Are these aiptasia?

[Octoberfest]

I've been at this hobby over ten years and I've dealt with Aiptasia in the past using all the typical methods. For some reason though, this time, I seem to have an outbreak with what I believe are aiptasia, problem is they're small and don't look exactly like it.

Long story short, I was zapping the large ones with AiptasiaX and next thing you know I start seeing these tiny ones all over the place. They're not growing fast at all, I mean they don' seem to have gotten past this stage for over a month.

I took this picture today. Some of them look for sure to be Aiptasia but some of them aren't exactly the same. Oh...and I have a Berghia Nudibranch breeding pair laying eggs daily right now...so in some ways I'm hoping they are so that I can have food for the babies when I unleash the hounds.

 

[nemoboy1]

It's aiptasias... Aip x should eradicate if you are following the instructions.. Good luck... If that doesn't work buy some nudibranch... They will eat you aiptasias.

 

[Octoberfest]

It's aiptasias... Aip x should eradicate if you are following the instructions.. Good luck... If that doesn't work buy some nudibranch... They will eat you aiptasias.

I've used AiptasiaX, Joe's Juice, and all the home remedies in the past succesfully in other tanks. For some reason though..this time...I had an outbreak of babies.

I'm starting to convince myself, if these are in fact aiptasia, that when you're "nuking" them with the above mentioned products, that they can release spores in the water as a reproductive measure. I have no proof to back this up though, it just seems very plausible.

 

[ChrisDanley]

Octoberfesr,
what you have mentioned above is actually what these Aptasia do. This is why it is imparative that when using Aptasia X you need to apply it quickly to the mouth of the Aptasia and have all water movement off while applying it and let it sit on them for about 5 minutes. Aptasia X is actually like a glue that will glue the mouth of the Aptasia shut therefore, not allowing them to put out spore into the water column. Some of them will release those spores before acted on though so I recommend getting 4+ Peppermint shrimp to control them (Be careful not to get camelback shrimp though). This is how I have eradicated and kept aptasia out for several years. Oh, and be sure to kill the large Aptasia with Aptasia X as the peppermint shrimp won't eat large Aptasia, only the babies. ;D Hope this helps

 

[worm5406]

+1 +1 +1

I got some LR that had hundreds on it when I first started... I wanted the LR over the Aptasia...

I got 4 Peppermints.. the only one I had to take care of (with boiling water) was larger than the shrimp it's self. I had one spore... and the Peppermints were all over them...

Now I just take one of my shrimp for the anemone and break it up a bit more and turkey baster the shrimp with shrimp... hahahaha.... They scavange anyway but I want to give them a treat...

Plus they feed my tank everynow and then.

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[Octoberfest]

So a little update on these guys. They don't seem to be gettng any bigger than the ones I showed in the picture. I've kept a few isolated and they never seem to grow past the size shown.

Another observation is that if I dip a coral in revive that has these on it most of them will let go and seem to die. I've never seen aptasia let go in a revive dip.