whiteish/clearish tentacles on store bought hard coral

ichiromariners

ichiromariners

Member
i have a piece of store bought hard coral that you buy in the plastic and have had it in my tank since may and now there is something that i would call a plant that is growing off of it and its whiteish/clearish and has a bunch of tentacle looking things coming from it. anyone know what this is and if its bad?
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
It COULD be aptaisa anemone. And From everything I've read/ heard, and seen, these thingsare purely pests and elimination of them is something to strive for. I've heard you can inject limewater into them with a hypo, that will kill it and add beneficial calcium to the tank! :) Injecting the base with RO water would probably work too, but I think limiewater injection is most widely used method. Do you have a pic of what it looks like? Aiptasias look like the pic on this page I borrowed from cotton0627 on this board.
http://members.aol.com/cotton62799/what.jpg
 
jakob4001

jakob4001

Member
injecting ANYTHING that close to the coral may harm or kill the coral as well...you could try to purchase a few PEPPERMINT SHRIMPS from your LFS or from online retailer...they have been confirmed to eat small aptasia before they become a problem; if you buy a few of them or so, you may even get them to spawn in your ank providing free food for the tank...
you have to make sure they ARE peppermint shrimps though...some LFS or even online retailers may mix them up w/ other shrimps like camel back shrimp which do not eat aptasia & are not necessarily reef safe
 
ichiromariners

ichiromariners

Member
it is just like whats in that picture. the coral is just a $5 store bought decorative piece its not a real coral. so i will try the lime juice method. thanks.
 
gregzbobo

gregzbobo

Member
Not lime juice. Limewater. My bad. Limewater is just the english translation for kalkwasser. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
 
kev

kev

Member
Do you have LR in the tank? I so, thats prolly where the aptaisa came from. I highly doubt that an anemone could live out of the water on fake coral????:confused:
 
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