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Colony Hosting In Candy Cane Stalk: Aiptasia? Featherduster? or.....


reefnoob_esq.

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reefnoob_esq.

My tank is 6 weeks old and I have so far been able to answer all my questions by all wealth of knowledge on this site....but I'm a bit stumped with this one.

 

Within the past week, I have noticed a small colony of 5-7 hitchhikers hosting exclusively on the stalk of my candy-cane frag. They are extremely small (1-2mm) and appear to be close to the same size. They are brownish red in color and appear to have a tiny stalk. Initially, I thought they were just hair algae, until when I tried to pick them off with tweezers they rapidly retreated in their hole.

 

After reviewing every ID resource I could find, I was leaning towards either an aiptasia or feather duster colony. My initial thought was aiptasia, as the structure looked like tiny versions, but a few features seem non-aiptasia like:

 

· They all have seemed to pop up all at once. It’s hard to find any resources on baby aiptasia, but from what I can tell they seem to start as a solitary hitchhiker and then eventually can create a small colony when that one grows relatively large and spits out cells. I’ve seen many postings of a rather large solitary aiptasia that only eventually start reproducing. These are all really tiny and appeared at all at once; though there has been not a single aiptasia-looking organism in sight.

· They host exclusively on the candy-cane stalk. Everywhere around the candy cane is porous live rock, yet there are no signs of any others anywhere else. On the stalk, they seemed to have fought for space, with a few popping out just under the soft polyp tissue. A couple also appear to be under the stalk, which provides very little light.

· They have burrowed their own holes. None of the holes were pre-existing and they appeared to have burrowed their own small holes in the candy cane stalk, as opposed to utilizing an existing hole in a rock/etc.

 

 

The frag has been in the tank for about 4 weeks now and it has had no sign of any growth on the stalk until now. The stalk suffered an attack from an emerald crab about 3 weeks back but that bugger has been taken care of. Otherwise, the two polyp frag is extremely healthy and happy.

 

As far as tank info:

Tank: 10g IM fusion

Salinity: 1.023

Ph: 7.9 (evening)

Ammonia: 0

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0

Calcium: 460

dkh: 11

6 weeks old

Livestock: 2 sexy shrimp; 1 frammer; 1 star polyp; 1 xenia; 1 candy cane; 1 button polyp frag; 1 trachyphyllia brain; 1 digitata frag (all happy and healthy so far).

 

Sorry for the bad Iphone pics. You can see the structure of the individual one in the first pic.

 

Any thoughts/ advice would be appreciated!

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Hard to make a positive ID but I am leaning towards small aptasia because of the first picture. However, if you think they burrowed their own holes then I am not sure. Feather dusters and aptasia look entirely different from one another: one has feather-like feeders and the other has tentacles.

 

They very well could be feather dusters. They are so small I am sure it was hard to get those pictures. I would probably take some coral glue and plug those holes good. BUT wait until other chime in.. not too sure on this one.

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Hiss! die!!!

Totally agree with the super glue, definately looks like aptasia. I had huge problems with this in a Pico when I said to myself "I'll wait, it"ll be fine"

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reefnoob_esq.

Hard to make a positive ID but I am leaning towards small aptasia because of the first picture. However, if you think they burrowed their own holes then I am not sure. Feather dusters and aptasia look entirely different from one another: one has feather-like feeders and the other has tentacles.

 

They very well could be feather dusters. They are so small I am sure it was hard to get those pictures. I would probably take some coral glue and plug those holes good. BUT wait until other chime in.. not too sure on this one.

 

Yeah it throws me off that there were no pre-existing holes on the stalk and suddenly they created some....and so tiny to see, but that first pic helps to show they look like the tiniest scale versions of my worst nightmare! I really couldn't see any pics of baby aiptasia online. I'm wondering why they are localized on the stalk (and pretty much all over it). I would understand if it was a brand new frag, but it was my first frag and has been in there a month with no issue.

 

 

Hiss! die!!!

Totally agree with the super glue, definately looks like aptasia. I had huge problems with this in a Pico when I said to myself "I'll wait, it"ll be fine"

 

I told myself the same thing! I guess first step is denial ;-/ glue sounds like a good step 1....Thanks!

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My experience with aptasia is that they never die.. lol

Or at least it is incredibly hit or miss. I have injected kalk paste, lemon juice, aptasia x. Some go away and don't come back, most seem to go away for a week or so then pop back up.

 

The only thing I have had really help keep them suppressed was a pair of peppermint shrimp. Of course then my issue was that peppermint shrimp never seem to live long term in my tank for whatever reason -- have read they like cooler temperatures than what we run reefs at.. no clue.

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reefnoob_esq.

My experience with aptasia is that they never die.. lol

Or at least it is incredibly hit or miss. I have injected kalk paste, lemon juice, aptasia x. Some go away and don't come back, most seem to go away for a week or so then pop back up.

 

The only thing I have had really help keep them suppressed was a pair of peppermint shrimp. Of course then my issue was that peppermint shrimp never seem to live long term in my tank for whatever reason -- have read they like cooler temperatures than what we run reefs at.. no clue.

 

I'm starting to get that impression after reading thread after thread of gluing a hole just to have them find another hole...and I can hardly imagine trying to directly injecting these guys when they are barely larger than the needle (not to mention collateral damage risk due to living inside my candy cane stalk :wacko: ) I'm considering a peppermint as long as it will play nice with the two sexy shrimp. I've read about them nipping corals, but the sexies already do that lol I would rather stress about feeding shrimp more often than stressing over weekly phlebotomy warfare :D )

 

On a side note: you guys are great! For a newb putting up his first post I couldn't be more grateful for the quick insight!

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reefnoob_esq.

I put some glue on the stalk on the areas where i saw them. No sign of them today and I'll keep a look out (and add more glue if need be). Thought peppermint shrimp at my LFS were a little large for my tank with few places to hide. Here's hoping that's the unlikely end of them! :unsure:

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