Identification Help

[LRomero]

Is this a young Bubble Tip Anemone? Was looking at the tank yesterday and saw this sticking out the back side of the rock. Tank has 4 pieces of Red Bubble Tip Anemone, 1 Finger Leather, and 1 Toadstool Leather, and 2 pieces of Mushroom Coral.

[AlSimmons]

It looks more like an Aiptasia to me.

[LRomero]

Uh oh, so I need to remove it? How do I go about that?

[LRomero]

Reading up on Liveaquaria.com it says the use of Peppermint Shrimp (but I don't know exactly which ones I have as I didn't buy them myself) and the use of Lemon Juice of scolding hot RO water. There is also Calcium Hydroxide, but not sure I want to risk the use of chemicals this early on in my Saltwater hobby.

[AlSimmons]

The link below might help.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....efkeeping-101-

Burning the Aiptasia off with a small butane torch or a cigarette lighter is another option. This only takes a few seconds to do.

[Gladmaker]

I have found lemon juice to be effective for individual ones. It does no harm to the tank. I use a 10 ml syringe with juice. Squirt it directly on the aiptasia. I use about 5 ml on each one. Be careful not to touch it with the syringe or it will close up before you have a chance to squirt the juice on it.

[LRomero]

Thanks guys. I will use the lemon juice method this evening when I get home from work.

[davocean]

Originally Posted by AlSimmons

The link below might help.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....efkeeping-101-

Burning the Aiptasia off with a small butane torch or a cigarette lighter is another option. This only takes a few seconds to do.

PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fumes or steam from certain animals on your rock can make you very sick

[AlSimmons]

Originally Posted by davocean

Fumes or steam from certain animals on your rock can make you very sick

Such as?

I think you might be a little too over-cautious here. Boiling rock is one thing, hitting an Aiptaisa with an open flame for a second or two is another. To be honest with you I don't think I've ever seen a thread here at RC or other sites where somebody has gotten sick from this. Then again some people have a hard enough time keeping their shoe laces tied, much or less pull off a simple procedure like this. Lets just hope that they're turning everything off before they put their hands in the water. Now your playing for keeps.

[Civicman86]

I have used Joe's Juice in the past with success.

[Gladmaker]

I don't think there is a health risk of using a quick flame to burn it off, but you have to take the rock out to do it. davocean is probably right about the steam being a potential hazard, but you should not be getting the rock that hot. Using lemon juice is a simple process to do in the tank.

[Kodock]

Aptasia.. Buy a nudibranch snail if you have no corals. Peppermint shrimp supposedly help, but that is seldom. Buy some xenia and let it takeover the rock, no more aptasia.

[\Clownfish/]

Instead of using lemon juice I just get about a cup of tank water mircowave that till its hot and use a syringe on the bugger three time and it dies instantly.

[davocean]

Originally Posted by AlSimmons

Such as?

I think you might be a little too over-cautious here. Boiling rock is one thing, hitting an Aiptaisa with an open flame for a second or two is another. To be honest with you I don't think I've ever seen a thread here at RC or other sites where somebody has gotten sick from this. Then again some people have a hard enough time keeping their shoe laces tied, much or less pull off a simple procedure like this. Lets just hope that they're turning everything off before they put their hands in the water. Now your playing for keeps.

There have been a lot of threads and incidents from people doing this in different ways that have lead to serious lung infections and illness, it's not something I would promote or encourage, and someone may not understand what you YOU think is safe and may not realize steam, vapors, fumes from doing anything like this can make them very sick.
There are some people that have been fighting infection for years now.

Sorry, not trying to flame you, but it must be mentioned/stated to be responsible reef keepers.
Do a search, it's been a big issue on this site and others.

[davocean]

Originally Posted by \Clownfish/

Instead of using lemon juice I just get about a cup of tank water mircowave that till its hot and use a syringe on the bugger three time and it dies instantly.

This is actually better, and it's underwater, no steam or vapors.

I actually don't do the lemon juice trick anymore, or aptasia X/Joes juice, both of those usually appear to wipe it out, only to have a few baby ones pop up it's place.

Other options are peppermint shrimp, CBB's, Matted file fish, berghia nudibranchs if you want something living that also controls aptasia.

[LRomero]

When I got home yesterday the one I had taken the picture of was gone. Are they known to move? Only shrimp I have are 2 Fire shrimp and 1 cleaner shrimp. I did spot two small ones and used the lemon juice method on them. I didn't manually turn my light on this morning to check so I will check it once I get home this afternoon. Only thing I didn't like about the lemon juice was that it was cloudy, but was 100% lemon juice according to the bottle. The hot water method might be better method.

[Gladmaker]

When disturbed, they may pull back into the rock where they can't be seen, but will come back out later.