Pest anemone Id

[aravindk]

Hello all,

I have this anemone in my sump - so many of them. It is in the sidewalls, pipes, wires and on the skimmer too.

What you see here is the actual size. Can someone help me identify what this is and how to get rid of it? I don't see any in the display, not visible to my eyes at least.

 

[All6Fish]

Appears tobe some type of Aiptasia

 

[OrionN]

You got a really bad case of aptasia. All the orange in their body are food that you feed your tank. They eat and breed like crazy. They are very hard to get rid off. Personally, I restart the system but you may want to try biological control. There are a variety of butterfly fish that will eat these but they are not reef safe. There is a species of nudibranch that will eat these also but they will die of starvation when sorta run out of food (not completely) so when the died off the aptasia restart.

 

[aravindk]

Aiptasia is more glass like structure so with this orange spots I thought this was something else. Now that you say that's the food, it makes sense. Surprisingly i don't find any of them in the display. There are couple of large ones in the overflow. One or two that I can find in the fuge. Few months ago I saw some aiptasia in my display. Not a lot may be about 7 or 8 of different sizes. I got rid of them using aiptasia x and also kept a six line wrasse and never saw another anemone in the display after that.

Since it is mostly contained to the sump area, I may try a butterfly fish.

Thanks for the response.

 

[OrionN]

High flow are means a lot of food for them. They don't really need light just food, lots of food

 

[jgraz]

Well I was wondering how you would fare here. Personally I would pass on the butterflies. They are not easy to keep and an expensive way to go. The berghia nudibranch is probably your best bet. I know there is someone on mahatten reefs that is selling Macro that he claims has all types of life including nudis that he breeds. A quick search there would find the thread. Im sure he sells the nudis also. As for other means you could start manual removal and kill what you can. I used lemon juice in some boiling water, injected directly into the mouth. Also get a few peppermint shrimp. They are hit and miss but if they work, great, if not, they will still live happily in a reef.

 

[aravindk]

Well I was wondering how you would fare here. Personally I would pass on the butterflies. They are not easy to keep and an expensive way to go. The berghia nudibranch is probably your best bet. I know there is someone on mahatten reefs that is selling Macro that he claims has all types of life including nudis that he breeds. A quick search there would find the thread. Im sure he sells the nudis also. As for other means you could start manual removal and kill what you can. I used lemon juice in some boiling water, injected directly into the mouth. Also get a few peppermint shrimp. They are hit and miss but if they work, great, if not, they will still live happily in a reef.

thanks for pointing out. let me head up to manhattanreefs. looks like a tough weekend ahead.

 

[bebangs]

>>>It is in the sidewalls, pipes, wires and on the skimmer too.

wow... restart i guess. that may take a while.

 

[D-Nak]

Sounds like I may be the only one with this opinion, but it's not as bad as you think. As long as you don't mind them in the areas that you mention, then they should be fine. Since they're not in the DT, they aren't harming anything. And as you can see by their color, they are eating uneaten food, so they be doing more good than harm. I have a few in my overflow and I just leave them alone.

It's a different story if they are in your DT. Then you may want to find a way to eradicate them. It is a good idea to get some peps for the DT in case any stray aiptasia make it into the DT, but it sounds like you've got that under control.