Aiptasia anemone?

I added live rock today and couple hours later this showed itself.
I was excited! Always cool to see what comes out. So I did a search to try to ID it. Think i did. Then started reading and found that it's bad? And should be removed.
Is this Aiptasia anemone?
And is it bad that I have to remove?

Thanks

 

Yes, it's aiptasia! It is pretty bad, especially one that size. Aiptasia has been known to over-run tanks. There are a bunch of ways to get rid of them, including Joe's juice, injecting lemon juice or boiling water, removing the rock it's on and scrubbing it, etc. Best of luck!

 

Thanks for quick post. Damn. That means this store live rock is all infected
Dumb question. If I pull that rock out and let it dry. Would that kill it? Would it kill anything else on rock?

 

Actually why don't I just pull it out. Dump boiling water in that part

 

Ok. I boiled rock. Twice. I put back in tank. Not sure if that was good or bad so guess I'll find out. It's 2am but couldn't let them go till morning. A little annoyed at the fish store but not sure how they could fix the problem.
Thanks for the post zoo dude.
Go Leafs

 

Should be used as a last resort, as pulling it out will kill all the beneficial bacteria, making it dry rock instead of live rock.

ALSO, just about EVERY LFS has aiptasia. lol

If you cant get your hands on joe's juice (never used it myself) and don't wanna try injecting lemon juice or boiling water (if you don't kill it 100% 10 little babies will pop up in a day or two), I like to either make the anemone retract into its hole then cover it with reef epoxy/super glue, or put a small Live rock rubble directly over (in contact with too) the aiptasia, it'll be forced to move, and i'd say 70% of the time, it goes on to the piece of rubble which you can just throw away.

It's also worth mentioning you can try peppermint shrimp (don't get confused with camel shrimp), some people claim they eat LPS and soft corals, though I've never seen it happen to me and I've bought plenty of shrimp, or copperband butterfly/matted filefish. Both are rather finicky fish and, like the shrimp, can go after corals.

The choice is yours

 

Boiling rock can be VERY dangerous, I forget exactly why, but there was a thread about someone who boiled liverock and both he and his wife had to goto the ER by the morning.

 

If I remember correctly that rock had some form of palys on it and boiling them released the toxins into the air which they breathed into their lungs. Thats why they say to wear gloves and glasses when fragging them.

 

While the vast majority of the time boiling rock will not be an issue, please do not boil rock. It only takes that one time when you boil a piece with toxic palys or zoanthids or a host of things. Aiptasia are not worth the risk.

 

Peppermint shrimp did the trick for me. I had one scare of aiptasia and immediately ran to my LFS and bought a peppermint shrimp. He earned his keep in two days. I have some corals and it doesn't mess with any of them. He has cool personality too, so I kept him in there.