How to Propagate Aiptasia...

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article How to Propagate Aiptasia.... Please add to the discussion here.

 

[BighohoReef]

First WHY?!? I'd be too scared that they'd find a way to leave the holding tank. I know one day they would make there way to my bathtub, sinks, and water source ventually propagating to my flowers and garden.

In all seriousness it's an interesting idea... I'm tyring to understand the purpose, outside of the benefit of testing removal techniques is there any other reason you'd want to keep these pests? I'd argue that majano nems would be more worthwhile to keep at least they have color.

 

[WIReefer]

Interested in this

 

[ksanfranfan]

I know people that ask hobbyist to trade or sell rocks with aiptasia to feed certain fish such as butterflies and file fish. I have a friend and his copperband will only eat aiptasia. It’s nipped at corals from time to time but feeds exclusively on aiptasia. He grows Aiptasia in his sump just for that reason.
I have peppermint shrimps in my display and sump that eat aiptasia. I don’t see any but I know that if they weren’t in my tank it would start to pop up or be introduced at some point.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Be sure to check out the article at the link. It gives a lot of explanation.

 

[tehmadreefer]

I went from about 10 to thousands. All I did was scrub the bunch with a toothbrush as they were in my overflow. Few weeks later I had a massive infestation in my 180. Literally thousands covered every piece of rock.

Simple propagation!

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I went from about 10 to thousands. All I did was scrub the bunch with a toothbrush as they were in my overflow. Few weeks later I had a massive infestation in my 180. Literally thousands covered every piece of rock.

Simple propagation!

 

[homer1475]

My thoughts exactly!

 

[intricate_reefer]

I go to school for aquaculture at a community college and a few people there are trying to propagate them to breed nudis. From what I have heard so far feeding rotifers has been the most helpful as far as food

 

[sixty_reefer]

First WHY?!? I'd be too scared that they'd find a way to leave the holding tank. I know one day they would make there way to my bathtub, sinks, and water source ventually propagating to my flowers and garden.

In all seriousness it's an interesting idea... I'm tyring to understand the purpose, outside of the benefit of testing removal techniques is there any other reason you'd want to keep these pests? I'd argue that majano nems would be more worthwhile to keep at least they have color.

i mainly do it connected to my main system as I breed nudibranch in the container that is linked on the side. Any aiptasia that try to escape will find a army of angry mouths

I've done the tread as wend I was researching for the subject I didn’t found any information on the web. This can be helpful to anyone that wants to breed aiptasia eating nudibranch or to fish that got special diets for example Some CB and butterflies will only eat aiptasia. Outside our hobby this is one of the corals that is normally mass produced to to advance study’s on coral.
in addition this method could be used by anyone that wants to introduce nudibranch to they’re system, by doing something similar to this they would be able to raise some nudibranch on a safe system. Instead of introducing them to the main system we’re a lot of unknown predators could just eat the hobbyist hard earned $$$

 

[sixty_reefer]

I go to school for aquaculture at a community college and a few people there are trying to propagate them to breed nudis. From what I have heard so far feeding rotifers has been the most helpful as far as food

Baby brine shrimp seems to be easily digestible also, have they tried to get the male and female aips to spawn simultaneous yet?

 

[intricate_reefer]

Baby brine shrimp seems to be easily digestible also, have they tried to get the male and female aips to spawn simultaneous yet?

They recently just started working on this as a side project. They breed Marine ornamentals so I think they just had the rotifers on hand. I know they produce the brine naupli as well, not sure if they tried it. I’ll see if I can get some info and report back. I don’t think they were cutting them but could be wrong, that’s a great idea. I texted one girl a link to your article and I’m sure she will get some good info out of it. As far as water chemistry, have you found any they like in particular other than the warm water?

 

[Krzydmnd]

i can't comment on propagation but I thought I'd drop this here. He's 3" tip to tip, and has himself folded up by the glass right now, but usually is in full display.

 

[andrewkw]

Is the purpose of the carbon substrate just to make them easier to remove?

 

[sixty_reefer]

They recently just started working on this as a side project. They breed Marine ornamentals so I think they just had the rotifers on hand. I know they produce the brine naupli as well, not sure if they tried it. I’ll see if I can get some info and report back. I don’t think they were cutting them but could be wrong, that’s a great idea. I texted one girl a link to your article and I’m sure she will get some good info out of it. As far as water chemistry, have you found any they like in particular other than the warm water?

hopefully some of the info will help, as for water chemistry I find that by Connecting the culture to a larger system it brings filtration advantages allowing to feed the aiptasia heavy without any impact on no3. A well feed anemone will recover in size in around 7 days in my system. Meaning the anemones that I’ve cut today to feed my nudibranch will be totally recovered by next week Allowing for a cycle to be in place. This is faster than waiting the 6 to 7 weeks that takes a new clone to grow by pedal laceration.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Is the purpose of the carbon substrate just to make them easier to remove?

yes, they seem to prefer to attach to a soft substrate like activated carbon, it’s also easier to move and do fragments as your not scrapping them from LR or Glass, in some cases you can shred a full aip just trying to remove it from a solid surface. This substrate just makes life so easy IMO. I also believe that this could be a key for my next experience which is to successfully bring a aiptasia to adults size by inducing coral spawning.

 

[hotdrop]

Ok so how many nudibranches can you breed off that much aptasia? They are Quite expensive at the fish store so might be profitable. Hand Fragging is a pain have you tried just throwing them in a food processor for a few pulses?

 

[tehmadreefer]

Seriously you guys are making this wayyyy too complicated. If an aiptasia feels its life is threatened it releases all it lol babies and aiptasia parts that get severed reproduce. It isn’t rocket science...

 

[sixty_reefer]

Ok so how many nudibranches can you breed off that much aptasia? They are Quite expensive at the fish store so might be profitable. Hand Fragging is a pain have you tried just throwing them in a food processor for a few pulses?

i don’t have an answer on how many but if anyone replicates the method 100x I would imagine that that could feed a lot of nudibranch maybe more that anyone could even sell nation wide. The aim of the thread was to show that it is possible to propagate aiptasia in fairly large numbers quite easily. Is just down to the community how they will use the information, id like to see them more affordable to all in a near future.

Hand fragmentation doesn’t take long as long as you have a shallow tray and a good quality long scissors.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Seriously you guys are making this wayyyy too complicated. If an aiptasia feels its life is threatened it releases all it lol babies and aiptasia parts that get severed reproduce. It isn’t rocket science...

Not always, and wend they do it takes around 6 to 7 weeks to become of a decent size. Maybe longer if not feed.