Big Question!!!

J

jgaepi

AC Members
Sep 21, 2004
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San Diego, CA
Question Answered, thanks.

Ok, so once again i am new to saltwater tanks, but this is an interesting one. I seem to have some type of anemone growing on my live rock I just put in my tank last night. Trust me, this is no algae. This is clear, about 2/3 the size of a ping pong ball. The tentacles are spiked. And it seems pissed. I just noticed it 10 minutes ago, but the tentacles kick out. It isn't some time of fish or sealife, but has to be sometype of an anemone growing on it.
Ok, so what do I do with it. I am assuming it is going to die. My tank started cycling last night. I don't have food to feed it, if it even needs food, and my protein skimmer won't be in until Saturday.
What do you guys suggest? Leave it as is. Should I atleast keep constant light on it to give it a chance?
What do you suggest?
 
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It's awfully hard to tell without a photo, but a small clear anemone with spiky tentacles on new live rock sounds a lot like aiptasia to me. If it is aiptasia, you'll want to kill it ASAP - it's pretty much at the top of the list of marine aquarium pests and will spread rapidly...as opposed to dying on its own.

Hopefully I'm just jumping to conclusions here, but better safe than sorry. Can you get a photograph of it?

Oh, and welcome to AC! :)
 
It looks about dead anyway

I turned on my lights last night and when i woke up this morning, it looks practically flat with the exception of a last few kicks of its tentacles. My tank isn't cycled so it would have died anyway. I do have some pics and I desperately tried to load them last night. They are only 23 KB and they uploaded but then they never attached, who knows how this attachment process works. But if anyone wants me to email it to them, send me your email. Thanks again.
 
You can email them to me and I will attach them to this thread My email is harley_garl@yahoo.com please put Anenome pic in the title. I agree, though, it sounds like aiptasia. While I'd like to think it died and you got off easy, I doubt it! They are incredibly hardy and can easily tolerate cycling conditions. I'd watch it closely, and probably dose it with kalkwasser paste to be on the safe side.
 
Thanks for the good info

Thanks everyone for the good info. I am assuming it is an aiptasia. For the little guys, which I can see two, I am throwing in a peppermint shrimp or two this weekend. For the big guy, sure enough he didn't die throughout the day, he even seemed to get larger. I might do things old school but it sure as hell worked for me. I didn't use Calcium Chloride or burn it or anything. I simply pulled out a wooden bbq skewer, and stabbed the thing repeatedly. Worked perfectly. Recommend it to anyone! Fun stuff!!!
 
Perhaps the best (cheapest, most readily available, easiest to track and remove...) Aiptasia nemesis are a few Hermit Crabs. In particular the more common "Red Legged ("Hairy") Hermit Crab, Dardanus megistos is an almost-all-the-time reef-safe animal that also eats pest algae. One or two to a tank is all it takes.
 
Here's the pic--definitely aiptasia.

Stabbing is not a good idea--hate to break it to you, but serious injury, and breaking them into chunks, results in more anenomes. Each little bit will grow into another one.

anenome1.jpg
 
Killing the all natural way

Ok, so rather than being barbaric about it, I will put 2 red hairy hermit crabs in there with a few peppermint shrimp, if I can find them, to try to fix it. My LFS says only Joe's Juice or copper will actually kill them. I am going to try the all natural way. See how it goes.
 
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