitely aiptasia. Notice how the polyps nearby are closed, it is stinging it with its tentacles. Eventually your corals will starve to death and die off. Win for aiptasia. Some ppl say they’re harmless but as you can see, they need to be rid of. Be careful with removal, they are fast runners. If you try to remove with tweezers, they’ll retract their tentacles and hide. Sometimes they run off after you go away. Is that rock removalable?Question for you is this an aiptasia? I just realized that I might have this on 2 of my frags
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
Its on a frag plug that is sitting in the sand. It looks like theres 2 of them on that plug and I have another plug with it on it also. Seems my lfs has them in their tank. Makes sense why the zoas are like that and not opened up. Ill have to remove in the morning. One is on the bottom of the plug so i dont see it being too hard to get rid of but the other one might be an issue. What do you mean they will run off? Can they detach from where ever they are mounted?
ScottR
Surfing....
They seem to love zoas. Not sure why. But I’d pull that plug out immediately. Anemones have a foot and can actually move around. They’re not fast. But aiptasia are sneaky and smart. You can do the lemon juice treatment or get some aiptasia-x from Red Sea. Lemon juice worked for me.
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
would the lemon juice kill the zoas?
ScottR
Surfing....
I
What’s the thing in the middle of my pink zoas? They are all over the frag that I sent above
Ill get a better picture in the morning[/QUOTE
I can’t really see it. Since it’s on a plug, you can pull it out, put it in some tank water in a separate container and just dump and air stone in there. That’s what I usually do. Allows me to quarantine and safely examine it later. Zoas are hardy and won’t complain too much.
ScottR
Surfing....
I thought it would kill my zoas too but they survived. The polyps closed up for about a day and then woke up the next. After the treatment, I dipped them in tank water to clean them off. Zoas can take a beating. Here’s a pic of mine now. Hard to get a nice pic because they’re at the back of the tank.
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
Ill give it a try!I thought it would kill my zoas too but they survived. The polyps closed up for about a day and then woke up the next. After the treatment, I dipped them in tank water to clean them off. Zoas can take a beating. Here’s a pic of mine now. Hard to get a nice pic because they’re at the back of the tank.
ScottR
Surfing....
I read about it either on here or another forum. Sounded strange to me but it’s worth a try. And it worked!!! Death to aiptasia!!!!
ScottR
Surfing....
Keep us updated. Hopefully you can get it back to normal. I noticed anytime I added corals or LR from a peticular LFS, I had an aiptasia. They’re impossible to find when buying.
The one thing I will say about aptasia is don't underestimate their ability to survive. I'm not debating methods as there are many threads that have that going on. I've dealt with aptasia for many years and it is a battle. My wife and I have tried injecting everything from lemon juice to vinegar into aptasia just to watch them come back with many more. I've seen them survive peroxide dips and come back from over 8 hours out of water. The only thing that truly worked for us was manual removal out of the tank which is very difficult or natural predators. It's always a risk injecting or covering an aptasia and wait a month before you call victory.
