Aiptasia?

[Grug]

Deep Seven, and Mr X,

YEP! i believe every word of it.. the streem got me in the (closed) eye and my right arm and hand.. (wrong place at the wrong time) it burnt! for a very short second only but i felt it.. cold fresh water and a scrubbing pad (like you use on the pots and pans) was all i needed to get to it.. wouldnt have liked to see it get IN my eye tho.. i think it was definatly more than saltwater as my arm doesnt burn when i get SW on it in general

As for an underground aptasia "fight club" they dont seem to go for each other. although i did have 2 close together (about half inchers an inch apart) and they were always trying to reach for each other. the slightly smaller one tended to walk away and the bigger one chased him.. was a slow fight but a fight all the same..

 

[Deep Seven]

I've seen a video of bergia eating aiptasia, and the aiptasia seemed to shoot out these white strands. The nudibranch flinched, but didn't seem to care and ate it anyways.

 

[aveda6]

I had a quick question regarding aptasia. I went to the only local fish store (with the exception of petco) and every single tank had one (or more) of aptasia on the live rocks. There had to have been over a hundred tanks and i didn't see any tank without one. If i end up buying fish from there in the future, is there anything that should be done as a precaution (or should it just be ruled out as a viable store option)?

Jim

 

[Grug]

I wouldnt Jim..

With the fight im in the process of trying to get rid of aptasia im going to be SUPER careful about where i get my rocks from.. Fish .. i dont know if aptasia can be carried by fish.. i doubt it.. but if the LFS isnt controlling the Aiptasia.. how much do they care about their water quality etc..

its hard.. aptasia can be there and not be seen unless you use a microscope.. the minuite you get it in your tank.. start getting it out.. but dont touch it.. it will multiply.

Then again.. i have a choice of 5 LFS's some good some bad.. and i drive to the furthurst one away now because of Attitude of the workers and the quality of their display tanks.

 

[mr_X]

all stores get their fish from just a few suppliers. there are many suppliers, but most order from a few of the bigger places. these suppliers get them from just a few collectors for the most part. buying a fish from one store usually isn't much better or worse than buying from another. it's more about examining the particular fish, than the store it's in.
most of the horror stories you hear about local stores are started by their competitors, to hurt their business.
a store close to me tells everyone that every other store in the area orders from a collector that uses cyanide to catch the fish. (you won't know this while ordering. they would never tell anyone they use cyanide to catch fish).

the only thing unkempt tanks should tell you is that they only care about the bottom line, and they may hire high school students to net fish, to save money, instead of paying someone with a little experience to look after the fish room.

aptasia is a small matter. nuke them with a little kalkwasser paste when you see them and they won't get out of hand. i would not pass a store because they have a lot of aptasia. it doesn't mean anything but that they have a lot of aptasia.
i would pass a store if their livestock was lacking, or high priced, or perhapse they were trying to sell aptasia, or give bad advice to you.

you can't be super careful about where you buy rock from- this too, is also purchased from just a few vendors/collectors.
no one quarantines rock. it's drop shipped to stores, and is not even seen by the wholesale companies.

 

[Grug]

i stand corrected.. im still a bit aiptasia shy at the moment i guess..

 

[Jimbo7]

all stores get their fish from just a few suppliers. there are many suppliers, but most order from a few of the bigger places. these suppliers get them from just a few collectors for the most part. buying a fish from one store usually isn't much better or worse than buying from another. it's more about examining the particular fish, than the store it's in.
most of the horror stories you hear about local stores are started by their competitors, to hurt their business.
a store close to me tells everyone that every other store in the area orders from a collector that uses cyanide to catch the fish. (you won't know this while ordering. they would never tell anyone they use cyanide to catch fish).

the only thing unkempt tanks should tell you is that they only care about the bottom line, and they may hire high school students to net fish, to save money, instead of paying someone with a little experience to look after the fish room.

aptasia is a small matter. nuke them with a little kalkwasser paste when you see them and they won't get out of hand. i would not pass a store because they have a lot of aptasia. it doesn't mean anything but that they have a lot of aptasia.
i would pass a store if their livestock was lacking, or high priced, or perhapse they were trying to sell aptasia, or give bad advice to you.

you can't be super careful about where you buy rock from- this too, is also purchased from just a few vendors/collectors.
no one quarantines rock. it's drop shipped to stores, and is not even seen by the wholesale companies.

I'm going to disagree with you on a couple points here. There are quite a few fish suppliers out there and not all are created equal. I have 3 local LFS that I like, and I know that all 3 use a different wholesaler. And even if they didn't, I measure the quality of a fish store by the same points grug does. Obviously not every rock is inspected, but if you realize that most rock you are getting has aiptastia on it, I would expect them to do something about it. I know one fish store kept an active population of Berghias alive just to constantly be cleaning the rock.

I'm not so sure that horror stories are often made by competition. Do you know for a fact that they say this completely unfounded just to gain business? IME Horror stories about a LFS are always well deserved, you should see some of the places in the Cincinnati area, talk about dives.

 

[aveda6]

Grug, mr X and Jimbo7,

Thank you for the advice. It can be a bit hard to be picky now as so many stores have closed up recently. I live in the New Hampshire area and work in Boston and you'd be suprised at how few options exist for saltwater tanks. In my city there is only Petco and I have to drive an hour away to get to the LFS that I mentioned. The store that was the main competition closed up shop so there are really few options. I don't mean to imply that the store doesn't care about the fish, it just seems that the worker (one) was way overwhelmed trying to manage the customers let alone take care of the hundreds of tanks.

