Ricordea frag with possible aiptasia

[grant778]

I got a ricordea frag today and after placing it in my tank (and probably handling it a bit too much trying to glue the frag to a rock) I noticed what looked like aiptasia under a part of the coral. I have only been in this hobby a year now so I have not encountered aiptasia first hand, but I really don't want to yet. I am not 100 percent sure its aiptasia but it sure looks like the ones in photos I have seen. It is about 2-3 millimeters wide when the polyp-like thing is extended. It has a brown stem and the polyp will close up and open regularly. The polyp-like thing is a translucent color. Whatever it is, I want to get rid of it before it spreads without harming the coral which it is under the side of. Does anyone have any suggestions? The coral is on a styrofoam frag plug so I could possible cut off the part of the plug with the possible aiptasia, but I would rather not have to do any cutting because the suspect is so close to the ricordea and I don't want to harm it. Also, its probably not gonna spread for a little while right? Because I don't want to do anything with it until this weekend when I have more time.

 

[atteb66]

Oh gosh that stuff is nasty, I have never had it but a fellow reefer could not get rid of it and even dosing it never had any real effect as more would pop up. They finally tossed out all their live rock, sand etc and started from scratch.

We have an LFS here that has it on all their live rock, some you don't see till you get it home and there it is. I will never buy rock from this store ever and corals I have very seldom bought those from them either just don't want to risk it.

There are lots of reefers on here that will help you though to get rid of it while you just have the one. Hopefully they will give you advice real soon.

 

[grant778]

After close examination, the aiptasia is on the rock that the coral is on which is glued on the styrofoam plug, not the plug itself, which ruins my earlier plan of cutting off the part of the plug D: I think I will cut down the styrofoam a bit anyway so that I can see the aiptasia a bit better when I try to get rid of it. If I am able to scrape the aiptasia off with a knife or something will it grow back if a little bit of it remains on the rock?

 

[atteb66]

yep sure will

 

[grant778]

So right now it seems I will have to cut the ricordea off the rock it is on?

 

[grant778]

If I were to use Aiptasia X it wouldn't harm my coral right? I just don't know if I will be able to inject such a small anemone.

 

[grant778]

I think I am just going to cut the ricordea off and get rid of the plug and the little rock it was on. Should I leave as much of the foot as possible when I cut the ricordea or is it really hardy to pretty much anything like normal mushrooms?

 

[atteb66]

I have never had this stuff so cannot comment on the product to use on it and to cut it off I am not much help but if cutting it off yes I would take as much as you can I am surprised no one else has offered some help here

 

[lostintheocean]

eventually you will get this stuff unless you take extreme precautions. if you can get it out of the tank and then remove it that would be good. If you try to kill it in the tank you will likely have an outbreak. biological control is best but i do not reccomend CBB, they pair for life so taking them form the ocean have a big impact and they have terrible success rates

 

[johanasu]

I've had decent luck with aiptasia X. I would however recommend a peppermint shrimp as a primary option. You can even keep the whole rock in a secondary tank/container with water from your tank. Add the peppermint shrimp and give him a day or two to eat the aiptasia. I had about 7 in a 4gallon pico reef and two peppermint shrimp cleared it out overnight. I've never seen an aiptasia in there since.

 

[grant778]

I could set up another container for it, but I don't have extra light fixtures so It would die from no light probably.

 

[SloppyJ]

Aptasia X has worked for me in the past.

 

[grant778]

It is a small aiptasia, so maybe a peppermint shrimp would get it. I just don't know if aiptasia X would hurt my coral or not because if I use it there is a 99.99 percent chance it will get on the coral. (The ricordea is open during the time the lights are on so the little aiptasia under it closes up, when the coral closes up after lights are turned off the aiptasia opens).

 

[SloppyJ]

You have two options, either pull it out and frag the shroom or try some sort of chemical/manual removal.

 

[jynx1693]

aiptasia x should be fine. dont try to pull the aiptasia off or it will multiply very quickly. If any gets on the coral just brush it off. That product is supposed to be reef safe.

 

[grant778]

I read some more reviews on aiptasia x and sometimes, according to the reviews, it did harm corals that it came in contact with. I think I am going to just frag it tomorrow and hope for the best :/

 

[grant778]

Any suggestions for getting the ricordea off the rock with causing minimal harm to its foot?

 

[grant778]

I used an exacto knife to try to pry it off. I did half of it fairly well but the other half was very well attached and didn't go so well. I ended up with two pieces and the mouth so it probably won't make it :/ At least I probably kept the aiptasia from spreading, though it could have already spread while the frag was in my tank. If the pieces of the ricordea start to slime up a ton I should remove them right?

 

[mayjong]

They are gonna slime a lot,leave them be. You can use a rubberband to attach them to a rock. They will probably both live. Low to med flow for now, let them heal. You did the right th ing,btw. Keep aptasia out of your tank at all costs! It IS that bad.
I cut all frags I get off of any rock they are on. Id rather have a frag die than get aptasia... or worse...

 

[grant778]

You really think they will live? The mouth is completely separated from the two pieces so I thought they would probably die without a mouth.