What Are These???

[sly65sally200]

As everyone knows, I just bought an established tank, so I am quite new to this. I have been asking questions to get to know my tank. Basically, What are these things in these pictures? They are all over the tank. Thanks. Oh, are they good, bad, or just ugly? LOL Oh, and they go into their holes when they are touched. Thanks

 

[bigarn]

uh oh .... aiptasia. not good ...

 

[rykna]

Time to pull out some joe's juice or boiling water.

 

[jonthefishguy]

aptasia, a very problematic and very prolific anemone that is very much loathed in this hobby. As it should be.

 

[bigblue69]

Look like aiptasia and they can take over your tank. Most people do not want them in their tank so they are not good

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by jonthefishguy
aptasia, a very problematic and very prolific anemone that is very much loathed in this hobby. As it should be.
YES. These evil little invaders ate all but 5 of my dwarf seahorses

 

[sly65sally200]

How do I get rid of them?

 

[nereef]

inject them with boiling water, lemon juice, or joe's juice.

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by Rykna
YES. These evil little invaders ate all but 5 of my dwarf seahorses

they ATE seahorses! I didn't know aptasia could do that??? I thought they biggest harm was stinging... wow!

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by sly65sally200
How do I get rid of them?
Do a search with the "search" link above for aptasia. You'll find a ton of threads on them... joes juice, copperbands, there's tons of options to try to get rid of them. My personal success has been with my copperband.

 

[sly65sally200]

Thanks, is lemon juice coral and fish safe?

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by sly65sally200
Thanks, is lemon juice coral and fish safe?
I haven't used the lemon juice. Just the joe's juice and boiling water.

 

[sly65sally200]

Well I injected them with boiling water. Then tried to suck them out. NO LUCK

 

[sly65sally200]

I also read that Berghia nudibranchs eat them. Is there fish that eat the nudibranchs if I get some of these.

 

[v8eater]

you can also inject them with Kalkwrasser(spelling may be off), make sure to you turn all water flow source off while injecting so they get the full affect. If they do not die, do it again the next day.

 

[rcoultas]

The copperband butterfly eats them - I personally used peppermint shrimp with great success. The peppermints will continue to be scavengers and become part of your clean up crew when all the aptasia is gone.

 

[sly65sally200]

Also, I have these other two anemones that move around alot. I actually get up in the morning and they are in a completely different spot. Are these Aiptasia as well? They look different. Are they bad?

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by rcoultas
The copperband butterfly eats them - I personally used peppermint shrimp with great success. The peppermints will continue to be scavengers and become part of your clean up crew when all the aptasia is gone.
yeah, I like peppermints too. but they sometimes have a harder time with larger aptasias though - so the larger the peppermint, the better. The ones here on SWF, even though a good price, are generally much smaller. The copperband butterfly can eat larger ones, but these are also hit/miss. My CBB ate all my aptasia and is now my favorite fish (very beautiful specimen), but I've heard of some people getting CBB that won't touch them.
If I were you, I would try the peppermints first, and then the CBB if they aren't going for them... overall, I always prefer a natural remedy if possible.

 

[gman08016]

Originally Posted by rcoultas
The copperband butterfly eats them - I personally used peppermint shrimp with great success. The peppermints will continue to be scavengers and become part of your clean up crew when all the aptasia is gone.
Are pepermint shrimp reef safe

 

[rcoultas]

Yes - the pep's are reef safe with rare exceptions. I bought mine from SWF some time ago and even though they were small they just kept picking away at the one big aptasia I had and finally wiped it out - they first took out it's feeder tentacles and it began to starve and shrink. The small apts that I had were gone quickly. They will not usually get the apt's right away - they will get used to their new surroundings and then pick and feed. My pep's are now 1 1/2 - 2 inches long and are quite entertaining at times.