Aiptasia ID?

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Hey everyone,

 

I've had this coral for 2+ weeks and I saw this little thing.. Have a feeling it's aiptasia, but I've never had to deal with it. Regardless, I will remove it. Should I put some boiling water on it? Peroxide? Scrape it off? All of the above?

 

Thank you

 

[Tired]

Looks like aiptasia, and none of the above. All of those measures would likely leave cells behind which would regrow, and/or cause it to release spores into the water column which would sprout everywhere. 

 

The quickest way to handle it is superglue. Remove the rock from the tank, wait for the aiptasia to close up, and put a couple drops of (liquid, not gel) superglue over the top. Let the glue set for a minute or two, and the aiptasia will be both glued to itself and trapped down. No more aiptasia. Superglue looks funky for a little while, then gets encrusted by algae. There are also a couple of aiptasia-specific removal products, but superglue is cheapest, and works just fine for small ones on relatively non-porous rock like that.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

On 1/10/2020 at 9:46 PM, Tired said:

Looks like aiptasia, and none of the above. All of those measures would likely leave cells behind which would regrow, and/or cause it to release spores into the water column which would sprout everywhere. 

 

The quickest way to handle it is superglue. Remove the rock from the tank, wait for the aiptasia to close up, and put a couple drops of (liquid, not gel) superglue over the top. Let the glue set for a minute or two, and the aiptasia will be both glued to itself and trapped down. No more aiptasia. Superglue looks funky for a little while, then gets encrusted by algae. There are also a couple of aiptasia-specific removal products, but superglue is cheapest, and works just fine for small ones on relatively non-porous rock like that.

I might be paranoid but I think I may see a new head around the same place. I’m thinking to kind of slab a decent amount of super glue (I only have gel so I need to pick up the regular kind) around the base. 
I just take the coral out, drop it on, let it set for a minute or two, and then put it back in?

[Tired]

Yep. Try to avoid getting glue on the coral, but a little won't hurt it. The thing that kills the aiptasia is being completely covered and glued shut, a little glue on the side of a coral (or aiptasia, for that matter) is fine. 

 

Just make sure to take the coral out slowly (so you don't badly disturb the aiptasia), and cover the whole anemone. No need for glue where there aren't any anemones, but you have to cover the entire thing. I had an aiptasia that didn't quite get fully covered, and it actually crawled away with enough effort to rip its glued tentacles clean off its body, then regrew its tentacles. Stubborn little thing, almost felt bad for gluing it properly the second time. 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

2 minutes ago, Tired said:

Yep. Try to avoid getting glue on the coral, but a little won't hurt it. The thing that kills the aiptasia is being completely covered and glued shut, a little glue on the side of a coral (or aiptasia, for that matter) is fine. 

 

Just make sure to take the coral out slowly (so you don't badly disturb the aiptasia), and cover the whole anemone. No need for glue where there aren't any anemones, but you have to cover the entire thing. I had an aiptasia that didn't quite get fully covered, and it actually crawled away with enough effort to rip its glued tentacles clean off its body, then regrew its tentacles. Stubborn little thing, almost felt bad for gluing it properly the second time. 

Ah great you just answered! I picked up some Gorilla super glue (gel) today, so I'll be doing this tomorrow. Like I said, it's almost microscopic, but I may as well cover the base of the coral.. I don't like taking it in and out 😞 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Actually, while I have you @Tired, I was hoping to get your insight. I went to this LFS today with some nice-r looking corals, but a lot of the pieces had decent-sized aiptasia. Would you advise getting something from those tanks even if the one you got looked clean? Or would you spot treat whatever piece you got?

[Tired]

Aiptasia are a big pest to get rid of once they get all over your tank, but individuals are pretty easily dealt with. 

 

Not sure what you mean by "spot treat", though. All effective aiptasia treatments (except berghia nudibranchs, which are different) are to be used directly on aiptasia. You wouldn't, for example, cover an entire frag plug in superglue because you thought an aiptasia might be on it somewhere. 

 

Just try to avoid aiptasia-having plugs, and glue what you do spot. Look at the coral while it's in the tank so they aren't disturbed and hiding, and observe it from multiple angles once you get it home and everything opens up again. Small aiptasia shouldn't spawn or anything, so can be dealt with before they get big. 

 

You are inevitably going to get an aiptasia coming in on something, anyway. Superglue is your friend for the easily trapped ones. Aiptasia-X may be good to have around if your main LFS is infested, so you can get ones that wind up in places you can't take out and superglue. But, really, spotting one or two isn't an emergency situation- they don't spread that fast. It's more when you have a lot of them hiding in crevices, unnoticed, that people start to get the infestations making an appearance. 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

8 hours ago, Tired said:

Aiptasia are a big pest to get rid of once they get all over your tank, but individuals are pretty easily dealt with. 

 

Not sure what you mean by "spot treat", though. All effective aiptasia treatments (except berghia nudibranchs, which are different) are to be used directly on aiptasia. You wouldn't, for example, cover an entire frag plug in superglue because you thought an aiptasia might be on it somewhere. 

 

Just try to avoid aiptasia-having plugs, and glue what you do spot. Look at the coral while it's in the tank so they aren't disturbed and hiding, and observe it from multiple angles once you get it home and everything opens up again. Small aiptasia shouldn't spawn or anything, so can be dealt with before they get big. 

 

You are inevitably going to get an aiptasia coming in on something, anyway. Superglue is your friend for the easily trapped ones. Aiptasia-X may be good to have around if your main LFS is infested, so you can get ones that wind up in places you can't take out and superglue. But, really, spotting one or two isn't an emergency situation- they don't spread that fast. It's more when you have a lot of them hiding in crevices, unnoticed, that people start to get the infestations making an appearance. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all out. I may have freaked out just a little bit!

 

I took the coral out today and put some super glue. I did get some on it, but it seems to be opening up. It was kind of a hard place to reach without getting too aggressive, so I'm still not sure if I covered it entirely. But here's hoping. Like you said, if it happens then I just act from there.