is this aiptasia??

[Lynn]

I'm not sure if I have one but its about 1/4 of an inch tall. Brown in color. The only way I can describe it is that if you were to draw a little bonfire...this looks kinda simular?? but brown. Also I took a pair of tweezers and whenever I tried to grab it, it disapeared into the hole?
How fast do they reproduce? (I'm going away on Sat for a week) Should I try to kill it before I go or can it wait?
Thanks Lynn

 

[Bubafat]

Sounds like a possiblity, but then again it could be anything from a tube worm to a small bubble tipped anemone. Can you get a pic?

Lets assume it is aptasia, yes, you want to kill it. Whatever you do, stop messing with it with those darned tweezers. They can asexually reproduce from a fragment, so if you try to kill them by ripping them appart, you will just get many, many babies later. 2 main methods to kill them.
1. BOILING hot water
2. Kalkwasser mix paste

I've found that the kalk works better. You take about 2 or 3 tablespoons of kalkwasser, add enough cold freshwater to make a paste out of it, take either a syringe or some airline hose, suck some kalk up, then squirt a pea size bit into the mouth of the aptasia, it will injest it and die. Hot water method is the same, but i've found it doesn't work as well.

Buba

 

[tazdevil]

Lynn, do a search in the hitchikers area on aiptasia. They have a lot of different pics on them.

 

[Lynn]

I'll try to get a pic, but I don't think it will show. I was going to do the syringe/kalk thing, but I can't get near the mouth. It darts back into the hole when I get close.???

 

[tazdevil]

Both the dreaded aiptasia and the very cool to have featherdusters can do that. I have some that are surprisingly quick!

 

[kangol99]

Lynn,

Just hold the syringe real close to the aiptasia and with a steady hand be patient, let it come back out then blast it.

 

[Lynn]

I waited an hour after the tweezer episode! which by the way didn't work as it's still there. I even dug around in its hole! won't do that again

 

[fnj]

I've been having success with Part I of B-Ionic and the pointy syringe from the Salifert Calcium test kit. I just jab the point of the syringe into the hole the aiptasia goes into and inject the whole syringe of the solution into it. It only takes one application and they haven't come back since.

 

[FishDaddy]

Hi Lynn,
Lots of pictures and info for removal on Joaco's site:
http://www.wyx.com/iheo/tank/aiptasia.htm

When I first set my tank up, I had quite a few that came in on the live rock. I tried injecting/covering them with Chem-Marin's Stop Aiptasia and also a paste made from Kalkwasser. Each killed the individual Aip's but couldn't reach or find them all. I added a couple of Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) and the Aips soon disappeared, never to return.
HTH,
Dick

 

[Nosmada]

this may help:

 

[Lynn]

Thanks to your pics and sites, I found out that I did have 2 very small aiptasia.
I killed them today!!! I did what you said with the kalk and added boiling water to it and sucked it up in a tiny turberline syringe and shot them!!! The stuff went on them and filled in their holes. Now I have 2 white pea size balls stuck in the holes. Will these disolve later??
Thanks guys

 

[aquaguy]

I hope it helps for you... I did it long time ago and I got dozens of them #$%^$#. Maybe I did it wrong..., Then I got a pair of berghia who ate them all.

Wait 2 weeks if they don't come back then you can jump.

Good luck.