Id Hitch Hiker

[nats]

Bang or anyone can you ID this for me please. It came over riding on a snail shell (from a reef package from SWF)has now attached itself to some live rock and is begining to multiply

 

[nats]

Let me try that again

 

[nats]

One more time

 

[viper_930]

Right above the submit reply button there is one that says browse. Use that to find your pic. And the pic must be 500x500 pixels or smaller.

 

[nats]

Thanks Viper How about this!

 

[bang guy]

It looks like a rock.

 

[oceana]

LOL bang
if you mean the anemone looking white thing maybe a type of
Aiptasia -(rock anemone)??? hard to see

 

[viper_930]

It looks like you have 3 little dusters there, but on the closest one it looks like there is a long foot attaching to the rock. If that is so, then they are probably aptasias.

 

[nats]

Thanks, like I said it came over on a snail about 4 months ago. There are now about 10 of them on the rock and they attach themselves with a foot. My first thought was that it was some kind of an anemone now I'm wondering if they are good or bad?

 

[oceana]

if its Aiptasia then it depends on whom you ask
i think bad and another will say it does not matter.
i think bad because they are hard to kill and as you have seen the spread like wild fire. they pack a powerfull sting to other corals. so like i said to me they are bad

 

[nats]

Thanks oceana, I've heard that peppermint shrimp will get rid of them. Anyone know if this is true?

 

[oceana]

yep also copper banded butterfly.
great fish , but hard to keep. very picky eaters
there are many informational web site where you can see different picks of Aiptasia to see if thats what you have

 

[viper_930]

Originally posted by nats
Thanks oceana, I've heard that peppermint shrimp will get rid of them. Anyone know if this is true?
Some pep shrimps would, but some just refuse to.

 

[nats]

Thanks guys

 

[rubberduck]

will pepers eat BIG ones?

 

[rubberduck]

cause i got a BIG one that i thought was cool and now it is sitting next to polyps

 

[rubberduck]

IT MOVED

 

[verde_ad]

Peppermints usually only eat small ones, but I have heard of them munching down on big ones. I had a peppermint in my tank to help with an aptasia problem and it only would eat the new ones. It was still very helpful, but it didn't replace having to mix up kalk paste and blast the big ones. That is kind of fun though, so no big deal. On a side note, I used to pull out the rocks that I could and use a kitchen tourch to burn them off.

Get this, they would still come back. Prety tough little guys.

 

[grandmarm]

how to you get rid of the aiptasia with the paste? Is super glue gel good also?

 

[verde_ad]

All you do is mix up a thick paste of kalk and water, suck it up in a syringe and shoot the paste into the mouth of the aiptasia. It will kill them for sure if you get them just right. You need to turn of your water movement while you do it and limit your use of the paste. It can seriously affect your ph if you do too much. I would usually blast 3-5 every other day and you will catch up with it eventually. It probably will not ever end though. Some of the aiptasia will be hiding in the rocks and even once you think you got them all another will pop up.