What is this?

[chris124]

I have a 75 gallon fowlr aquarium and got some live rock the other day and this came on the rock. It eats the mysis shrimp I feed my fish. I think its a sea anemone what do you think? A small star fish came on the rock to its about 1" long but he has six legs he looks like a brittle sea star but he so small it hard to tell. He only comes out at night I will post some pics when I can.

 

[ravi197699]

aptasia get rid of it before it spreads all over your tank...

 

[Reefing Madness]

Glass Anemone, aka Aiptasia.
to kill, there are many ways to do it. Lemon Juice injection, Aiptasia X, Joes Juice.

 

[cdness]

Aptasia that hasn't seen sun/light in a very long time...

Kill it.

 

[KorL]

What every reef tank fears...

 

[Koaboy]

Lemon juice injection? Do tell!

 

[chris124]

Whats the best way to kill it?

 

[KorL]

Most likely there's probably more of them, but inspect all the rocks carefully for anymore. If it really is the only one, I would chisel off a small of piece of the rock that it's attached to and just toss it in the trash. Sometimes killing aptasia inside the tank can be tricky, they sometimes release spores which makes the problem worse.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You need to get a syringe, like a diabetic syringe size. Fill with lemon juice. Inject the Aiptasi into the stalk, when you get the stalk it cant retract completely, and allows you to fill the thing up. If you got it enough you will see it dissolve right in front of your eyes.

 

[YHSublime]

If you see one, there are probably more. If it is indeed aiptasia, then you can cover it with kalk paste. Or use Joes Juice, or aiptasia X, or a srynge and vineger or lemon juice. Copperbands will eat it as well, but I don't suggest a fish for biological control unless your tank is suited for it.

 

[gtbarsi]

I Recommend you remove the rock, and treat it with hydrogen peroxide. Since it is just live rock little loss but some bacteria.
Poor the hydrogen peroxide over the entire area the Aptasia have been seen. Poor it in to any crevices the Aptasia was seen coming out of. After letting it work a bit scrub off any Aptasia that is visible with a brush of some kind. Hit it again with the hydrogen peroxide, then rinse well with RODI several times. After that you can rinse with some fresh mixed salt water and then return it to your tank. Watch for any more of the stuff, if there is some Aptasia that makes it through you can do it again, or add the kalk paste trick to the routine while you have it out of the tank.

The reason I like the hydrogen peroxide method is that when it reacts it oxidizes (with a reaction stronger than bleach) leaving nothing but H2O behind. It is relatively reef safe, the only reason I recommend rinsing is to further remove / dislodge anything from the rock.

What ever you do, do not break, rip, or cut Aptasia while it is still in then tank unless you have a large suction line next to it to insure you remove all stray bits from your tank. Aptasia spreads like wild fire from the smallest bit left behind.

 

[HiddenUser]

If you just got that rock, I'd just pull the rock, kill the Aiptasia (kalk paste, aiptasia-x, boiling water, etc) then rinse the rock and let it dry out. You'll lose the bacteria (it'll come back), but it doesn't look like you're going to lose any coraline. I started out with dry rock, got a piece of live rock (because I wanted to seed purple coraline). Then my girlfriend pointed out the 'free thing we got with the rock' and I've had at least a dozen or so instances of Aiptasia.

 

[Intricateart]

We had some in the beginning that tagged along home with corals. We got a crew of peppermint shrimp and haven't seen one of those since. We really don't see the shrimp either since they work the late shift and spend all day deep in the rockwork.

 

[chris124]

The rock was in the tank for about a day. My lfs told me to inject it with lemon juice but first to get the rock out of the tank. Thanks everyone.

 

[Lockridge49]

The rock was in the tank for about a day. My lfs told me to inject it with lemon juice but first to get the rock out of the tank. Thanks everyone.

When I got some live rock with a couple aptasia I burned it off with a torch..I wanted to make sure that sucker is dead !! Haven't had an issue since

 

[chris124]

When I got some live rock with a couple aptasia I burned it off with a torch..I wanted to make sure that sucker is dead !! Haven't had an issue since

Thanks i;ll give it a try.

 

[KoleTang]

Boiling water in a syringe works as well I hear.

 

[Katesreef]

I put a little ro water in a container and put it in the microwave and get the water boiling hot. Then I put in the pickling lime (kalk) stir it up and inject them. It's a double wammy. They croak so fast they just fall off the rocks and you can suck them up with a turkey baster. However mine aren't the aiptasia. Mine are the majano with my experience a whole lot harder to kill. I used aiptasia x and they come right back but the boiling method works. If you are in a local fish store and you see majano anemones in their tanks, run don't walk to the nearest exit. Nothing I've found eats them. My copperband butterfly keeps my tank free of aiptasia but wouldn't touch the others. (Personally I would put the lemon juice in the microwave till it boils.)

 

[chris124]

I injected the two aiptasia I could see with lemon juice then hit the thing with some fire. There where about four other squishy things on the rock that looked a little like the aiptasia but I wasn't sure because they pulled in to the rock so I hit them with the fire to just to be safe. I have the rock in a bucket with saltwater. How long should I wait before putting it back in the tank?

 

[Lockridge49]

As long as you dont see any flesh left you can put it back