Help!! 1st Aiptasia appearance!

[teacampuzano]

So I've recently bought a 29 g biocube and some live rock. I examined my live rock for anything out of the ordinary or parasites and I guess I didn't look hard enough. After 3 days I was excited to see something alive in my tank (I'm cycling by adding some shrimp to my water and watching them decay therefore having a high rise of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite). Some people warned me about aiptasia, and I'm pretty sure I have one about 2 cm tall. It's very light brown, almost see-through except for "veins" in the "trunk", and the "head" has elongated tentacles.

It was hiding in the shade (is that normal?), if you had them appear before how did you eradicate them? should I buy shrimp or buy some sort of chemical to kill it off? So far I only see one, but I'm just worried that since I'm cycling whatever living creature I put in there will end up dying.
OH, I also have a bristle worm, should I get rid of it?
Help?:cry_smile:

Thanks!

[alton]

Blue Vet Aptasia for the Aptasia and if you can grab the Bristle Worm with tweezers and throw it out. Not that it will harm anything, just doesn't feel good with you get stung.

[swiatrek]

The Blue Vet Aptasia control is the best for now, pretty easy to use and its a new tank so there is no real chance you are taking. For the future buy a couple of peppermint shrimp to keep aptasia under control, think it is too early now, they are pretty sensitive to high nitrate and ammonia levels.

[msmith619]

I hate to add any chemicals to the water. You have lots of options. For a natural method, peppermint shrimp will eat Aptasia. You can pinch them off as the appear (this does not always keep up with them!). I have also read about getting an insulin syringe and injecting them with lemon juice....sounds safe a not harmfull to the tank. If chemicals kill the Aptasia, they might harm other things like good bacteria or other invertebrates.

[tony]

ive used aptasia x many times and highly recommend it

[ballardjr2000]

i go with the natural course and peppermint shrimp eat them up. or you can manually remove them. if you just got one i would remove it manually then after your cycle you can put some peppermint shrimp in there to keep them at bay. just my .02

[CoryDude]

If it's on a smaller piece of rock, just remove the rock. That way you don't have to worry about leaving small pieces to regenerate, if you manually remove it.

You could always return the rock to the display tank after you freeze or boil the rock.

[Third Coast Tropical]

Aiptasia X or a homemade mixture of Kalkwasser and water, to form a thick paste that you then inject into the glass anemone......Both work, but its an ongoing process.....seems like one or 2 always get by....peppermint shrimp are a hit or miss.....they should eat the aiptasia but if there is other food available they might opt for it instead......get on top of the aiptasia now and keep on it before it ever has a chance to get any worse.....Not sure about the manual removal, as if any of the anemone is left behind it will simply regenerate.....I have heard of the lemon juice injection before but never have tried it.....be careful however you go about eradicating them and good luck

[jpond83]

aptasia x is what i used. if you have soft coral the peppermint shrimp may eat the aptasia and then turn to your coral to eat some more. i experienced this myself and i will never put a peppermint shrimp in my tank again.

[teacampuzano]

Thank you for all the great suggestions! Im going to my local life store to see what's my best option (I'd like to not go chemically, but if i have to, then I'll do it) I've been trying to find my bristleworm again, but I've been unsuccessful.

I did find a tiny brittle star and I hope it survives, I'm simply waiting for my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to slowly decrease. I'll be changing the water in about 2 more days. I hope that lowers my ammonia-nitrate-nitrite

[Bill S]

Freezing is a great option. That won't kill any good bacteria you've developed. Since there's nothing else on the rok, you should be good!

[Mr Cob]

I use Peppermint shrimp...they have always worked for me and have never bothered any of my corals.

[JimD]

Inject them with liquid calcium, works great and wont hurt your water...

[Crazyeyes]

Yes be careful of the bristle worms and aptasia if you cut either one they will multiply. A answer to the bristle worms to get wrasse, and aptasia is either the chemical, or a butterfly fish or the peppermint shrimp.

[brewercm]

Kind of late on this but since you are just setting it up and sounds like nothing is in the tank yet I'd just take that specific rock out and kill it out of the water. Torch it, freeze it, whatever you want but give it time to completely die before putting the rock back in. If you have other rock whatever does die off will regenerate from you other live rock.