Baby brittle stars or?

[jbdives]

Hi,
Can anyone help me identify these newcomers. They showed up a couple of weeks ago and are growing. There are 4 or 5 that I can see. The biggest are a little smaller than a dime. At first I thought they might be baby brittle stars as there are several in the tank, but they seem to have too many arms. They are translucent, seem to be filter feeders and move about slowly. Any ideas? Should I be worried?

Our tank is a 50 gallon reef, about a year old, with fish, corals, shrimp, crabs, 1 nudibranch, a featherduster, and snails. There are misc. critters that came with the live rock, various worms, brittle stars, etc.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

The ever so common but not so popular aiptasia

 

[AJSTITAN14]

+1 or Mojanos

 

[jbdives]

aiptasia or mojanos

aiptasia or mojanos

Both of which are not good, I presume. Just how bad are they? Should I use the wait and see method or take aggressive action to eradicate?

 

[iamwhatiam52]

Go nuclear NOW!

 

[AJSTITAN14]

Both of which are not good, I presume. Just how bad are they? Should I use the wait and see method or take aggressive action to eradicate?

Well an infestation is one thing and some hanging around here or there is something else. You can kill them with Kalk. Just shoot it into their mouths and then watch the show as they writhe around. They shrivel up into the crack they are coming out of and never reappear.

Peppermint shrimp will eat Aiptasia like candy. Be sure you are getting Peps and not Camel Shrimp.

I had a pep in for a while and he cleaned out all the Aiptasia. I didn't see any for a year and now I see a few small polyps.

Joe's Juice is some sort of Kalk product if you are looking for a name brand.

 

[855012 reefer]

you can take pickling lime mixed with a small amount of water, then inject them.

 

[andy99]

i use joes juice works great