anyone know what this is

[cjr579]

Can someone tell me what this little thing is. I have about 5 of them growing all over my tank. Should I get rid of them?

 

[aarone]

aptasia....YES! it is a parasite anemone that stings other corals and fish. They reproduce rapidly and can move swiftly...in the night...undtected then sneak up behind you and...Bam your tank is infested!
Wow im having fun tonight....just kidding about the ninja like part...but they really suck.
I figure you are going to ask how to rid them, so i will tell you my method.
I take a bowl water and kalkwasser mix. Make a semi thick paste. Use a dosing syringe and suck it up! Inject the paste directly in front of the subjects "head" it will grab the junk and retract as if it was eating. Thus poisoning itself! voila no more aptasia.
HTH
aaron

 

[powdertoastman]

or you can get some peppermint shrimp and they will take it out.

 

[krowleey]

Originally posted by Powdertoastman
or you can get some peppermint shrimp and they will take it out.
hit and miss

 

[vibe]

heh, all idofor mine s put some calcium in a syring and inject it. it will go away within 1-2 days, sometimes almost immediatly. they just hate calcium i guess. try it and tell us how it goes.

 

[eric4usa]

Ahhhh, my old friend aptasia
Don't be a gimp like I was and say:
"Oh wow, look what's growing!! Awesome! Everything must be great with the water if fragile anenome things just start growing"
Well, I let them grow and after the first hundred or so I started questioning.
Little too late.
I literally had thousands and thousands and thousands of aptasia completely over running my 300gal.
I wound up transfering livestock to a 55gal and completely gutting/overhauling the tank.
Kill them by any means necessary and keep an eye out for any others CONSTANTLY.

 

[rhomer]

I took the big ones out using the syring/ kalk method, but they always seemed to return. So I bought a 4 peppermint shrimp added them, and killed the biggest ones with the syring method. I haven't seem any since.
Rob

 

[skooby]

Nice aptasia. Ya there a real problem if left to go out of control. "FAST" Peppermint shrimp cleaned my tank. God Luck

 

[the claw]

Cute little feller isn't she.

 

[aarone]

if anything get it out as soon as possible....i removed mine with the kalk method...that was almost 5 months ago....i just noticed a new polyp last night....no new LR introduced since
aaron