My first problem.

[goblin]

Well I've just set my tank up a month and a half ago and have been slowly working on it. I put about 6lbs of live rock in the other day, and I have been reading in the FAQ about hitchhikers. Well I think I've found a bad one. I'm pretty sure its a Aiptasia. So far I only see the one. My question is what do I do. I haven't any fish in the tank, still in my cycle. Can't you just take some twisers and pluck it out? Or should I pull the rock and scrub it down?

 

[jessecnc]

Definitely don't try to pluck it, never works. Take the rock its attached to out of the tank and pour a few cups of boiling water over the aptasia. That will kill the sucka.

 

[joncat24]

get some chem marine stop aptaisa..kills em in about two minutes. easy to use with syringe

 

[alyssia]

Joe's Juice works great as well.

 

[goblin]

Thanks for the help. On the same rock I also have a bunch of flatworms. And what looks like a good bit of feather dusters which if I'm not wrong are good. I also noticed something REALLY big in one of the holes. I'm not sure what it was I just caught it out of the corner of my eye as it darted around. I'm thinking of removing the rock and soaking it in hot fresh water for a while. Will this kill everything good and bad?

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by Goblin
Thanks for the help. On the same rock I also have a bunch of flatworms. And what looks like a good bit of feather dusters which if I'm not wrong are good. I also noticed something REALLY big in one of the holes. I'm not sure what it was I just caught it out of the corner of my eye as it darted around. I'm thinking of removing the rock and soaking it in hot fresh water for a while. Will this kill everything good and bad?

It sure will!

 

[goblin]

The more and more that I look at this thing the more things I find. I just found a Sundial Snail.
Voting time. What should I do. It looks like this thing has more bad on it then good. Should I just soak this thing in fresh water and kill everthing or just deal with each problem individualy?

 

[goblin]

I just found a white brittlestar on the problematic Rock. So I don't think I want to kill everything. So how do I take care of all the other problems.

 

[dexter]

IMO I would hot water/joe's juice the aptasia if you are really worried about it. If you are not and you are still cycling, leave it alone. if it starts to grow/multiply, then joe juice the suckers. You can also add a peppermint shrimp when you get your cleaning crew. some will eat the aptasia, some will not. Mine did. If it is not causing problems, you should be OK for now unless it starts to spread.
good luck!
Dxtr

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Goblin
Thanks for the help. On the same rock I also have a bunch of flatworms. And what looks like a good bit of feather dusters which if I'm not wrong are good. I also noticed something REALLY big in one of the holes. I'm not sure what it was I just caught it out of the corner of my eye as it darted around. I'm thinking of removing the rock and soaking it in hot fresh water for a while. Will this kill everything good and bad?
If there's flat worms on those rocks, it may be a little late to just take out that rock to do anything with. They move too you know!! Best thing to do is treat the aiptasia by squirting it with Joe's juice, which it's done within your tank, just follow the directions! Next thing you should do is by removing as many flat worms that you can see and treat with flat worm exit. In order to remove your unknown hitchhiker is by placing the rock within a bucket with higher salinity level to hope it crawls out. There's other ways to do it as well, just do a research on here. Did you even see what it looks like? Mantis shrimp perhaps?? :happyfish

 

[sugarfox03]

I second the Joe's Juice! I had a good size aiptasia on one of my live rocks, and I squirted a bit of the "juice" on there and it was gone in minutes. I was supposed to syphon it out of there, but there's nothing left. The Joe's Juice comes with a syringe and a tip that makes it real easy to get right in the center of the aiptasia, and nothing else (as long as you dont squirt too much out of the syringe, you dont need much!) I have some baby feather dusters and anthelia in my tank, close to where the aiptasia was, and they are all doing great. Its cheap, I got mine for like $9.00. I dont know what to tell ya about the flatworms though! Good luck!

-Melody