My new coral brought in an unwanted friend!

[Lizzy_lray]

Got my new cluster of Zoas last week and they are doing great. What I failed to notice as I was wrapped up in my new beautiful purchase was a 1 small aptasia hiding in the polyps. He is tiny but I don't want them to spread. Should I put the coral in QT and do a boiling water injection? This one is going to be really hard to get to from his location.

How quickly do these things spread?

[kane912]

I'm extremely new to saltwater, but I don't think that quarantining can ever hurt. I've only got freshwater experience, but I know enough to suggest isolating your zoanthids till you can definitively get rid of your pest

[Jables]

I have used kalk paste on aptaisa and it worked pretty well, but they were pretty big and easy to get to so not sure if that would work for you. If you did that you don't want to get it on the zoanthids cause it could kill them also. Quarantine is always good until you figure something out

[toothybugs]

One little aiptasia polyp isn't really going to hurt anything.

If anything, kalk paste it, but in truth I wouldn't worry about it. Just go on with your day. Start to worry when you see a dozen or so (if that ever happens) and then it's an easy matter of picking up a peppermint shrimp to manage them.

For what it's worth I've had a few aiptasia polyps in my tank for over a year now and they are nowhere near out of control. In fact its been quite the opposite. I got them with frags and I would be surprised if I had more than a handful of new polyps since first introduction.

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1 on QT. I'd try to inject with boiling water. I havn'et delt with aptasia personaly, but I'm obsesive about keeping things like that out. If were in your situation I'd take a plastic bowl i have dedicated to fish stuff, and fill it with QT water. then put the frag in ther while I worked on it. After injecting the aptasia, i'd leave in the bowl of water for maybe 5 minutes and gently swish it around right before putting the frag back in qt. I don't know exactly how aptasia work, but some things release toxins when they die, or spores. I wouldn't want either in my QT with a frag that I wanted to put in my DT. Might be over kill, but that's what I'd do. I might even try boiling kalk just to be sure. Sounds kind of dangerous though. make sure you were goggles! any time you handle zoas you need to wear goggles. Last thing you need is to go half blind trying to get rid of a reef pest. Plus if you're blind, you can't even reed threads on Reef Central!

[wnehez]

Originally Posted by toothybugs

One little aiptasia polyp isn't really going to hurt anything.

If anything, kalk paste it, but in truth I wouldn't worry about it. Just go on with your day. Start to worry when you see a dozen or so (if that ever happens) and then it's an easy matter of picking up a peppermint shrimp to manage them.

For what it's worth I've had a few aiptasia polyps in my tank for over a year now and they are nowhere near out of control. In fact its been quite the opposite. I got them with frags and I would be surprised if I had more than a handful of new polyps since first introduction.

You got lucky. There are MANY cases of these things spreading like wildfire.
But instead of waiting till they become a problem, it is best that you take care of it before. Think of yourself being one step ahead of the game. You at least located it before it became a problem. QT it a kalk paste it. I also have done the (lemon or lime juice) injection and have had luck with that. You just need to get a syringe from your local friendly CVS.
P.S.- This can be a little awkward especially if yours is located in a high drug use area. You - Ummm excuse me, can I buy a syringe? Cashier- And what is the syringe for? You- It is to inject this thing called aiptasia with lemon juice. Cashier -
Either way, its best to take care of it before it becomes a problem. The more you can keep out, the better.

[Sk8r]

Aiptasia are really not the monster everybody thinks---unless your tank has conditions that support a bloom of them. Your zoas will more likely be damaged by trying removal than by the aiptasia itself. I have one from time to time, and a peppermint shrimp does for it,---have quite a few in my sump. They happen. My corals defend themselves pretty well. I'd suggest a pep shrimp, except I'm not sure how polite they are with zoas, but just don't disarrange your whole tank going after one measly aiptasia.

[turtle87]

I bought a small colony of fire and ice zoas that had a couple apitasia on it and my peppermint shrimp went to town on it in and the next day the apitasia was all gone so +1 on peppermint shrimp

[Lizzy_lray]

Originally Posted by wnehez

You got lucky. There are MANY cases of these things spreading like wildfire.

But instead of waiting till they become a problem, it is best that you take care of it before. Think of yourself being one step ahead of the game. You at least located it before it became a problem. QT it a kalk paste it. I also have done the (lemon or lime juice) injection and have had luck with that. You just need to get a syringe from your local friendly CVS.

P.S.- This can be a little awkward especially if yours is located in a high drug use area. You - Ummm excuse me, can I buy a syringe? Cashier- And what is the syringe for? You- It is to inject this thing called aiptasia with lemon juice. Cashier -

Either way, its best to take care of it before it becomes a problem. The more you can keep out, the better.

Haha! I can imagine it being awkward lol. My mom is actually a type 1 diabetic and she has super small fine point syringes that if I decide to do the injection will help with how small the little Bugger is. I have seached RF posts that's where I found the boiling water trick I didn't see lemon juice though, what would the excess do to a coral?

[Lizzy_lray]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Aiptasia are really not the monster everybody thinks---unless your tank has conditions that support a bloom of them. Your zoas will more likely be damaged by trying removal than by the aiptasia itself. I have one from time to time, and a peppermint shrimp does for it,---have quite a few in my sump. They happen. My corals defend themselves pretty well. I'd suggest a pep shrimp, except I'm not sure how polite they are with zoas, but just don't disarrange your whole tank going after one measly aiptasia.

Sk8r I have a coral banded shrimp in the tank, he is pretty aggressive would he mess with pep shrimp?

[Newsmyrna80]

More than likely, yes. Banded corals can be very territorial and there's not enough room for both if them in your 20. I wouldn't worry about 1 aiptasia. I've had one in my tank for over 10 years, it's never spread.

[tmz]

If you can get at it, outside the water, I'd scrape it off at it's base or in it's hole with a small pick or awl and use a paper towel to blot off any tissue or slime hanging on. Kalk past is good but likely will burn the zonathus too if the aiptaisa is embedded in them.. They can spread quickly sometimes.