# Not sure what this is?



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Saw a few of these little "blossoms" growing on one of my live rocks. They seem to be getting a little bigger. I've only had the live rock which is fully cured in my tank for about a week now. I wasn't sure if this was just excess coral left on it that is starting to grow or something else?


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Looks like xenia.A good thing to most.Does it pulse?


----------



## Sully (Oct 31, 2012)

Looks like a small feather duster worm. ALso a good thing.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Not sure if it pulses I will have to look. I have 2 other very small ones just like that on the other side of the rock. I am new to saltwater so if its coral more than likely I'm thinking it will probably die because I'm assuming I don't have the right kind of lighting


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

If the tank is new, I'm thinkin Aiptasia. Bad thing.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

if it is aptasia what can I do to get rid of it, because this is a new tank about 2.5 weeks up and running


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Couple of options.
Aiptasia X
Shoot it with a syringe filled with lemon juice
Throw the rock in boiling water for a few minutes


----------



## Sully (Oct 31, 2012)

Well, hope I'm not sticking my foot in my mouth but it just doesn't look like aiptasia to me. If you could get another shot it might help. Aiptasia from what I've experienced (and I'm new to this) has smooth tentacles where a small feather duster has a "feathery" look to it's tentacles. Just really hard to tell through this photo.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Ill try to get a couple more pictures this afternoon. I would like to put fish in this weekend so if it is aiptasia I will probably wait. My only fear is I have seen a couple others sprout up in the past few days so there is about 4--6 other ones on different rocks now that look like that


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

I know this would not be smart but if I poke the aiptasia (I know if it is aiptaisa it will spread its seed) but wont it retreat and close up? If I poke it and it doesnt then I will know its not aiptasia right? Just a thought


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If it is aptasia(I'm not convinced,but would it be the most common "hitchiker")Treating it would have no effect on fish.Also peppermint shrimp are known to eat small aptasia.I use aptsia X with good results on larger and my pepermints do a good job on the small.I had a large "bloom" a couple of months back and got the shrimp and treated the large and have not seen any since.
And although unhelpful I dig everyone saw something different!


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Ok Ill have my wife take some close pix with her zoom camera instead of just pix from my phone and hopefully be able to debunk this haha. I think its funny too how everyone is seeing something different. Also the ones i see are only about 1/4 inch tall so would aiptasia x be to hard to get on those little buggers?


----------



## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

briandeeds13 said:


> I think its funny too how everyone is seeing something different. Also the ones i see are only about 1/4 inch tall so would aiptasia x be to hard to get on those little buggers?


Aptasia X comes with a syringe and two(straight & bent) needles.As long as you don't mind getting your hands wet ,should be no problem.Get close(not to close to scare it) and start squirting and move right in till touching.


----------



## Sully (Oct 31, 2012)

If it does end up being aiptasia, I'll echo what CB said about the aiptasia x. In my QT, I ignored it for over 2 months because I was lazy. I eliminated almost all of it in a little over 2 weeks and I had A LOT of them buggers. With only a few in your tank, try and get them all at once and follow up every other day or so. You should be good in just a few days.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Well I am hoping my wife can take a few close up pix of it tonite that I will post and maybe you guys can take a look and decipher if its aipstasia or just some other coral?


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Don't know why everyone is fretting this. Your tank is to new for this to matter. Nuke the rock, you aren't goin to be able to shoot the thing, its to small, uoud have to wait for.it to get bigger. And risk it spreading. Even if its a feather duster, your going to have plenty moew where that came from. I'm saying, better safe than sorry. This stuff.is.tough to.get out.once.its got hold.
Then again, once you've cycled, you can always get.a couple of Peppermint Shrimp to take care of them.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

I will check but I think that it has already spread as I have seen a few of these lil boogers on some of my other rocks but I will have to look closley. I am thinking of getting a peppermint shrimp though from the LFS as there is nothing in my tank to eat but that so he should hopefully gobble that up.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

Well now that I am home I noitced when i turn off my aquairum light the "aiptasia" would shrivle up and then when the light came back on it would open up so I just took the whole rock out and will leave it out of the tank for a cpl of days to make sure it kills anything on it. Another question though is I have a green looking coral that when i touch it, it shrivles up as well but I never heard of green aiptasia so could this be aiptasia or something else?


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Something else, maybe. Mojano Anemone can be green. But they aren't as bad.


----------



## briandeeds13 (Jan 17, 2013)

First off I just want to thank everyone in this chat for their opinions and advice. It was all greatly appreciated to a noob like myself. I got a peppermint shrimp(hes a big one!!) in the tank last night after 3 hr drip acclimation. He seems to be doing well. He found a lil cave to hide in and this morning it seems to be where there was "aiptasia" is no longer. I am thinking he munched it all up... hopefully! So again thanks for all the input and advice!!


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Good stuff.


----------

