How do i get rid of this? its my Zoa isnt happy

[Sluzzer]

Hello, I've attached a short clip of this hair/stringy crap (algae?) on my zoa thats clearly ticking the polyps off. Any idea as to what this is and how to get rid of it? It definity getting bigger.

Thanks!

(Please excuse the title, not sure what the heck "Its my zoa isn't happy" was all about)

 

[saltcats]

Aiptasia. Not sure how to remove it when it's in the middle of zoas like that... my guess would be get the polyps to close up so you have some working space and maybe superglue over it? Hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

 

[Sluzzer]

Took a pic this morning..... looks like there might be a head/polyp right in the middle of the *******. Would ripping it out with tweezers work? I like the superglue idea, would i use the seachem thick stuff or get something much less viscous and try to pull plug out of water n do it?

 

[Sluzzer]

I'm finding other methods online such as cutting it away with a scalpel which would be tough to do without wiping out a good chunk of my zoa.

Injecting calcium hydroxide into the mouth.

Getting a peppermint shrimp to hopefully eat it.

Anyone have great succes with the last two methods?

 

[exnisstech]

Just mix some kalk up into a paste and inject it into the aiptasia. Some people use boiling water and I've heard lemon juice. I've only used kalk paste and aiptasia x both which worked.
If there is one there is probably more so maybe look into a few peppermint shrimp to help with future control but I would nuke the one in the zoa patch.

 

[xWascallyWabbit]

Definitely aiptasia. Manually remove with F aptasia or aptasia x or kalk paste. If you're able to add a peppermint shrimp itll eat it and keep the tank aptasia free. I've had excellent luck with one from reefcleaners. Anecdotal, small sample size of just my one tank but that worked for me. it's been a model citizen. It was cheap but shipping wasnt. Personally I used F aptasia to keep them at bay until I needed more clean up crew and then added the shrimp to my snail order.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I say make the zoas mad then glue the aiptasia down with super glue. The zoa mat isn't that dense. Once they close up there will be plenty of space between them to hit the thing with kalk paste or super glue.

 

[Sluzzer]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I already have a cleaner shrimp in my IM 50 AIO lagoon. I'm thinkin adding a peppermint shrimp would make things a bit tight.