Question about Aiptasia - What spreads it?

[Jeff-Ft-Lauderdale]

Ok, so I have read up on this. There are lots of articles that talk about what it is and how to kill it.

What I am not seeing is specifics on what spreads it. Meaning, how it can get into your tank. I am new to Marine Aquariums, so maybe this is just such common knowledge that nobody thinks it merits talking about. But I feel like this is something I should probably know.

I know it can be spread through live rock and from introducing corals.

How about the following:

Anemones?
Sea Slugs?
Snails? (maybe on the shells?)
Hermit Crabs? (maybe on the shells?)
Clams? (maybe on the shells?)
Shrimps or regular crabs? (Maybe in the gut?)
Water alone taken from an infected source?
Dry rock?
New fish?
Live Sand? (and if so, is commercial-bagged Live sand safe?)

I was at a Local Fish Store and found some Aiptasia in one of the tanks. I do understand that many stores use unified systems where many tanks share the same water supply. I just wanted to know how concerned I should be about this. They did not seem that phased about it. They seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.

 

[Hoodstream]

Ok, so I have read up on this. There are lots of articles that talk about what it is and how to kill it.

What I am not seeing is specifics on what spreads it. Meaning, how it can get into your tank. I am new to Marine Aquariums, so maybe this is just such common knowledge that nobody thinks it merits talking about. But I feel like this is something I should probably know.

I know it can be spread through live rock and from introducing corals.

How about the following:

Anemones?
Sea Slugs?
Snails? (maybe on the shells?)
Hermit Crabs? (maybe on the shells?)
Clams? (maybe on the shells?)
Shrimps or regular crabs? (Maybe in the gut?)
Water alone taken from an infected source?
Dry rock?
New fish?
Live Sand? (and if so, is commercial-bagged Live sand safe?)

I was at a Local Fish Store and found some Aiptasia in one of the tanks. I do understand that many stores use unified systems where many tanks share the same water supply. I just wanted to know how concerned I should be about this. They did not seem that phased about it. They seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.

They break off pieces of the petal disc that turn into polyps. They can also release spores when attacked. Filefish can really help with an outbreak!

 

[ying yang]

Yes they can attach to alot of cuc members like snails/ hermits etc and reason why some put all inverts and corals into a coral qt tank first for few months fallow ( fishless) unmedicated off course to see if any undesirables show there ugly face as say if buy a snail or cuc member and the aiptasia can retract and hide,it may not be seen for few days or even few weeks if very small etc.
If ever have one on a coral frag/ rock etc then remove rock out of tank and remove or inject with boiling water or whatever method you choose then rinse off in saltwater then place back in tank as when stressed can release spores and apparently 1 cell can form another aiptasia,I read sometimes even if not stressed or irritated they can just reproduce as can reproduce sexually and asexually .
Never heard of inside a fishes gut and then reproducing.

Never good idea introducing water from an lfs if dont need to as could have copper in or some kind of invasive algae spores/ aiptasia spores plus much much more unwelcomed

Edit: once seen a picture of a aiptasia on side of a foxface fish I think it was

 

[jfoahs04]

The biggest risks are essentially any hard surface in a system with aiptasia. Rocks, shells (occupied or not), and frag plugs are the most likely candidates in my experience. It's one of the primary reasons you might want to do an observational quarantine for inverts, live rock, and coral before adding to your display tank. I don't do this. I have never had a system that hasn't ended up with aiptasia so I'm not going go crazy trying to prevent something I view as inevitable. But I've also never had a system become overrun with it because I stay on top of it when I see it. It's one thing I'm OK with taking a "management" approach toward. Just keep an eye on your new additions and take steps when you see something.

I think there's less of a risk of getting aiptasia from the water itself (though not zero) since it seems like it's not free-floating in the water column all the time, but rather released as a result of a disturbance or threat response. Still, there are a million other reasons to try to keep LFS water out of your tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Concern for aiptasia is way overblown. If it comes up, manage it. The only time it becomes an issue is when reefers get lazy.

