Please tell me it's not aiptasia

drino · Nov 7, 2018

We just added our first corals over the weekend: A hairy green mushroom (going awesome) and this zoa colony. I noticed we have two brown, long tentacle 'things' in the zoa frag. The nearby zoas are clearly being stung and are closed. Please tell me it's not aiptasia.... I think it's aiptasia.

Sorry for the poor photo quality - my darn DSL camera is not cooperating today, so had to use my iPhone. There's a stray strand of chaeto in there for giggles too.

Kill it? Burn the house down?

Lovemyreef2015 · Nov 7, 2018

Unfortunately they are.

mta_morrow · Nov 7, 2018

It is, but you may be able to pull out the frag, scrape and rinse before they spread.

Oscaror · Nov 7, 2018

drino said:
We just added our first corals over the weekend: A hairy green mushroom (going awesome) and this zoa colony. I noticed we have two brown, long tentacle 'things' in the zoa frag. The nearby zoas are clearly being stung and are closed. Please tell me it's not aiptasia.... I think it's aiptasia.

Sorry for the poor photo quality - my darn DSL camera is not cooperating today, so had to use my iPhone. There's a stray strand of chaeto in there for giggles too.

Kill it? Burn the house down?

Bad news...

Potatohead · Nov 7, 2018

Lovemyreef2015 said:
Unfortunately they are.

You weren't supposed to tell her

hyprc · Nov 7, 2018

If your tank is currently aiptasia-free I've had good luck fragging as much of the coral off as I could and just chucking the rest of the plug... but that's just me. Best of luck in however you decide to handle the little pests. Looks like u got some free chaeto on there too

CC13 · Nov 7, 2018

That frag also came with bubble algae attached to one of the polyps, which in my opinion is FAR worse and way harder to get rid of than aiptasia.

Will Milberger · Nov 7, 2018

I won't, but it is.

hyprc · Nov 7, 2018

CC13 said:
That frag also came with bubble algae attached to one of the polyps, which in my opinion is FAR worse and way harder to get rid of than aiptasia.

There's a growing number of threads crediting fluconzonol (sp?) at 4x dose to irradiating bubble and caulerpa infestations so I foresee aiptasia and majanos will be making their way back up the 'worst pests' list again

(currently dealing with both of those and no aiptasia or other pests in sight... very close to pulling the trigger)

TheHarold · Nov 7, 2018

Yep aptasia. Id trash the frag. Nudibranchs are expensive.

Oh, bubble algae too.

declanisadog · Nov 7, 2018

It isn't aptasia.

CC13 · Nov 7, 2018

declanisadog said:
It isn't aptasia.

Stop giving her false hope lol

ReeferBean · Nov 7, 2018

Since you were polite, it isn't aiptasia.

Or is it?

drino · Nov 7, 2018

Oh lord AND BUBBLE ALGAE... OK I'm going to burn the house down. First dang coral too - I guess we win the prize for getting two of the worst pests on the first dang coral frag right away.

THANK you for helping me ID these pests. I'm taking the whole dang thing out before it grenades our tank. Appreciate your fast help!!

tautog83 · Nov 7, 2018

yea .always double and triple check frags before you buy them

408Dartfish · Nov 7, 2018

I got aptasia on my very first coral buy on my new tank, same spot in between Zoas. It stinks but not the end all.

CC13 · Nov 7, 2018

drino said:
Oh lord AND BUBBLE ALGAE... OK I'm going to burn the house down. First dang coral too - I guess we win the prize for getting two of the worst pests on the first dang coral frag right away.

THANK you for helping me ID these pests. I'm taking the whole dang thing out before it grenades our tank. Appreciate your fast help!!

Buy an aiptasia eating filefish. They will get rid of them and they actually look pretty cool.

Js.Aqua.Project · Nov 7, 2018

It isn't aiptasia...

(it's aiptasia)

ReeferBean · Nov 7, 2018

Get a new frag disk, and use some bone cutters or frag cutters and cut the zoas off the current plug. Try to cut away the area that has the aiptasias. Reglue them to the new plug.

hyprc · Nov 7, 2018

tautog83 said:
yea .always double and triple check frags before you buy them

This. I've failed multiple times to notice bubble at the encrusting edge or base of a coral because u need to check alllll the way around, impossible to tell looking from 3 sides of glass sometimes and even after pulling them out and taking a quick look before bagging them. Aiptasia will hide in the shadow of the healthy coral sometimes aggravating (other times the coral doesn't seem to care) it but hide once you start moving the frag and be nearly impossible to find