New tank with live rock. Set up March 3rd... THESE THINGS started popping up as of yesterday. Now I can count 5. It's like they just show up!!! Are they mobile and re-attach? Or do they grow like a weed and then just wave at everything?? I swear one has scooted millimeters away from where I first saw it... Is it too early to worry about? Other threads say to let the cycling happen then worry about Aiptasia later. I could get a peppermint shrimp... what would you do?!

Thanks!

yes they are moving around. watched one in mine travel 2 inches in about 10 hrs. not a serious issue now. some people actually love their pest nems. but you can easily gget rid of them. get a syringe with boiling water and stick it.

OH NO! Glass anemonies = bad reef hog right? I was just at my LFS and they had pregnant peppermint shrimp!!! Talk about bang for your buck.... a hundred for the price of one... But my tank isn't fully cycled. It actually may not have even began to cycle yet. Hmmm. $8.99 and a shrimp family that may not live??? What to do, what to do...

I don't really want to have my hands in the water much for fear of knocking things over and contamination... so I'd rather not inject them with anything. I can't hate them yet because they are yet to take over... but I'd love to watch a shrimp chew on them...

Just wait and add the shrimp later.

you dont want to buy something that would probably die. just hold off until cycle is done and then add. they'll love you for it

Don't bother getting a pregnant one. The larvae take a lot of work to rear and would need a separate system. So you'd basically be buying one shrimp and free fish food. In a new tank without anything to eat the newly hatched shrimp, they'd just get killed in the filters.

I went the peppermint shrimp route and had good luck with it. However they do sometimes pick at other corals, so be sure to watch it, especially if you have any frags you don't want harassed. A lot of people go the boiling water route to avoid this.

If you do get the shrimp, wait until the cycle's done. That way it's safer for the shrimp and it will take care of whatever's grown in the mean time. If you go for boiling water or chemicals, there's no reason not to start killing them now.

Dangitt... I was hoping some super experienced reefer would tell me to add a shrimp... lol. I am definitely itching to put something in this tank but I shall refrain in order to get a more stable environment.



Shrimptastic advice. I shall wait. I just hope to find another with babies! That's exciting!


Thanks!

Peppermint shrimp spawn do not surive in the typical aquarium, so even if the peppermint shimp is holding eggs, it means nothing. Remove what aiptasia you can now if your tank is only a couple days old, they will spread quickly. Joes Juice, lemon juice and kalk work temporarily, but they will come back in increased numbers. If you can remove the pieces they are on and super glue them or treat them out of the tank you are going to be more successful.
Peppermint shrimp have worked for me in the past, but I would use them only as a last resort, and they tend to consume only the smaller aiptasia and can themselves become a pest.

Hate them now and get ride of them now.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Does ripping them off their substrate eradicate them? I have a sweet pair of hemostats that would pick them right off their place on my rock... do they re-grow?

No, you will just create more, they are that invasive.
And I would get rid of the undergravel filter as well before you start aquiring inhabitants.

Let's put it this way...if you were to cut one up into 50 pieces, you end up with 51 new PITA anemones. Kill them now chemically, boiling water, whatever, but any piece left behind will develop into a new nem.

just take a pair of pliers and snap off the base in which they dwell, then give it the ol' porcelain express.

Note:
Pliers only tear glass anemones to pieces....
Expecting a few more smaller anemones very soon... GD-itt

The problem with manual removal is that they often hide part of their bodies in a crack or hole and can just retract and regrow. Boiling water or kalk paste or something similar is an option for injecting, as well as various aiptasia killing products sold as a replacement to those.

Don't add any shrimp until it cycles, rushing things will just end up with a dead shrimp, little reduction in aiptasia, and a slightly more ammonia rich cycle. If you do go the shrimp route, it should polish them off in fairly short order. I had a couple of much larger aiptasia in my tank when I added my peppermint and they were gone within 24 hours. I think it's an easier option than other treatments, and while the shrimp certainly investigates the new corals and picks near the edge of their bases, I have never seen one nip at corals - at least not the zoas/shrooms/lps that I have in my tank.

I used to say the same thing about peppermint shrimp, but when I saw them eating my mini-anemones that they never touched before, my opinion changed and I will remove them from my tank in the future.
The same goes for sexy shrimp, loved them, never had any problems with them, but now out of the blue they eat my zoanthids.
The only shrimps that are ok in my book are fire shrimp and pistol shrimp, but that could change too.

+1

we got a (real) peppermint shrimp for small aipstasia. It ate them an began harrassing my giant bta.
We got an acan frag last week, it was doing beautifuly and growing well. Until today - because the darn pep is ripping it apart and eating it. Trying to capture him all day now (ugh) to put him in my pico which suddenly had 3 giant aipstasia overnight. No frags in there, so the worst that could happen is the pistol shimp eats him (mwuhaha)

I just watched a little bug-type thing aggressively fend off one of the glass anemones!!!! He made the anemone let go of his substrate which allowed me to net and remove it from my tank! Thanks bug! It looked un-like a copepod and unlike an amphipod. It was tiny and had antennae and probably 6 legs. lol... poor description... but yeah. I've been gingerly teasing glass anemones off my rock then netting them out. I don't see any more right now... we'll see in the next few days.

It's good that you are manually removing them in the face of half a dozen people warning you against manually removing them.

I suppose I'm not sure if you are being facetious... I figure if they get mad enough to leave their substrate that they wont risk leaving a part of their body behind. I guess I'm not quite sure but I haven't seen any chunks fall off the free-floaters. I'd just rather eradicate them before they become an issue.

lol well no they aren't pulling your leg. if you pull it off it may look like a clean extraction but actually there are tiny parts still stuck in the rocks pores. so they are saying to inject it with something or remove the little bit of rock under it as to leave nothing behind.