Unidentified eagle eye colony "hitchhiker?"

[Polypnewbie]

Just today I bought a small eagle eye colony for my prepped 20 gallon tank. It is the only thing in my new tank that has been empty for months. After I put the small colony in the tank, I realized there were 4 additional growths of light brown long thick spidery like legs. I was thinking maybe some brown button polyps had attached to the colony. But button polyps seem to raise up a little and these are just flat against the rock. Can anyone tell me what these might be. I'm going to try to figure out how to attach a photo.

[sidewinder2180]

Need a pic sounds like it could be aiptasia.

[Polypnewbie]

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It's so frustrating. I have the photo uploaded, but I don't know how to post "my current attachment"

[Polypnewbie]

Ok, the picture did wind up posting in the last message. The tan spidery leg looking "coral?" is seen in the middle of the picture if you look closely.

If you know what it is, please tell me, and any info on how it will react being on the same rock with the eagle eye zoa. I want the eagle eyes, not the other stuff, but don't want to needlessly remove it if they can coexist.

[hotelbravo]

Looks like majano pest anemone to me. Does It look greenish in all blue lighting?

[Polypnewbie]

I turned on the blue light and it did look green. What happens now? Is there any chance I can leave it and it may not reproduce or bother my eagle eyes?

[hotelbravo]

I turned on the blue light and it did look green. What happens now? Is there any chance I can leave it and it may not reproduce or bother my eagle eyes?

its mejano and will reproduce and could possible overtake you tank. mostly regarded as a pest some people enjoy the looks of them and prefer to keep them. it is all your decision but be careful how you attempt to remove them you cant just pluck them off or scrape them off. some use kalkwasser to inject straight into them killing them. others using boiling water squirted at them threw a large turkey baster or syringe. others will remove the rock they are on and move on from there.

I have never dealt with them personally so maybe someone else who has experienced them can chime in

[Polypnewbie]

If anyone ever desires to take their brand new tank and have it become infested in just a few days, the place to visit is Reef Encounter in Hackensack, NJ.

Not only did I come home yesterday to find many more of the now identified aiptasias all over the eagle eye colony rock...some even rolling free...but I got the unexpected bonus of what I have now discovered were astersinas stuck all over the glass.

Reading about aiptasia removal and how it's nearly impossible to ever get it all yourself was exceptionally disappointing and depressing. This was a brand new cycled empty tank that was basically overrun and contaminated in one day.

No wonder all the coral in the entire store were marked down.

[Junk2]

Poly, every store in NJ I've been in has some in their tanks. Just need to check it out prior to purchase. Some dip and keep an eye on it.

[brittonv]

I hope it is not as bad as it sounds! THis site seems to indicate that pepperment shrimp can be deployed to take care of your Aiptasias:
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/component/zine/article/33

I hope that site is correct as I think I may be in the same boat as you!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2501304

[hotelbravo]

Get a group of peppermint shrimp to help eat the pests. If that doesnt work perhaps a filefish will. I had an outbreak of aptaisa not to long ago and bought 3 peppermints and they demolished the pest anemones and I have not seen one return since.

[Polypnewbie]

Thanks everyone for your responses. They are helping me learn about this situation since I am a newcomer. I tried to remove the aiptasia manually out of the water. I know it is not going to really work since I saw online that if even one cell is left behind it will regenerate. It's been a week since I removed them and I saw it takes one week to two weeks for the babies to just start showing. So I know they're on the way even though I haven't seen any. I'm too new to aquariums to feel like I would be a good enough caregiver to any additional creatures that eat aiptasia so I may even decide if it doesn't work out to give it to anyone locally who wants a free aiptasia infested eagle eye colony.

For now, I'll see what happens, but I have one more Unidentified hitchhiker who I noticed the day after I "removed" the aiptasia. That morning, I got up checked the tank to see one last aiptasia I missed and this little thing, which I figured was a baby aiptasia. I removed the normal aiptasia and then I tried to scrape at the hole this other creature seemed to come out of, but the "hole" was so small, it gave way to the rock underneath so there was no more hole. I carefully ran the part of the rock with no eagle eyes under tap water to try to rinse out the lingering aiptasia cells (hopeless I'm sure) and I figured that was the end of the red creature too; but once it went back in the water, the next day, there it was again.

It has not grown that I can tell. It is very very small and red. It can retract itself in and out of whatever it is in or on. I was expecting it to be a baby aiptasia but it's still small, hides most of the time and it is red. Now there's the bud of another one on top of the rock.

I will attempt to post a picture, but I don't have much picture posting success. This is more out of curiosity because I'm hoping it's not harmful. So if anyone knows what this red thing is in the center of the picture please let me know.

I know I am foolishly hoping it is not a small red aiptasia, but somehow it will be anyway. Regardless, the Eagle eyes have shown enormous improvement since I got them, except now I have a huge amount of brown algae.

[Polypnewbie]

Pic

[fishgate]

It is in your tank now. Take care of it now before you have an all-out infestation. Get fish that eat it, use aiptasiaX, etc. Removing the coral plug doesn't matter anymore.

[Polypnewbie]

Pic with it retracted

[Polypnewbie]

Pic with it retracted

[whosurcaddie]

The manual removal is what caused the explosion in the population. Every piece of nem that was torn away even small floating pieces grew another nem. Its called pedal laceration. Here is how you get rid of them.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nFFpBRVOZ_0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I know he is killing majano's in the video but its the same process for aiptasia.

[Sk8r]

Not too big a problem. Pep shrimp ought to take care of the nems. Get about 5 juvies. Asterinas will be fine in your sump: because you have softies they could be a problem, but just pick them off as you spot them and rehome them.