Are these anemones

[martinelli_karen]

My son is at boot camp and I am taking care of his small coral tank. Before he left maybe around April we had an anemone in the tank but it died maybe the first week of May fast forward to June and a notice what sort of looked like brown sea weed or a plant that I couldn’t figure out how it got there then I went to feed the snails and noticed the “anemone” grabbing the shrimp pieces and upon closer look there were about 17 smaller ones and they are literally everywhere. My son is not coming back until next week and I am not even sure what kind he had.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

that is aiptasia. not good.

I’d start by looking into getting a peppermint shrimp, several berghia nudibranch and a aiptasia filefish if he doesn’t have any living corals left.

what other livestock does he have in the tank?

 

[BristleWormHater]

Not good at all.
Those are anemones, but a very aggressive and invasive kind called aptasia they will grow all over and kill corals by stinging them. Livestock that eat aptasia is a great option like @eliaslikesfish said. Alternatively manual removal and chemical removal are options. Manual removal is not very helpful as you will end up spreading the spores around the tank. Chemical removal is much easier. There are products like aptasia-x that you squirt onto them. You could also use kalkwasser which is a mixture of quicklime and water, you would also squirt that onto them.

 

[NonstopSoda]

aiptasia!!!! burn it with fire!!!

 

[martinelli_karen]

that is aiptasia. not good.

I’d start by looking into getting a peppermint shrimp, several berghia nudibranch and a aiptasia filefish if he doesn’t have any living corals left.

what other livestock does he have in the tank?

Snails and coral what is aiptasia?

 

[martinelli_karen]

Snails and coral what is aiptasia?

How would we get these in the tank we only have coral and snails now for at least a month since the other anemone died

 

[GatorGreg]

Whew. What all did he show you about caring for the tank before his departure?

That water is pretty cloudy in my opinion. You could have some more things going on that I’d be concerned about before that aptasia. A lot of people’s tanks have aptasia and they manage it in various ways. The keyword is management and not letting them takeover. They come in on frags of coral that we buy

 

[NonstopSoda]

Aiptasia is a pest anenome that hitchhikes into the tank from other frags, they're virtually impossible to kill with out the help of natural predators or chemical intervention. they also grow and duplicate like wild fire

 

[eliaslikesfish]

How would we get these in the tank we only have coral and snails now for at least a month since the other anemone died

@BristleWormHater explained it nicely. they usually get in your tank by introducing a new coral into the tank.

realistically, there are probably several things going on with your son’s tank and i’m guessing he didn’t leave any directions, this can get pretty complicated, i’d wait till your son comes back and have him take the appropriate actions.

 

[GatorGreg]

@BristleWormHater explained it nicely. they usually get in your tank by introducing a new coral into the tank without dipping it first.

realistically, there are probably several things going on with your son’s tank and i’m guessing he didn’t leave any directions, this can get pretty complicated, i’d wait till your son comes back and have him take the appropriate actions. (just my opinion)

Dipping a coral will not kill aptasia. It has to be visually inspected. ID’d and then you gotta DRAXX that Sklounst. Just a dip will do nothing.

Aptasia is a coral essentially. If the dip would kill the aptasia. Then it would kill the coral too.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

Dipping a coral will not kill aptasia. It has to be visually inspected. ID’d and then you gotta DRAXX that Sklounst. Just a dip will do nothing

L

 

[martinelli_karen]

Not good at all.
Those are anemones, but a very aggressive and invasive kind called aptasia they will grow all over and kill corals by stinging them. Livestock that eat aptasia is a great option like @eliaslikesfish said. Alternatively manual removal and chemical removal are options. Manual removal is not very helpful as you will end up spreading the spores around the tank. Chemical removal is much easier. There are products like aptasia-x that you squirt onto them. You could also use kalkwasser which is a mixture of quicklime and water, you would also squirt that onto them.

I just got that aphasia-x from Amazon I don’t understand where they came from

 

[Uncle99]

He’s coming back next week.
The big one looks like it’s been there quite some time. Quite a few as well, he must know…
No worries, let son take care of that.

Some cultivate them to bred berghia nudibranc’s

They are doing no harm, nothing to bother I can see.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Welcome to R2R!

Does your son have any monitoring set up? I'm just wondering what the water parameters are. They may give a clue to the cloudiness. Possibly overfeeding causing a bacterial bloom?

Also, what @Uncle99 said.

 

[martinelli_karen]

Welcome to R2R!

Does your son have any monitoring set up? I'm just wondering what the water parameters are. They may give a clue to the cloudiness. Possibly overfeeding causing a bacterial bloom?

Also, what @Uncle99 said.

He does have a system set up but he got pulled to boot camp early so couldn’t show me I think the picture is just cloudy the tank is clear. I am not sure he will know what to do exactly either but hopefully he can figure it out

 

[GatorGreg]

L

?

 

[martinelli_karen]

Whew. What all did he show you about caring for the tank before his departure?

That water is pretty cloudy in my opinion. You could have some more things going on that I’d be concerned about before that aptasia. A lot of people’s tanks have aptasia and they manage it in various ways. The keyword is management and not letting them takeover. They come in on frags of coral that we buy

We haven’t added anything new since April. Why would they suddenly appear. My son was supposed to show me all the stuff I needed but he got called to boot camp 2 weeks early

 

[NonstopSoda]

We haven’t added anything new since April. Why would they suddenly appear. My son was supposed to show me all the stuff I needed but he got called to boot camp 2 weeks early

they can come in as very very small nems that are hard to see because of their clear colors and have just slowly grown in the tank until their population explodes and you can see them more clearly

 

[martinelli_karen]

He’s coming back next week.
The big one looks like it’s been there quite some time. Quite a few as well, he must know…
No worries, let son take care of that.

Some cultivate them to bred berghia nudibranc’s

They are doing no harm, nothing to bother I can see.

He has been gone for 13 weeks none of them were there and I haven’t been feeding anything since there is nothing to feed. Just adding reef stuff to keep the water balanced per my son.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

We haven’t added anything new since April. Why would they suddenly appear. My son was supposed to show me all the stuff I needed but he got called to boot camp 2 weeks early

They were already there, hiding, on something that was added to the tank. Most likely they hitchhiked in on one of the corals.