 

[Jeff-Ft-Lauderdale]

Concern for aiptasia is way overblown. If it comes up, manage it. The only time it becomes an issue is when reefers get lazy.

Yeah, this is the impression I'm getting from actual people. But all I had to go on before was youtube videos.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Ok, so I have read up on this. There are lots of articles that talk about what it is and how to kill it.

What I am not seeing is specifics on what spreads it. Meaning, how it can get into your tank. I am new to Marine Aquariums, so maybe this is just such common knowledge that nobody thinks it merits talking about. But I feel like this is something I should probably know.

I know it can be spread through live rock and from introducing corals.

How about the following:

Anemones?
Sea Slugs?
Snails? (maybe on the shells?)
Hermit Crabs? (maybe on the shells?)
Clams? (maybe on the shells?)
Shrimps or regular crabs? (Maybe in the gut?)
Water alone taken from an infected source?
Dry rock?
New fish?
Live Sand? (and if so, is commercial-bagged Live sand safe?)

I was at a Local Fish Store and found some Aiptasia in one of the tanks. I do understand that many stores use unified systems where many tanks share the same water supply. I just wanted to know how concerned I should be about this. They did not seem that phased about it. They seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.

Can come in on any solid surface and on shells that exist in livable conditions (not dry rock lol, not bagged live sand)

 

[adittam]

The reason the staff at the LFS blew it off as no big deal is because they are never going to have it completely out of there systems at this points, so they're very motivated to pass it off as no big deal, or they wouldn't be able to sell any corals or inverts with shells.

Aiptasia is incredibly annoying, because once you have it in your system, you always will. Also, they're incredibly invasive, so once it's in your system, if you don't have a natural predator of aiptasia in your tank, it can take over fairly easily.

That said, unless you are incredibly anal about QT'ing coral and shelled invert and going over every frag in your QT system with a magnifying glass, and immediately chucking anything that has a single aiptasia appear on it, you're going to get it at some point. For that reason, I've decided to go with the natural predator route. My copper band butterfly does an admirable job keeping these little ***holes in check.

 

[legionofdoon]

The reason the staff at the LFS blew it off as no big deal is because they are never going to have it completely out of there systems at this points, so they're very motivated to pass it off as no big deal, or they wouldn't be able to sell any corals or inverts with shells.

Aiptasia is incredibly annoying, because once you have it in your system, you always will. Also, they're incredibly invasive, so once it's in your system, if you don't have a natural predator of aiptasia in your tank, it can take over fairly easily.

That said, unless you are incredibly anal about QT'ing coral and shelled invert and going over every frag in your QT system with a magnifying glass, and immediately chucking anything that has a single aiptasia appear on it, you're going to get it at some point. For that reason, I've decided to go with the natural predator route. My copper band butterfly does an admirable job keeping these little ***holes in check.

Peppermint shrimp works for me, but they seem to just pick at the last 3 left in my tank. They will eat their tentacles but never the whole anemone but I have no babies popping up and where the last 3 are doesn't bother anything.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Ok, so I have read up on this. There are lots of articles that talk about what it is and how to kill it.

What I am not seeing is specifics on what spreads it. Meaning, how it can get into your tank. I am new to Marine Aquariums, so maybe this is just such common knowledge that nobody thinks it merits talking about. But I feel like this is something I should probably know.

I know it can be spread through live rock and from introducing corals.

How about the following:

Anemones?
Sea Slugs?
Snails? (maybe on the shells?)
Hermit Crabs? (maybe on the shells?)
Clams? (maybe on the shells?)
Shrimps or regular crabs? (Maybe in the gut?)
Water alone taken from an infected source?
Dry rock?
New fish?
Live Sand? (and if so, is commercial-bagged Live sand safe?)

I was at a Local Fish Store and found some Aiptasia in one of the tanks. I do understand that many stores use unified systems where many tanks share the same water supply. I just wanted to know how concerned I should be about this. They did not seem that phased about it. They seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.

Anything spreads them Just look at them and they'll be everywhere.

They're quite admirable little critters really.

Staying on top of them isn't difficult. Once they get out of control they can become an issue.

