Aiptasia Ate My Goby! **Graphic Photo**

[Techne]

Has anyone ever seen an aiptasia eat a fish? This morning I visited my tank and all looked well. I noticed my yellow watchman goby's color was becoming a stripe gray, which I read was a sign of gender maturation in females--this goby has only been in my tank for a week. I went about my morning and walked by my tank about an hour later to find what is pictured below.

http://s21.postimg.org/vegyc5z9f/IMG_20130921_092954_1.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/vegyc5z9f/)

Has anyone ever seen this? I'm not sure if the if the aiptasia attacked the goby or if the fishy was already weak/dead when the aiptasia got him.

Obviously I have a bit of an aiptasia problem. I've been working to get it under control with a peppermint shrimp and boiling water. So far the shrimp has been no help.

[kylathwe]

Craziness... I bet the goby was already weak or sick...doubt it could have gotten him healthy.

[tom g]

I agree my guess is the goby was already dead ...
try a file fish , he wiped out all the aptasia I could see in my tank ...
cheers

[Mussin]

Them some big ole aiptasia!

[willyboy]

Wow! And those hermits are going at it. Hermits don't sit well with me.

[dkeller_nc]

I've been told that not all peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia. This is a video describing one aquarist's solution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKETx7fzYBI

Also, be very careful with boiling water, definitely do not boil live rock. Some of the life on live rock make toxins, palythoas being the most infamous example, and boiling the rock may aerosolize them.

[Gagonzalez]

Yep.....Was probably already dead. Although, I had a ball anemone that would pick up my snails and eat them and then spit out the empty shell. Pep Shrimp won't be of any use with your Aptasia that large.

[AquaticFins]

They are anemones like any other. If a fish brushes against them, they'll sting and try to capture it like the rest of the anemones.

I've had good success with Berghia sp. nudibranchs to eliminate them, provided you don't have any wrasses or other fish in the aquarium that are likely to eat the nudibranchs.

[h2odvl]

This is a first for me but I'm not surprised, they like to cause headaches.
I've had luck with peppermint shrimp eating aiptasia (I was told about 1 in 3 will eat them, seems to hold true for me), just can't seem to get rid of majanos.
Sorry for your loss :(