Weird creature in coral frag

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

Hello everybody! I'm new here and this is my first post. I'm new to the hobby and just recently started coral I've had this one in my tank for about a week and just yesterday I noticed this weird hairlike creature poking out between the coral and the frag plug. Any ideas as to what this is? If you get close to it, it retreats quickly back inside. Thanks in advance for your help!

View attachment 20190212_184419.jpg

Hemmdog · Feb 13, 2019

Aipstasia, you want to remove it. Glue over it with some super glue would work for this frag.

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Aipstasia, you want to remove it. Glue over it with some super glue would work for this frag.

Ok thanks so much! That's a creepy looking thing. I'll glue it over tonight.

NoobReeefer · Feb 13, 2019

it looks like there is a couple more to the left. aptasia spreads pretty quickly. you could super glue over it like mentioned above or buy some aptasia x, aptasia x isn't that great for bigger aptasia but works pretty well on smaller ones.

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

NoobReeefer said:
it looks like there is a couple more to the left. aptasia spreads pretty quickly. you could super glue over it like mentioned above or buy some aptasia x, aptasia x isn't that great for bigger aptasia but works pretty well on smaller ones.

Thank you! There are a few more of them in there I noticed but this one was the biggest one and most noticeable. I'll go look up that stuff you mentioned. Hopefully I can get rid of it pretty easily. Is it harmful to my fish or other corals?

Hemmdog · Feb 13, 2019

Mamamia8878 said:
Thank you! There are a few more of them in there I noticed but this one was the biggest one and most noticeable. I'll go look up that stuff you mentioned. Hopefully I can get rid of it pretty easily. Is it harmful to my fish or other corals?

Yea they sting.
It’s an anemone.

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Yea they sting.
It’s an anemone.

Yuck! Ok, thanks for your help! Gotta get rid of them tonight.

André Brasil · Feb 13, 2019

Mamamia8878 said:
Hopefully I can get rid of it pretty easily.

Fingers crossed...

Captain Quint · Feb 13, 2019

Welcome to R2R

crusso1993 · Feb 13, 2019

Welcome aboard to R2R!

Good luck with getting rid of the aptasia.

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

Captain Quint said:
Welcome to R2R

Thank you!

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

crusso1993 said:
Welcome aboard to R2R!

Good luck with getting rid of the aptasia.

Thank you!
Is it really difficult to get rid of? The only place I see it right now is in that one coral.

Captain Quint · Feb 13, 2019

Mamamia8878 said:
Thank you!
Is it really difficult to get rid of? The only place I see it right now is in that one coral.

If on just the one coral, I'd just remove and dip the one coral in this or a similar product.

***Excuse the 4 boxes of NSW...UPS was to deliver my Tropic Marin Classic yesterday and destroyed it and disposed of my order...kinda hot about that. arg

Mamamia8878 · Feb 13, 2019

Great, I'll try that. Thanks so much for all the help! I really appreciate it.

Oh my goodness, I would be hot over that too! I hope they're planning on making it right....if they can.

Captain Quint · Feb 13, 2019

Mamamia8878 said:
Great, I'll try that. Thanks so much for all the help! I really appreciate it.

Oh my goodness, I would be hot over that too! I hope they're planning on making it right....if they can.

New bucket being sent but at the end of the day between the 2 shipments, it's a 10-day wait...hence the 20g of NSW for a WC. argh

Captain Quint · Feb 16, 2019

@Mamamia8878 any update on the pest removal? Thanks.

madweazl · Feb 16, 2019

I've never had good results with Aiptasi-X; it will knock them back but never seems to kill them. I have however, had great results with boiling water. Using a large syringe such as those used for injecting turkeys (the large capacity prevents the water in the syringe from cooling rapidly), I try to stab the aiptasia and then give it a healthy dose of hot water. The heat usually dissipates quickly enough to not harm near by desirable critters but kills the aiptasia.

Millimylilly · Feb 16, 2019

Don’t use Aiptasia-X!!! It will spread it likes no tomorrow. Just take it out, do the dip like The Cap said, and glue over them and seal em up.

reef lover · Feb 16, 2019

Welcome to r2r !!

MikeW9788 · Feb 16, 2019

Revive coral dip is anemone safe and will not kill aiptasia. Probably not a bad idea for other pests. I dip and scrub everything that goes in my tank. If there are multiple aiptasia on that rock I'd cut my losses and get rid of it immediately. If they get a foothold in your tank you could be battling them indefinitely. My last tank was neglected for a few months and was overrun by manjano anemones. I did not reuse a single thing from that tank on my new build. In your case and hopefully it hasn't been in your tank long enough for them to spread elsewhere, I'd get rid of it.