[brooke]

This is aiptasia, right?

[Reefland]

Hummm, how quickly do they retract when touched? And how much to they retract?

[brooke]

Haven't touched them...hold on...I'll go poke them with something.

[brooke]

Here is the best pic I can get of them retracted. They retracted immediately. Almost looks like they retracted into a tube, could they be some type of tube worm?

[Reefland]

That is not Aiptasia, not sure what it is though. Maybe someone can jump in with some thoughts on an ID.

[brooke]

Anyone???

[BubbaWPB]

I'd agree it's not Aiptasia, the little b******s retract down to nothing when you're trying to inject them.

[zhenya]

It's hard to tell from the pictures but those may be some type of colonial Hydroids, which may be as bad or even worse than Aiptasia at times.

[brooke]

I know the pics are not very good...but those little boogers are tiny. I have the camera zoomed in as far as it goes.

So is the general consensus to inject them?

[greenbean36191]

zhenya is right. They're hydroids. Kalk them as soon as you can. I made the mistake of waiting and now I have literally hundreds and they're reproducing almost as quickly as I can kill them.

[brooke]

Okay, so I've never had to inject anything in my tank before. What do I use to inject them (a syringe of some sort?) Should I mix up some kalk paste, or can lemon juice be used? Is one better than the other?

[BubbaWPB]

I used an insulin syringe that I mooched off a diabetic friend. It can even be used since you're doing a lethal injection.... Joe's Juice is an option of injection and comes with a syringe.

[Reefland]

I don't know if one is better than the other. Kalk Paste, Lemon Juice, Boiling Hot Water...Just make sure to nuke them really good.

[brooke]

They're so tiny that I'll have to use a syringe. My Dad's diabetic, I'll get one off of him and get 'em good.

[greenbean36191]

Okay, so I've never had to inject anything in my tank before. What do I use to inject them (a syringe of some sort?) Should I mix up some kalk paste, or can lemon juice be used? Is one better than the other?

Rather than trying to get ahold of a syringe with a needle and trying to inject them I just use an irrigation syringe (the kind without a needle, but a fine tip) and cover them with a mound of kalk paste. I've tried boiling water and lemon juice on them and didn't have any luck. They retracted into their tubes too quickly so just trying to spray them with the stuff was useless. Actually injecting them with it might work, but being so small it seems like it would be nearly impossible to get a needle in them.

[wangitytong]

You can buy diabetic syringes at the pharmacy ( at least in R I) cheap too somthing like a bag of 20 for 5 or 6 bucks . these are small and work great .

[brooke]

Putting a "mound" of kalk paste over them won't effect my water chemistry? I have a few corals that I'd like to keep alive.

Also, couldn't I just grab them with tweezers and pull them out?

[Reefland]

No, as long as you only have to put a mound here and there. If you were going after 100 of them, that might be a problem.

As for tweezers, you'll never really get ahold of them I wouldn't think?

[sihaya]

What about vinegar?

[BubbaWPB]

Note about the diabetic syringes... they are good for injecting the b****s, i.e. sticking the needle into their carcasses near the base and giving them a shot of lemon juice or distilled vinegar. The insulin syringes are not the best for hot solutions (the surface area of the syringe is so great that it cools down by the time you get it pointed to blast at the little b*****s) or for kalk paste (it's just too thick). A larger syringe (3-10 cc) would do better for the latter methods and you don't need a needle to plaster them with hot water or kalk paste.

Be careful with all of the injection solutions - you want enough to kill the annoying little b*****s, but not so much as to cause problems in your tank. At 0.5 cc of lemon juice or distilled vinegar per execution, I hear of plenty of cases where killing six at a time (total of 3 cc in the tank) caused no problems. Someone who has experience plastering them with kalk paste could advise you on the limits you'd want to put in your tank.