Anyone have Aiptasia?

meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by fishkid13
http:///forum/post/3062963
Talking about copperbands controling aiptasia and Kitty asked if they were hard to keep I said "..." she said hers died and said "..." and that is were we are at, oh then you and spanko come in.
That was Coral Keeper.
OOPS...but we got the point across...didn't we
 
dragonboy

dragonboy

Active Member
I have FOWLR and what I read the Aiptasia is a good nutrient exporter. I feed heavily so with this in my sump it can help out a lot with the nutrients as well as uneaten foods that get pass the floss filter. I don't have a reef so its not a big deal to me if they get out of hand especially since some of my fish are know to eat them.
 
poniegirl

poniegirl

Active Member
Originally Posted by dragonboy
http:///forum/post/3066628
I have FOWLR and what I read the Aiptasia is a good nutrient exporter. I feed heavily so with this in my sump it can help out a lot with the nutrients as well as uneaten foods that get pass the floss filter. I don't have a reef so its not a big deal to me if they get out of hand especially since some of my fish are know to eat them.
"out of hand" is a relative term. Aiptasia will take over a tank.
The fish and other creatures that are said to eat them will do just that if that is all the food there is available. If there is any other food source, they will not touch the aiptasia and your tank will be covered...on the rock, substrate, glass, filtration.
Please avoid this, it is a horrible experience.
Nitrate is reduced by regular water changes 20% weekly and avoid bio-load.
I agree, go with xenia.
 
fishkid13

fishkid13

Active Member
Originally Posted by PonieGirl
http:///forum/post/3066818
"out of hand" is a relative term. Aiptasia will take over a tank.
The fish and other creatures that are said to eat them will do just that if that is all the food there is available. If there is any other food source, they will not touch the aiptasia and your tank will be covered...on the rock, substrate, glass, filtration.
Please avoid this, it is a horrible experience.
Nitrate is reduced by regular water changes 20% weekly and avoid bio-load.
I agree, go with xenia.
xenia looks cooler too. But you could have the same problem with xenia. Sense it grows so fast (never can make mine live for more than a day
)
they can easily cover up other corals and cover everything.
 
wakeboard3584

wakeboard3584

Member
i've had both xenia and Aiptasia go nuts in my tank. xenia is easy to keep in control even tho it grows like a weed. i put rocks on top of peices i want out and take the rocks out once they move onto the rock frags. then, i sell them back to fish stores. fish stores wont buy aiptasia. on top of that, xenia definately helps with nitrates. when the xenia is taking over the tank, i have 0 nitrates for weeks and months on end. when i thin it out, my nitrates slowly rise. if u want to go the aiptasia route tho, put some peppermint shrimp in the display. they will wipe out any that make it up there. i had 500+ of them in my tank and bought 2 peppermint shrimp. within a week, they were GONE!
 
jas1

jas1

Member
my aiptasia problem started out with one big one that came on a rock i bought and within a month i had about twenty!!! I bought some peppermint shrimp and they ate maybe 2 or 3 in as many weeks so I bought a copperband and within TWO DAYS all but the big one are GONE. I think the copperband is keeping the big one barely alive as "food security". Copperbands aren't really hard to keep you just have to find a meaty food they like to eat and make sure when you feed some of the food makes it to the bottom. I noticed he will not eat anything that is floating by he'll only eat off the bottom or the LR. I found that mine likes frozen shrimp and copepods which i have an abundance of. He has to be the KEWLEST fish I have had to date!!!. When I feed the frozen shrimp I just turn the powerhead and skimmer off for 15 min or so to let some hit the bottom and LR and stay put long enough for him to get it.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
+1 on the advice for aiptasia......bad bad bad idea to introduce it to your tank!!! That would be asking for all kinds of problems. And.....it can sting and even kill fish honestly. Definitely go with the xenia!
 
dragonboy

dragonboy

Active Member
Well with aiptasia you don't need light xenia only helps if you have a ton but I have a fish only tank it can be problem if it is in the display because my fish will tear up the xenia. Plus there this one site that had a video that talk about using natural filter and mention that sponges and aiptasia are a good water filter in your sump they help polish the water. But it won't get out of hand I have that runs water back to the tank so even if it has spawn only one might get by. If it gets out of hand I can always kill some of them off or get a peppermint shrimp. I'm just looking for more options to filter the water I already have macro algae I'm just gonna expand more on the filter.
 
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