diff --git a/expo/experimenter/mcts.py b/expo/experimenter/mcts.py
index 22b480caf..c063268c8 100644
--- a/expo/experimenter/mcts.py
+++ b/expo/experimenter/mcts.py
@@ -8,9 +8,12 @@ from expo.MCTS import MCTS
 
 class MCTSExperimenter(Experimenter):
     result_path: str = "results/mcts"
-    start_task_id = 2
 
     def __init__(self, args, tree_mode=None, **kwargs):
+        if args.special_instruction == "image":
+            self.start_task_id = 1  # start from datapreprocessing if it is image task
+        else:
+            self.start_task_id = args.start_task_id
         super().__init__(args, **kwargs)
         self.tree_mode = tree_mode
 
diff --git a/expo/run_experiment.py b/expo/run_experiment.py
index 49d058f13..15be27d60 100644
--- a/expo/run_experiment.py
+++ b/expo/run_experiment.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ def get_mcts_args(parser):
     parser.set_defaults(load_tree=False)
     parser.add_argument("--rollouts", type=int, default=5)
     parser.add_argument("--use_fixed_insights", dest="use_fixed_insights", action="store_true")
+    parser.add_argument("--start_task_id", type=int, default=2)
 
 
 def get_aug_exp_args(parser):