 

[gbroadbridge]

The reason the staff at the LFS blew it off as no big deal is because they are never going to have it completely out of there systems at this points, so they're very motivated to pass it off as no big deal, or they wouldn't be able to sell any corals or inverts with shells.

Aiptasia is incredibly annoying, because once you have it in your system, you always will. Also, they're incredibly invasive, so once it's in your system, if you don't have a natural predator of aiptasia in your tank, it can take over fairly easily.

That said, unless you are incredibly anal about QT'ing coral and shelled invert and going over every frag in your QT system with a magnifying glass, and immediately chucking anything that has a single aiptasia appear on it, you're going to get it at some point. For that reason, I've decided to go with the natural predator route. My copper band butterfly does an admirable job keeping these little ***holes in check.

Yeah, but when they run out of aiptasia, any LPS coral is a target too.

 

[damsels are not mean]

What I am not seeing is specifics on what spreads it.

reef gremlins

 

[ReefRondo]

They drive me nuts. I tried really hard on my most recent system to keep it clear of them but boom a few weeks ago they have appeared. I went to great lengths to avoid it and I still have them. I have the reef delete and using on an occasional one popping up seems to work well however in a tank with multiple anemones it is just not feasible without hours to spare and a very strong finger to hold the button down! What I don’t understand is why so many of us have such random results with the products offered for getting rid of them. I’ve tried them all with no luck. Only one I have had a couple of successes with so far (only just starting with the reef delete) was the home made version of aiptasia X that was posted here a few years ago.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Serious answer it can come in on anything it can attach to but given that they seem to spread throughout any system they are in I suspect they are also launching out eggs or something that could theoretically be transfered via water. Aiptasia is no big deal, and if you catch it fast enough when you see it you can eradicate it. It's only a serious problem in situations where other nuisances would be like bubble algae or bryopsis, that is situations where you don't do your maintenance! Most long term and dedicated reefers have it in their tanks, but only in the sump where they can't kill it. If you know you're gonna get lazy at times like me, you should try to keep such things out of your tank entirely as I do and not have to worry about it, and the way to do that is to quarantine incoming corals and inverts and try to stick to "top tier" aquaculture sources for your corals.

 

[Doctorgori]

Concern for aiptasia is way overblown. If it comes up, manage it. The only time it becomes an issue is when reefers get lazy.

Agree on the lazy part, but I would modify that statement because urgency is whats needed when observed not panic per se …
just for sample, I’ve never totally eradicated the dang things but I never see more than 1 or 2, I kill those and months later same thing, repeat

 

[damsels are not mean]

Aiptasia cannot take over a tank out of nowhere. It can irritate corals but it does not just run over an established tank in a week. A tank packed full of corals will not have aiptasia issues ever, because the corals generally will win against aiptasia trying to spread.

 

[MaxTremors]

They break off pieces of the petal disc that turn into polyps. They can also release spores when attacked. Filefish can really help with an outbreak!

They don’t release spores when attacked, they reproduce just like most other anemone, through binary fission, pedal laceration, and sexually. They don’t reproduce sexually due to trauma. There are so many different hitchhikers in this hobby that people claim ‘release spores’ when disturbed, valonia/bubble algae being a common one, that just aren’t true.

 

[gbroadbridge]

They drive me nuts. I tried really hard on my most recent system to keep it clear of them but boom a few weeks ago they have appeared. I went to great lengths to avoid it and I still have them. I have the reef delete and using on an occasional one popping up seems to work well however in a tank with multiple anemones it is just not feasible without hours to spare and a very strong finger to hold the button down! What I don’t understand is why so many of us have such random results with the products offered for getting rid of them. I’ve tried them all with no luck. Only one I have had a couple of successes with so far (only just starting with the reef delete) was the home made version of aiptasia X that was posted here a few years ago.

A 3M solution of NaOH is what I use. Kills them but it’s the ones you cant see who keep it spreading

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Berghias worked for me.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Berghias worked for me.

Reeftown, Jeff Xcllnt healthy and actually laid eggs in my shipping container.