what are these???

[Lifeguard50020042005]

ok here is a pic of a little thingy in my tank...kinda looks like a Minny anemone....but i am not sure...there has been one on my live rock for about a month but now there is 5 of them in different places...is this little guy good or bad??? and what is he...baby coral?, baby anemone?

[davejnz]

Looks like aptasia,if let be,they can spread quickly through your tank.They will sting most any coral they come in contact with.They are considered a pest ina reef tank.You can kill them by taking some kalk/lime powder,mixing in just a litle tank water to make a slurry,then i like to add a little mysis shrimp juice to trick them into eating it.Draw the slurry up in a sysringe,turn the pumps off,and gently squirt a little bit on their tentacles.This method work about 95% of the time on the small ones.The larger one's you might have to do this a couple times.If all else fails,you can try injecting them with vinegar too.

[Lifeguard50020042005]

oh so they are bad little guys hu?? they guy at the LFS said that they were not bad...and that they were good for the tank

[PistolPete30]

Not so. The will over run your tank in no time. I purchased a Copper Band Butterfly fish based on some threads I have read on the site to control aptasia. That fish cleaned the Aptasia out with in a couple weeks. My tank had about 30-50 Aptasia thru it. Good Luck.

[graphixx]

that is right, they are aptasia, they are a pest. they spread like weeds and they pack a pretty good punch. you want to get them out asap. I have used copper banded butterfly and they work awesome. yeah I would recommend getting them out asap

[Lifeguard50020042005]

do you think i could just like take them out with a pair of tweezers?


or any other way?? i am a little tight on money so i really dint want to go out and buy a new fish...j/w

[graphixx]

if you use tweezers you run the risk of not completly romving them. you have to make sure that you get all of the aptasia or it will just grow back. you can do a couple of things. you can get some white vinegar and water and get it as hot as you can and then inject them and that will kill them or get some kalkawasser and mix it into a paste and inject that onto them and that will kill them also. but this is something you want to get a hand on quick cause they multiply very very fast

[Lifeguard50020042005]

now when you say inject them...do you mean a needle or like a turkey baster???

[graphixx]

I would get a syringe, that way you can stick it in them and really get them good!!!! that has worked very well for me in the past

[dakar]

Just smothering the suckers with kalk/lime paste will take of them. We use a sirynge (minus the needle) to control where the paste ends up... it will kill any other coral it comes in contact with. The paste will dissolve into the water column as usable calcium.