[tomc1980]

Just wanting a more experienced eye to tell me if these are aiptaisia and if they are how to get rid of em.

[patrick1234]

yes and some peppermint shrip will eat them

[ilovemash]

Or you can inject them will lemon juice

[72fishboy]

or inject them w/ hot water

[tomc1980]

thanks guys ill get some peppermint shrimp then as i dont have anything to inject em with lemon juice with some are real teeny and would be a pain to inject to

[tomc1980]

Those guys hitchhiked in on me but otherwise im real happy with my new rock. Never know what youll get with live rock.

[Madreefer]

If all you have is one or two, it's a heckuva lot easier just to hand kill the bugger with some Kalkwasser, Joe's juice, etc. You don't need to inject the Kalk. A few drops of a concentrated Kalk solution put right into the open mouth usually takes care of them.

[WillLovesFish]

I am new to all this stuff and am wondering what harm these things do? I noticed about 5 on 2 different pieces of live rock I have and am now worried. Guess I will have to kill them or get some peppermint shrimp, but in any case still curious why these things are bad?

[reefnoob1991]

All they do is multiply and sting...they don't do anything good and look ugly.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by WillLovesFish

I am new to all this stuff and am wondering what harm these things do? I noticed about 5 on 2 different pieces of live rock I have and am now worried. Guess I will have to kill them or get some peppermint shrimp, but in any case still curious why these things are bad?

They multiply, prodigiously. If you don't catch them early, pretty soon they infest the whole tank. You'll see them all over every rock you have. The nasty little buggers will then sting and injure the good corals you paid a lot of money for, and actually set your tank up for in the first place.

[WillLovesFish]

Thanks for clearing it up for me everyone. Sounds like these things are no good for sure. I also now know what stinged me when I moved the rock around the other day. Probably will try injecting them with something first, then maybe a peppermint shrimp just for kicks

Tom, good luck with killing yours as well.

[tomc1980]

Yeah same to you. Got some Joes Juice on order should have it friday then death to those nasty little buggers.

[bri74]

Ive got a pretty nice outbreak of them some are an 2 inches long any one hear of using a copper banded butterfly? thats what Ive heard

[WillLovesFish]

I have heard of using a copper banded butterfly before, but not sure how well it works. Just like with peppermint shrimp it's hit or miss.

I did some more research and found you can boil your rock in water and that will kill ALL of them on that rock. This is especially helpful for killing their little baby's. I guess one problem with injecting them is once they are injected they tend to release about 40 little offspring into the water. I know boiling may ruin your rock but if it's only a small piece it's no big deal, it will come back to life after a while once your other live rock seeds back to it.

Anyway, I boiled mine last night and it seems to have worked perfect for me, it was only about 3 pounds of rock, so no big deal.

[Jadefox]

Originally Posted by tomc1980

thanks guys ill get some peppermint shrimp then as i dont have anything to inject em with lemon juice with some are real teeny and would be a pain to inject to

Just make sure your Peppermint Shrimp are Lysmata wurdemanni and not peppermint shrimp imposters! Check out this article on the three biggest imposters:

Peppermint Shrimp Imposters - Lysmata wurdemanni is the Real Aiptasia-Eater for the Reef Tank

Good luck and keep us posted--I love Pepps for Aiptasia and just cause they are cool.