Aiptasia

[olsenjb]

Got looking at my reef tank tonight and noticed some rather unusual things stuck to the glass. They are pink, round, and appear to have hair-like tentacles around them, which appear to be clear. There are various sizes, but none larger than about 1 mm in diameter. They don't move, just stuck to the glass. What are they? Is this the beginning of aiptasia? If so, anyone know the best way to get rid of it. I have two camel back shrimp. Will they eat it? I understand that peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia. Can you house peppermints and camel backs together?

 

[frankl15207]

From the thread that this fed off of: Aiptasia are also known as glass anemones. There is some variation in color. Camelbacks to my knowledge don't eat them, but it's probably a good idea to get the camelbacks out if you plan on adding corals. They like polyps.
Peppermint shrimp tend to be hit and miss with them.
If you do a search, you will find a lot of threads on them, along with pictures and recommendations on their removal.

 

[olsenjb]

One major problem...every remedy I can find speaks of injecting with this or that, or peppermint shrimp eating them off the rock. Mine are stuck to the glass where shrimp couldn't get to, and they are tiny, slightly larger than a pinhead. I couldn't inject them because they are so small.

 

[demosthenes]

I would wait and see what happens. Doesn't sound like you can do anything now.

 

[bob the builder]

Look in your other post "what is this growing on my glass" to see my answer. Peperment shrimp, and the copperband butterfly will eat these right up...

 

[frankl15207]

Originally posted by olsenjb:
<strong>Mine are stuck to the glass where shrimp couldn't get to, and they are tiny, slightly larger than a pinhead. I couldn't inject them because they are so small.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If they are aiptasia, the aiptasia remover by Chem-Marin works (very well on the small ones). All you need to do is get some of it on them. It won't hurt anything else in the tank. Right now, unless you are 100% certain that they are aiptasia, I wouldn't do anything. You may be trying to kill something beneficial to the tank.

 

[reefer madness]

I had the aiptasia anenomes in my reef. I added 1 coral banded shrimp and three peppermint shrimp at the same time. After a month or two the aiptasia disappeared.

 

[olsenjb]

Well, I think the first thing I should do is get the camel back shrimp out, and drop a couple peppermint shrimp in and see what happens. Anyone had any luck at getting camel back shrimp out of their tank? I was thinking I might coax them into a net with some shrimp from the local grocery store's meat dept. Anyone else think this might work?

 

[frankl15207]

It might. Those little @#%@%#% are fast. I used one of the clear traps. Put some _uncooked_ shrimp into it after the lights in the tank went off and just waited. I got lucky. Both of them went into the trap at the same time about half an hour after I put it in.

 

[olsenjb]

Thanks frankl15207. I appreciate the input. I think I will give it a try and see what happens. I really don't want to tear every rock out of my tank just to catch those things. I'm a bit pissed that my LFS sold them to me knowing I have a reef.