What are these things?

[libertonalex]

I am very, very new to the hobby. Following instructions of my aquarium guy I have a 55 gallon tank set up with 50 lbs of live rock and 25lbs of live sand...

Emperor 400 has beenr unning for 3 days now and I have these thigns growing on some of the rocks (mostly on the cured rock that was pulled out of broken down tanks, but I would say 40+ lbs are uncured).

Attached a pic, would love some information...

ATL

[James404]

looks like feather dusters maybe? If so they are harmless and great filter feeders.

[mthomp]

aptasia. kill em

[jflick345]

aptasia. kill em

+1 better start nuking 'em now

[Sugar Magnolia]

It's aiptasia, a pest anemone. You'll want to get some Joe's Juice or even lemon juice and inject it directly into their mouths.

[James404]

ooh my bad, yea aiptasia is bad kill kill kill!

[kcochran0010]

+2 thats aptasia and you need to blow em to bits!

[libertonalex]

Thanks for the advice everyone... will get to work when I get home, luckily I only waited till about 6 or 7 of these little guys popped up. I was all excited to see some life in my tank =)

[Floowid]

For every one you can see there are 10 you can't. Think about getting a couple peppermint shrimp AFTER your cycle is finished. In the meantime, nuke em by whatever means you choose while the tank stabilizes.

[Flame_Angel]

When using Joe's Juice or any other liquid Aptasia killer, make sure to squirt a little cloud around the anemone before injecting it into the middle to kill off any gametes they may release as a result of the perceived threat.

*edit*
If you decide to go the peppermint shrimp route, make certain the ones you buy are wild-caught, as captive-bred peppermint shrimp are usually fairly loathe to eat Aptasia.

[goochesfish]

If they're all on one rock, I'd just get rid of the rock. 10 is alot. Then you can work on getting rid of the emperor.

[Emmalemma]

Oh dear, I'm another newbie and was just wondering the same thing. Libertonalex, I have them too! But mine seem more prevalent. And I've got damsels in there -- am thinking lemon juice would be a bad idea, with fish in there too? Will a peppermint shrimp get the job done?

Em

[Omie]

Oh dear, I'm another newbie and was just wondering the same thing. Libertonalex, I have them too! But mine seem more prevalent. And I've got damsels in there -- am thinking lemon juice would be a bad idea, with fish in there too? Will a peppermint shrimp get the job done?

Em

YES! peppermint shrimp will help if you don't have any fish that could eat it... Also u can check on the lfs an injection call aiptasia-x and is safe for corals and fishes...

[helmke]

My peppermint shrimp do a great job with small aptasia but ignored the larger one. I was successful using a solution of pickling lime and h2o on the big guy.

[TellyFish]

Super easy to kill if you only have 10 in a small tank. Just use a syringe to drip Mrs Wages Pickling Lime onto the little buggers. They don't retract or even realize anything is happening to them... until its too late! Bwahahah!

[bruno87]

Peppermint shrimp worked for me. Hope you get rid of em all!!!

[libertonalex]

Heading back to my LFS for a water test. Terrible that in NJ you need a prescription to buy a syringe, people think I'm a drug addict in my local Cvs. hopefully my LFS will have something (but not the expensive chemicals... after alot of research im goin for lemon juice mode).

Peppermint shrimp seem like the long term solution, but ill have to wait a bit longer to cycle.

[dcombs44]

Lemon juice will not harm the fish in the tank if you just use small amounts. Now if you dump a whole bottle in there, it's going to affect your pH since it's pretty acidic.

The longer you wait, the worse the problem will get.

[Emmalemma]

Libertonalex, hah that's pretty funny about the syringe.

I got three peppermints last night and the aiptasias (the ones I could see anyway) were gone this morning! Holy moly!

[TellyFish]

That is pretty funny about the syringes.

Out here (I am in Chicago) I can go out to the suburbs, pretend to be a farmer, and pick up tons of syringes without them looking at me like I'm a drug addict since they sell them for treating animals. I just slap on some overalls, and I am good to go!

[EaZy DuZ iT]

I have the perfect soultion to your aptasia problem.

Talk to "Michael" Great man, will help you out in anyway!

http://www.oceanproaquatics.com/Aiptasia_Wanted.html

and heres your Aiptasia killer.

http://www.oceanproaquatics.com/shop/berghia-nudibranch-breeder-verrucicornis-more-aiptasia-p-19834.html

[ninjamini]

I hade a few of these and some corn anemonees too. I used Kalkwasser powder mixed with water. I used the plastic measurer (it is used to measure .5ml water) that came with one of the test kits. Put it right up to its mouth and slowly squirt out the kalk. It closes up around the tip and bingo! I've got ya. Keep going till its empty.

Now be warned doing this in the tank can get calk everywhere. IT tends to float around. Here is some tips:

1. Shut off the flow. LAst thing ypu need is water flow pushing the kalk over to your candycane coral.

2. Be ready with airline tubing. I create a syphin with the tubing to suckup the peices of kalk that float away. This can take awhile. It does make a mess.

3. Be ready with some fresh salt water to replace the water you syphon off.

4. rinse-repeat. If you got them you will get them again. Thats why they are the pest that they are. Have fun - You didn't think that keeping a salt water tank was going to be easy!

[Jstdv8]

Super easy to kill if you only have 10 in a small tank. Just use a syringe to drip Mrs Wages Pickling Lime onto the little buggers. They don't retract or even realize anything is happening to them... until its too late! Bwahahah!

+1
10 aips is nothing. smoke em and be done with it.