 

[Jimbo7]

Try to find a local club, and see if they have a forum. A lot of times you can get good stuff from local people and they might have secret stores that may not be in the first couple results on google. I have found so many stores that way.

 

[mr_X]

I'm going to disagree with you on a couple points here. There are quite a few fish suppliers out there and not all are created equal. I have 3 local LFS that I like, and I know that all 3 use a different wholesaler. And even if they didn't, I measure the quality of a fish store by the same points grug does. Obviously not every rock is inspected, but if you realize that most rock you are getting has aiptastia on it, I would expect them to do something about it. I know one fish store kept an active population of Berghias alive just to constantly be cleaning the rock.

I'm not so sure that horror stories are often made by competition. Do you know for a fact that they say this completely unfounded just to gain business? IME Horror stories about a LFS are always well deserved, you should see some of the places in the Cincinnati area, talk about dives.

well, i'm amazed that the store that buys berghia nudibranches simply for their live rock to be still in business!
it's not easy to pay 2 grand a month or more for rent, then a couple hundred for electric, and water and salt and inventory, and still be able to offer decent prices for anything, let alone eat.
i'm guessing you've never tried.
meanwhile, kudos to the stores that have nice looking tanks and also make a living!

 

[Jimbo7]

well, i'm amazed that the store that buys berghia nudibranches simply for their live rock to be still in business!
it's not easy to pay 2 grand a month or more for rent, then a couple hundred for electric, and water and salt and inventory, and still be able to offer decent prices for anything, let alone eat.
i'm guessing you've never tried.
meanwhile, kudos to the stores that have nice looking tanks and also make a living!

Actually, he isn't, hence the "kept." It was like 5 in their own tank and we swapped out a rock covered in aiptasia once a week. And although I personally have not tried, I volunteered 30+ hours a week at his store to try and help keep him in business on top of my real job.

 

[mr_X]

i'm not trying to be argumentative jimbo. re-reading my last post i can see how you might think this, but i'm just saying that that is way above and beyond for a live rock tank that is constantly going through parameter changes (old rock sold and new rock in...cycling over and over....).
sorry about the store going down as well.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

I have found that a vinegar/lemon juice cocktail works very well if you inject about 1 cc over about a period of 30 sec into the stem of the aptasia. The slow injection really helps i think

 

[thincat]

What size Aiptasia are you talking about? To be able to inject a solution into it's stem The Aiptasia must be pretty big... I have never had them get any bigger then a 1/2"! And that's the oral disc, not the stem.

 

[RYANLAWRENCE]

i meant base sorry. It usually withdraws into a fraction of its size and i inject directly into it, where the base would be. I have had to kill about 6 ones and none of them have ever come back. When i first started, i injected quickly and they would reappear after a few days. Once i started the slow injection none of them have ever reappered

 

[thincat]

Okay that make more sense!

 

[mr_X]

i once had a small aptasia attached to the side of a large toadstool that i wanted to get off badly without hurting the coral. i tried a vinegar injection. the next day the toadstool had 5 of them on it. it just stressed it into splitting.
never had much luck with vinegar.

 

[thincat]

my big mistake was cleaning out my sump. I ended up getting what I thought was a bunch of Aiptasias. I used Aiptasia X on the larger ones and let the others go. I am glad I did because most of them turned out to be mini featherdusters.

 

[Idaho-Tank]

Never get the berghia nudis. Once they eat all your aiptasia, they are going to starve and die, its cruel.

Haha I like the soldering iron. If they are in a crevice or hole, just get them to shrink in and then cover it with a couple dabs of super glue. Life sentence.

Jimbo7 has given me some great advice and I enjoy reading his posts but these two posts struck me funny. We are worried about being cruel to certain animals but not others I guess? I kind of think having a soldering iron shoved into your mouth or being surrounded by super glue is on the cruel side too.

For me I would be all about getting the Berghia but they are NOT inexpensive. I have read a lot about them and would still consider them personally. I am perfectly fine with everyone in the hobby being cruel to the dreaded aiptasia - but find it funny that certain animals deserve the cruel treatment while others don't.



I can't believe I never battled Aiptasia 7+ years ago when I kept a reef tank. I guess I was lucky and the only problem I ever had with a pest was with the dreaded bubble algae. The same is not true for me now as I am back into the hobby. One of my live rocks I first put into my tank had some hiding... Unfortunately I had some coral near by so I decided not to try the torch method. I put in a peppermint shrimp and it appears to have consumed all the tiny ones - I only have a couple of the larger variety left. The same is not true for my refugium where I probably have 10-15 tiny ones growing. I also have a copperbanded butterfly now and am hoping he will develop a taste for the larger aptasia in my display tank. If not I will give those an injection of boiling water. I figure worse case is they send out the seeds for future aptasia as they die - but I think my peppermint will eat any tiny newborns.

As far as my sump goes, I guess I will have to get another peppermint?

 

[thincat]

Okay, Hahaha, aiptasia are like flys. You would rather have them on your food just to not be cruel to it or some other unwanted animals. I say that you will never get rid of all your aiptasias. Today in the hobby alot of the LR is recycled by those moving out of the Hobby. It's like ich, it's becoming harder and harder to get rid of ich as it moves from tank to tank in fish returned to the LFS. Corals are spreading aiptasia more and more as people buy frags that are tank raised. It's an evil by-product of things being more and more tank raised.