It is pinkish purple and I have several of them that have come out of my live rock in the past couple of weeks. They just sort of wrap around the rock and don't seem to move.

Looks like a sponge to me or a tunicate, might wanna take out those aptasia though.

Dont know but you do like you have a lot aiptasia though

Yes, I know.... I just don't know how to get rid of them!

yes, it's a sponge.


and no, those aren't aptasia, they're hydroids.

Hydroids? What is the difference? I could swear they are aiptasia. I knew they are a problem, I'm just not sure how to get rid of them. I think my tank is far too small (roughly 3 gallons) for any of the critters that will eat them, and all the rest of the remedies I've read are not reputed to work very well. I've read that peppermint shrimp will hunt them out and eat them, but would a peppermint shrimp be happy in my 3 gallon tank?

So, so far, I've just left them alone. And, I figure that since they were there even before the sponges, they must not be making too much of a nuisance, right? After all, the only creatures I have in there are some blue-legged hermies, a nassarius snail, and FAR too many bristle worms!

Truth be known, I'd like to cut down on the number of bristle worms I have even more than I'd want to be rid of the aiptasia!

+1 sponge..

You could always give the shrimp to a friend when you are done

i have an 8g biocube and my pep shrimp took care of all of mine and he seems content. he's still useful now that the aip's are gone, he snatches up bits of leftover food and keeps my LR pretty clean. a good investment, i would give it a try.

Use pickling lime from walmart and add a little bit of water and use a syringe to squirt on top of them aptasia

the bottom pic looks like a pink sponge and the top pic maybe cyno

I had heard to use boiling water to kill the aiptasia. I also heard to use lime juice. So I just boiled some lime juice and injected the little buggers with a hypodermic needle ($0.10 at the pharmacy) and the shriveled away.

I had tried boiling water and they came back and I used just lime juice and they came back. but the combo got em!

Those are not hydroids; they appear to be aiptasia or some other anemones that are very thin (possibly extending far because of low lighting). For hydroids, the "large" polyped varieties will have tubes that obscure viewing the digestive tract.

+1, hydroids have calcerous base tubes.

Lol, at least you got the first part right...

Compared to the number of positive IDs jeremai has made over the years, this is an insignificant mistake.