Hitchhiker alert!

[pteam]

I got 100 lbs of live rock about 2 weeks ago and today I noticed a hitchhicker! I also think it is a hitchiker and didn't just grow on its own.

I think its a Aiptasia sea anemone. The book that I have says some bad stuff about:

"These are dangerous pests. Their nematocysts are particularly virulent; they will kill and attack most coral and many other kinds of anemones, sea mats, or polyps.

These nuisance anemones typically arrive on live rock and can easily reach plague proportions. A large, well-fed specimen can asexually produce dozens of tiny juveniles in a day. Juveniles and adults are mobile, creep rapidly over the substrate, or detatch and float to a new spot."

Here is some pics of it in my tank:





Should I put some tongs in there and remove this and throw it away ASAP? Or what is your advise? I am going to be adding 2 clownfish with an anemone that they will host but I'm thinking they will not host with this kind and its very bad.

Advise??

[kdc527]

if it's antipasta get rid of it asap

[rrcg50]

warm kalk slurry, peppermint shrimp, brancia nudibranch(spelling is bad) all help take care of them

[pteam]

so is it a Aiptasia? I could remove the 1 tonight with tongs. I dont have any of those other fish that will eat them.

[abulgin]

You can't remove aiptasia with tongs. That will just cause it's cells to scatter about your tank and spread. You need to kill it with kalk paste, lemon juice, joe's juice, Copper Band Butterfly, peppermint shrimp, etc.

[pteam]

Can I take the whole rock out? And then scrape it off / run it under hot water?

I can just grab the rock its near the top...

[Brewman12er]

best thing i have used out all the things other then joe juice and aptaisa-x is lemon juice..


hot water/cold water/peppermint shrimp/kalk mix was a total waste of time and effort.

[crvz]

You can manually remove it if you pull the rock out and chisel out the part of rock it's attached to. Pulling it with tweezers won't work. But a little screwdriver underneath it and take chip/grind the rock out and it should be a goner. Of course, if there's one, you'll probably see others down the line. I'd recommend peppermint shrimp for long term solutions.

I wouldnt put the rock under hot water, you'll kill off a lot more than you want to.

[pteam]

Ok I'm gonna run to the store right now and buy some lemon juice, scrape it off in the sink, and run it under water, then spray lemon juice on it? SHould I wash the lemon juice off before putting it back in the tank?

[pteam]

By the way you guys are the best! Thanks for your help!! Be back in an hour or so going for a cruise to the lemon juice store! lol

[pteam]

Ok I'm gonna pull it and put the lemon juice on. Should I put it all over the rock? Should I wash it off afterwards? Will this effect other stuff in the tank afterwards?

[pteam]

Um guys ok I went and bought 5 peppermint shrimps tonight and 2 of them are dead tonight. After reading more I found that there are 2 kinds of peppermint shrimp. The Lysmata Californica pep shrmp says: "Peppermint are only suitable for cool water aquariums only. This is not a tropical animal and will not survive long in tanks kept at normal reef temperatures. Needs a cool water tank of 50-68 degrees". It also says this shrimp will NOT eat aiptasia.

The other pep shrimp is Lysmata wurdemanni and doesnt mention that it needs to be cold water. This shrimp says its reputed to eat aiptasia.

My tank is at around 80-81 degrees.

I feel so bad that 2 are dead

[Paul Davies]

QUICK STATS
Care Level: Easy
Temperament: Peaceful
Reef Compatible: Yes
Water Conditions: 72-78° F, sg 1.023-1.025, pH 8.1-8.4, dKH 8-12
Max. Size: 2"
Color Form: Red, White, Yellow
Diet: Carnivore
Origin: Caribbean
Family: Hippolytidae
Swim Level: Middle to Bottom

[wrott]

You're supposed to inject the lemon juice into the base.
Buy some Joe's Juice and turn off flow, then "feed" it to the top of the anem. I believe it is just concentrated Ca(OH)2.
The peps probably died from poor acclimation, I've used both Joe's and peps w/ good results--the peps will live fine in our tanks, but they can be hit or miss and mine were evenually eaten by larger fish.

[pteam]

Well I took the rock out last nite, poured some lemon juice on it, then decided to just chisel the small portion of rock it was on off so it was completely gone. Then I washed the rock several times, then soaked it overnight in the sink in fresh water, then put the rock back in the tank so the aiptasia is completely gone now.

But do I have the wrong kind of pep shrimp? I did order cooling fans for my tank off ebay but they havnt arrived yet. I did put the bags in the water for about 15 mins, they did fine for hours and hours then late tonight after the lights were turned off I noticed 2 down. Is there something more I could have done? poor lil guys

[wrott]

With shrimp, you need to drip acclimate for ~1hr (keep temp same the whole time) to ensure a better survival rate.
Sorry you lost 2, I have lost 2 cleaner shrimp from acclimating too quickly(I had even added small amounts of water to the bag every 10min, but still lost them).
Shrimp, stars, snails are very sensitive to changes in water parameters--they cannot acclimatize as fast as fish, anems and corals.

[BuddhaKiss]

Did you peps look like this? If so, then they are peppermint shrimps.



But if they looked like this



then . They are camelback shrimp and don't eat aiptasia

The camelback shrimp is usually mistaken as a pep, although I don't understand why. Aside from simiar colors, they look differnt enough to me

[LionfishFinatic]

Originally posted by kdc527
if it's antipasta get rid of it asap

this is hilarious!!!!

well now that i got that off my chest, i personally have not used joes juice but boiling water works pretty well, but you HAVE to be sure that you get ALL of the pieces out. or they will just regrow.