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Cultivated Reef

These are taking over my tank. Any idea what they are?


Zorro237

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I have about 10 of these that have grown over the last 3 months in my 16g. They look like a form of tube worm but any insight to what these are?

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That's aiptasia. They can infest a tank quickly, so I'd highly recommend wiping them out ASAP. Peppermint shrimp eat them and there are also commercial products (Aiptasia X for example) that you can use. With Aiptasia X (or even boiling water), you just hit them with a syringe and they'll shrivel up and die.

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aiptasia :( in my opinion inject with some near boiling water or get a peppermint shrimp and hope it eats what you want it to eat.... You can also pull them out but they will grow back


haha well I should probably read what was already said next time haha... +1 Tiggs

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jamescstein

If you get a peppermint shrimp. Make sure you get the right one. There are several similar looking shrimp that will not eat aptasia.

 

Here is a good doc the explains how to ID them http://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/27306/27306.pdf

 

Also a good pic that shows what the different ones look like.

 

peppermints20id.jpg

(A) Lysmata wurdemanni
(B) Lysmata rathbunae
© Lysmata ankeri
(D) Lysmata boggessi
(E) Lysmata pederseni
(F) Lysmata bahia

 

 

A is the only one of those that eat aptasia.

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Thanks for the input guys. I blasted them with boiling water yesterday, I have aiptasia X coming tomorrow and i'm going to grab a peppermint shrimp as soon as I can locate one. If all else fails, i'm grabbing the Flame Thrower.

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Be prepared to watch for babies sprouting up even after you think they are all gone. I was not proactive enough on these in our first reef tank, a biocube 14, and ended up having to take each piece of live rock out to nuke the little creeps after they popped up everywhere and killed most of my corals. They are the reason I now quarantine everything before it goes in my tanks.

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