Local Fish Store has Aiptasia

[SinkyShippy]

I went to a local fish store to get live rock. This place isn’t my normal fish store but it’s the closest one with live rock. I noticed a lot of Aiptasia in their coral tanks. Is that normal for a fish store to have that? I haven’t checked out the coral tanks in my regular fish store.

 

[VB313]

I say it’s verry common I even seen few on frags reefapalooza

 

[JustAnt]

When I see aiptasia I run away from the store. It’s true it’s common though but thankfully I don’t find any at my local reef store.

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

Very normal from what I’ve seen

 

[EmdeReef]

I would stay away unless it’s real live rock from the ocean...

 

[JustAnt]

I find it at more common at stores not catering to salt water or coral

 

[Jay Z]

Yep. See it all the time. Stores just need to keep items alive until you buy them. Not profitable to tear tanks down and pay people to spend endless hours trying to remove them. I’ve asked multiple store employees about it and they always say the same thing, not worth out time, just dip them.

My favorite lfs that has some of each, not over run, dips each coral for you before they bag it. They actually try to keep their tanks clean and will take returns if one of the baddies show up on something you bought from them.

Sometime if you want real rock, you have to be prepared for what’s hiding on/in it.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

It depends on how much they sell them for. Are they priced individually on frag plugs or included in the price of the rock. ;Jawdrop

 

[Bossman]

I got the aiptasia in my tank from frags bought at my LFS. They have a fair amount of coral at any given time as well as a decent selection of SW fish.

It has not been a major problem. We take care of it when we see it with Red Sea aiptasia X. It works.

 

[Ecvernon]

It depends for me.
If the store has many tanks visibly overrun with aiptasia, then I would avoid.
If you happen to notice a few here and there, among zoa polyps or maybe on random corals in store, I would say it's normal.
Even respected retail operations with quarantine in place have sold frags to customers with aiptasia on them.
I don't blame the operation, I blame the aiptasia, they are one of the most annoying and common pests in the hobby.