Does Aiptasia retract with light?

[Boxster]

I had an anemone that look very much like the glass aiptasia. However, it will retract into its hole during the day time when the light is turn on. But when the light is off, it will extend out from the hole. It hard for me to take a picture because of this but does Aiptasia does that?

I don't want to kill it if it is a good hitchhiker from my LR.

 

[steve-s]

Aips can behave that way especially if on the smaller side. They are both photosynthetic and prey animals and can survive just as well without lighting. Curly cue anemones and tube anemones can also behave in this fashion. Posting a pic would be best if possible or doing a Google image search for aiptasia to see if you find a match. I doubt it will be anemonia majano but you can check that as well.

Cheers
Steve

 

[reefobsessed]

Steve all of my aips are majano. These are still unwanted right?? They are nice in color but I need to nuke them monthly it seems... Get rid of them if I can???

 

[michealprater]

I believe that majanos are 10x worse than aiptasia. At least you can get peppermint shrimps to rid your tank of aiptasia. Nothing eats majanos that wont eat all your corals. I use kalkwasser paste and inject them. However I have never been able to completely rid my tank of them, so I just kill what I can see about once a month to keep them under control. Seems like they spread much worse than aiptasia.

 

[steve-s]

Pepps will still work with majano but it much more important for the pest anemones to be as small as possible. Anything over ¼-½" will be ignored. I would highly recommend Joes juice as an alternative. The aips/majano will eat the stuff and then melt right before your eye's.

Cheers
Steve

 

[kidkameleon3]

so do you guys think my curly cue will take fish? like a firefish, or mandrin? I assume they would if the oppurtunity presented it self , but?

 

[steve-s]

Curly cue's like any anemone are opportunistic feeders and if the fish swims into the anemone then yes. Anemones do not "hunt" in any sense of the word, they strictly "prey capture" whatever comes into their grasp. Think of it like a spiders web. If food wanders into the "web" it triggers a response. Until then, there is no concern. Unless you have other active fish I would not be very concerned.

Where does the dartfish hide in relation to the anemone?

Cheers
Steve

 

[kidkameleon3]

I dont even have them yet, I dont have any fish yet.I geuss I could add the first one and see what happens for a bit.

 

[michealprater]

Pepps will still work with majano

I have never seen this before. I guess I had some bad peppermints. I need to try some more.

I would highly recommend Joes juice as an alternative. The aips/majano will eat the stuff and then melt right before your eye's.

Dont you have to shoot it on the oral disc. This is what I do with kalkwasser paste with the exact same results.

 

[steve-s]

Pepps will still work with majano

I have never seen this before. I guess I had some bad peppermints. I need to try some more.

I have had the same results with aips. Sometimes the shrimp go to work, other times the shrimp just scavange. No difference when it comes to majanao really. The main difference being though the pepps will not touch majano's once they get beyond ½" diameter.

I would highly recommend Joes juice as an alternative. The aips/majano will eat the stuff and then melt right before your eye's.

Dont you have to shoot it on the oral disc. This is what I do with kalkwasser paste with the exact same results.

Yes, Joe's juice must be injested by the anemone to work. I am not sure how safe your kalk is if it gets on other corals but with the Joe's Juice product I have "tested" it and the only casualty was a shroom. Even then it only faded a bit in color. That includes zoo's, softies, brains, plates and SPS's. One time I didn't mean to but I also spilled some on the black cuke. It only shrank back a bit but that was it.

Cheers
Steve

 

[michealprater]

Never have had the kalk hurt any other corals. It just percipitates into the water.