Have new live rock...with life on it

[djones169]

Can someone tell me what these are and a little about them plz?

 

[hackteck]

those are aiptasia a pest anemone if you dont get it under control it can quickly take over your tank this link should give you some info

Aipatasia

 

[djones169]

Ok...so if I just plan to have a fowlr tank, are they still a big problem?

 

[hackteck]

no they wont harm fish they will however sting corals so if you want to get a reef down the road your live rock could be covered with them so its totally up to you

 

[djones169]

Do they help with tank maintenance? Like filtering water, cleanup, or anything like that?

 

[iDream]

Not at all, I suggest getting rid of them anyway. They can spread onto the sandbed and tank wall pretty easy. Just an all around huge pest and they're majorly ugly IMO

 

[Hinds04]

Get rid of them asap

 

[kay-bee19]

In a FOWLR set up (in my opinion) aiptasia are for the most part functionally harmless and perform limited filter-feeding from the water column.

It's in the eye of the beholder whether they're an eye sore or not. The public aquarium in my city actually had an aiptasia display tank:

With that said, the existence of aiptasia in reef tank are an absolute bane.

You can keep the aiptasia if you want to but bear this in mind: if you ever decide to leave the hobby, aiptasia colonies among your live rock will make the live rock (from a reef keeper's perspective) worthless.