Do aiptasia need light?

hunt

hunt

Active Member
I was under the impression that aiptasia anemones needed light to live but i looked in my penguin 150 biofilter (no light in there at all) a few months ago and saw a little clear aiptasia and figured it wouldnt live, but i looked again and its bigger (i swear ill never be able to get rid of these things). Im gonna kill it but i was wondering, how is it surviving with no light?
 
lil.guppy

lil.guppy

Active Member
I hate those things! The only way I was able to get rid of them was my copperband but when I sold my copperband they came back! So I used epoxy to seal them off into their holes and that seemed to do the trick
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
Ive tried almost all of the "remidies" epoxy (works but doesnt look to good on my rocks), lime/lemon juice https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/374082/lemon-juice(it works but i dont want to risk messing with my water parameters), Hot water (i would only do this if you can take the rock out of the water so the hot fresh water has a chance to burn the thing before mixing with the coller salt water and being less effective) Peppermint shrimp (keeps it from speading out of control, but it hasnt killed any large anemones) aiptasia X (IME has about a 50/50 sucess rate). The only other things i havnt tried are kalk paste, copperband (because my tank is to small) and joes juice or any other brand of chemical warefare besides aiptasia x.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hunt http:///forum/thread/381715/do-aiptasia-need-light#post_3326555
aiptasia X (IME has about a 50/50 sucess rate).
the 50/50 seems a little high in my experience. I was soo pissed off at one that has come back several times I shot it in the mouth with the aiptasia x, then proceded to dump as much of that stuff as I could into his hole in the rock so that it covered the entire hole and there was no water going into the hole. After about a week, guess who sticks their head up out of the hole? freeking bastards Of course the location of this thing is right next to the xenia i got. So I will go to the lfs and get that coral stick/glue stuff and glue my xenia over its hole with enough glue to prevent it from coming out.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Berghia Nudibranchs will do the job very well. You have to buy a group of them an you may lose one in the power heads but they can clear all Aiptasia . I added 4 to my 25 gal and then moved them when I changed to my 60 and they cleaned the tank of Aiptasia ...
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoJ http:///forum/thread/381715/do-aiptasia-need-light#post_3326688
Berghia Nudibranchs will do the job very well. You have to buy a group of them an you may lose one in the power heads but they can clear all Aiptasia . I added 4 to my 25 gal and then moved them when I changed to my 60 and they cleaned the tank of Aiptasia ...
what else do those things eat? I would imagine that they would get to snacking on some corals too right?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/381715/do-aiptasia-need-light#post_3326713
I thought they only eat aptasia.....and when it is gone they starve...that is what I read anyway, which is why I never looked into them further
Just read that and my sitch is different than yours. I have a local reefers club who I am sure I could pass them along to the next person who needed a specialized clean up crew.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Yep that is the only downer about them, yet they only live about 10 months any way and if you have lots of Aiptasia they may breed in your tank. There is no work involved you just put them in and wait and watch.
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
i looked into those little guys a while back but decided that would be a last resort because it would be expensive for me once you add in shipping. (i only have like four aiptasia now ) (that i know of
)
I find with the aiptasia x if you leave it for a lot longer than the box says (like 2 hours) that will raise your success rate (carreful about oxygen levels)
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hunt http:///forum/thread/381715/do-aiptasia-need-light#post_3326754
i looked into those little guys a while back but decided that would be a last resort because it would be expensive for me once you add in shipping. (i only have like four aiptasia now ) (that i know of
)
I find with the aiptasia x if you leave it for a lot longer than the box says (like 2 hours) that will raise your success rate (carreful about oxygen levels)
I do agree with you there, If you have very few aiptasia then it is not worth the money, but if you had many and they were mixed in with corals you did not want to wack, then the money is well spent on the nudibranchs .
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
So wait...if its in my filter and getting no light at all, what is it living off of? (food source)
 
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