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Aiptasia
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
About Aiptasia
Aiptasia are a clear brownish anemone found in reef tanks, with long sharp tips. They spawn easily and spread throughout the system, sump, and overflow quickly.
Like many aquarium pests, once you have aiptasia, you likely will never be fully rid of it. aiptasia, much like majano will begin to grow in the overflow, sumps, and even in the aquarium plumbing. When aiptasia anemones are cut or threatened, thy can spit out spores that will spread quickly and sprout more aiptasia in the aquarium.
How to Prevent Aiptasia
To prevent aiptasia, the first step is to cut frag plugs off of all coral and dip the coral in Coral RX Coral Dip and/or Beyer (BioAdvanced) Insect Killer before adding it to your reef. You should also treat live rock outside of the tank and not add wet live rock to any aquarium. This will help prevent aiptasia as well as a variety of other pests from entering your reef tank.
How to Get Rid of Aiptasia
You can get rid of aiptasia the same ways you get rid of aiptasia. Products such as Joe`s Juice Aiptasia Eliminator can help kill the aiptasia but it may still spit out spores and spread. Frank's F-Aiptasia seems to be the best solution at this time for both majano and aiptasia. It is similar to the other products, but makes a hard casing, preventing spores from spreading.
Other solutions such as a majano wand or kalkwasser paste may work as well, but come with undesired side effects. The majano wand is often said to cause spores to spread quickly. Kalkwasser paste can also cause spores to spread, but also causes alkalinity and pH spikes that can kill coral and invertebrates in the reef tank.
What Eats Aiptasia
Matted Filefish, Butterfly Fish, Peppermint Shrimp, and Berghia Nudibranch are all known to eat aiptasia. Other than the Berghia Nudibranch, all of these will eventually prefer the taste of standard fish food. When this happens, they will stop eating aiptasia, and as such, they are best at the beginning or end of the infestation. Berghia Nudibranch are expensive and only eat aiptasia and aiptasia. When these run out, they will starve. Berghia Nudibranch are good as a final resort.
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