Anyone ever see Aiptasia attach itself to your fish???

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

As I'm preparing to transfer fish from my 90G (which is completely overrun with Aiptasia) to my 266G tank in the coming weeks I've been noticing that my Foxface Rabbit fish will occasionally have a very small Aiptasia attached to his side. I'm guessing they attach themselves to the fish while he's asleep and then at some point during the day he'll shake them off.

Anyone ever see this?

I do have a QT tank setup, so I'm planning to QT my fish before transferring them to their new home, but its crazy how many different ways these pests can be introduced to your tank.

Armydogracing · Dec 14, 2015

I have never heard of this. Do you have a picture?

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

Armydogracing said:
I have never heard of this. Do you have a picture?

At the moment I do not, but next time I see one on him I'll try to get one...This has happened a few different times so it's bound to happen again.

mbmax · Dec 14, 2015

Really.

chadb202 · Dec 14, 2015

I also am dealing with a tank that's over run with aiptasia. How do you plan on keeping it from invading your new tank ?
None have attached to my fish, but my snails have some on their shells.

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

chadb202 said:
I also am dealing with a tank that's over run with aiptasia. How do you plan on keeping it from invading your new tank ?
None have attached to my fish, but my snails have some on their shells.

Going to QT EVERYTHING...Fish and corals. A lot of my snails have Aiptasia growing off of them too...Going to scrub them off with a tooth brush and put them into the QT tank too. I imagine I'm going to have to break down and scrub out the QT tank a few times in the process of transferring everything if Aiptasia finds its way into my QT tank.

tanklife3 · Dec 14, 2015

ChukeeR said:
Going to QT EVERYTHING...Fish and corals. A lot of my snails have Aiptasia growing off of them too...Going to scrub them off with a tooth brush and put them into the QT tank too. I imagine I'm going to have to break down and scrub out the QT tank a few times in the process of transferring everything if Aiptasia finds its way into my QT tank.

Peppermint shrimp not an option for you?

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

tanklife3 said:
Peppermint shrimp not an option for you?

Tried them, they didn't do squat...We have Berghia Nudibranchs in our 90G tank right now...but I'm not going to wait 3-4 months before I start transferring fish over to my new tank.

tanklife3 · Dec 14, 2015

ChukeeR said:
Tried them, they didn't do squat...We have Berghia Nudibranchs in our 90G tank right now...but I'm not going to wait 3-4 months before I start transferring fish over to my new tank.

Really? Where did you get them from? how many did you add? How did you acclimate?

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

tanklife3 said:
Really? Where did you get them from? how many did you add? How did you acclimate?

I've had a mixture of Peppermint shrimp from a couple of different LFS and I've ordered some from Live Aquaria. At one point there were 4 or 5 of them in my tank.

They were drip acclimated. They devoured food like crazy. I'd see them come out during the day all the time when I was feeding...They just never developed a taste for Aiptasia.

tanklife3 · Dec 14, 2015

ChukeeR said:
I've had a mixture of Peppermint shrimp from a couple of different LFS and I've ordered some from Live Aquaria. At one point there were 4 or 5 of them in my tank.

They were drip acclimated. They devoured food like crazy. I'd see them come out during the day all the time when I was feeding...They just never developed a taste for Aiptasia.

I wonder what causes them to be hit or miss

chadb202 · Dec 14, 2015

ChukeeR said:
Going to QT EVERYTHING...Fish and corals. A lot of my snails have Aiptasia growing off of them too...Going to scrub them off with a tooth brush and put them into the QT tank too. I imagine I'm going to have to break down and scrub out the QT tank a few times in the process of transferring everything if Aiptasia finds its way into my QT tank.

The way I understand it, scrubbing doesn't do it. Cells will be left to grow new aiptasia. The only options I've heard that work are waiting for the nudibranches to do their job or a copper band butterfly. Very frustrating.

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

tanklife3 said:
I wonder what causes them to be hit or miss

I've seen a lot of people have mixed results with them. I wonder if I just kept them too well fed so they never bothered Aiptasia?

I've had a Copperband too...He ate Mysis like a pig and cleared all the tube worms / feather dusters out of my tank...didn't care for Aiptasia. Lost him in a tank crash though when moving to our new house.

chadb202 · Dec 14, 2015

Different species the way I understand it.

tanklife3 · Dec 14, 2015

ChukeeR said:
I've seen a lot of people have mixed results with them. I wonder if I just kept them too well fed so they never bothered Aiptasia?

That could be it for sure. I remember I was starving my tank when I added mine

brandon429 · Dec 14, 2015

Fish as vectors, amazing. You should snap that and send it to the big blogs I guarantee a pic like that they'll post. the big dinos thread at rc, chem forum, has laser clear macros of a fish's slime coating vectoring dino cells on it, really clear, this stuff is great science. ripping down one tank to avoid an invader and setting up another, but moving fish? round two potential as clear macros. gotta see the anem hitchhikers that's gold. invaders find their way between tanks, and immune system response doesn't travel through the slime matrix well so fish can easily transport various nonfish invasions among tanks.

chadb202 · Dec 14, 2015

tanklife3 said:
That could be it for sure. I remember I was starving my tank when I added mine

Did they wipe out the aiptasia ??

tanklife3 · Dec 14, 2015

Yup and I haven't seen one in months

HiddenUser · Dec 14, 2015

brandon429 said:
Fish as vectors, amazing. You should snap that and send it to the big blogs I guarantee a pic like that they'll post. the big dinos thread at rc, chem forum, has laser clear macros of a fish's slime coating vectoring dino cells on it, really clear, this stuff is great science. ripping down one tank to avoid an invader and setting up another, but moving fish? round two potential as clear macros. gotta see the anem hitchhikers that's gold. invaders find their way between tanks, and immune system response doesn't travel through the slime matrix well so fish can easily transport various nonfish invasions among tanks.

I don't have a macro lens, but I'll see what I can do. Then I also need to get the fish to hold still long enough to get a clear shot. Need to dangle some seaweed in the tank and teach him to 'stay' like my dog does for treats.