New coral... aptaisia?

[gray808]

I picket up a nice hunk of Pipe Organ Coral yesterday.
I put it in isolation, in my tank water, and let it sit over night. Today, I was preparing to dip it, and examine it, and I saw this:

Aptaisia?

If so... I am not sure how to rid it of aptaisia before I add it to the system. I've never had pipe organ coral before, but the skeleton feels pretty fragile. And as dense as the interconnecting tubes are... I am not sire that this one that's sticking up is the only one.

Suggestions? I really, really don't want to have to start fighting aptaisia in my tank.

--Gray

 

[GHOSTLY]

Yup

 

[GHOSTLY]

Do not touch it. Do not do anything physical to it. Get some kalk or aiptadia x or whatever you like and kill it. Be genuious

 

[gray808]

I'm worried that there is more down in the "pipework" that I can't see.

Honestly, I am close to just pitching it: so far I've seen 3 tiny bristle stars, an astarina, and a fireworm fall out of this thing. My confidence in the coral shop I got it at is not terribly high right now :/

--Gray

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Some will say that the bristles and asterina aren’t any bother to your tank. I am on the side that disagrees, I see them as pests. I care not what their purpose is, I have a cuc for those things. But that aiptasia is in an odd place for super glue, so like mentioned above I would get a proper treatment. If you don’t have any kalk or aiptasia-x or similar you could use pure lemon juice.

 

[TKCorals]

The great part is you were able to catch it before you placed it into your tank and allowing it to spread to multiple places. I would definitely agree with everyone else above to try to remove the aptasia. I also use Berghia Nudibranchs and place any new frag in a separate container to allow the Berghia to focus just on that frag plug and clean off any Aptasia that might be present.

 

[ReefRy]

Aiptasia eating nudis are the only way to be 100% certain. I had 3 aiptasia (that I knew of), bought the berghia, less than two weeks later they were gone. Yeah, it cost a hundred bucks, but after losing a tank to aiptasia the year before, it was totally worth it.

 

[ReefRy]

F.y.i. Salty Underground and Reeftown are both fantastic. I've used both, spoken to both. They're as good as it gets in every way.

 

[MaxTremors]

I'm worried that there is more down in the "pipework" that I can't see.

Honestly, I am close to just pitching it: so far I've seen 3 tiny bristle stars, an astarina, and a fireworm fall out of this thing. My confidence in the coral shop I got it at is not terribly high right now :/

--Gray

IMO tossing a coral because it has an aiptasia, brittle star, asterina, or bristle worm (most likely not a fire worm) is absurd. None of these are that big an issue, and no coral vendor that sells wild corals or that doesn’t have a multi-step quarantine process isn’t going to have these things in their tanks. But this is what coral dips are made for. As far as the Aiptasia, you’ve been given a few solutions, but don’t kill a coral over a single aiptasia.

 

[ReefRy]

I'm worried that there is more down in the "pipework" that I can't see.

Honestly, I am close to just pitching it: so far I've seen 3 tiny bristle stars, an astarina, and a fireworm fall out of this thing. My confidence in the coral shop I got it at is not terribly high right now :/

--Gray

Would you 'pitch' a dog because it has fleas?

 

[Jekyl]

Agreed. The horror over aiptasia is way over blown. Many methods of dealing with them. The only awful thing that can happen is if you just don't do anything.

 

[anthonygf]

Get a magnifier, stainless steel dental pick and scrape off all the flesh of the aiptasia. I have done it with success. Do it in a separate container of course and flush the coral with tank water and pipette.