% of incidence of aiptasia

[reefworm]

At a guess, how likely is it that any reef system will have an aiptasia problem? I understand there's probably no hard data on this, but wondering if the # of posts concerning it indicate how frequent this is, or is it not as frequent as the posts might lead one to believe? Any dealers out there with some idea of how often your customers complain about it or how often it shows up in your LR shipments? 4 years and I've not had any. Just one of the lucky few, or a member of the silent majority?

-rw

 

[Will C1]

youre lucky i have never seen a tank that at one time dident have at least 1 aptasia.

 

[Vixyswillie]

Agree with Will C - they are the dandelion of the reef tank. Well... either aiptasia or xenia. :lol:

 

[EmilyB]

FWIW, I had zero aiptasia until I took in some rock from other reefers shutting down their tanks....those SCUMBAGS.... :lol:

 

[shalegac]

I have had two aiptasia. One came on my first piece of rock when I first started. I thought it was pretty cool then. Then I had one on a frag I got and I took care of it before it was even in my tank. I don't even have one now and the one that was in my tank was eaten in one night by my shrimp. :twisted:

 

[LFS42]

Roger that on xenia

 

[Osama]

I thought I had no problems with Aptasia but after the second year I started seeing them and seeing something that maybe in the same family soreading in my heavily populated tank. My pepermint shrimp do not last and my copperband is happy eating the copopoeds and ...
For those with Xenia that want to give them up and are in my area of NW of Chicago you can make a home for them in my tank

 

[44Tom]

During the past 6 years I have bought over 450lbs of RAW Fiji Transhipped for various tanks and I have seen only 2 of the damn things. That was 4 years ago and I injected them with KW and haven't seen them since. What I DO have is the very small anemone (sp?) that resemble a small rose bubble tip. It started as one when I got new rock for my 180 2 years ago and today I have 9. So far they aren't touching anything but soon I will have to do something. KW doesn't work on these guys. Speaking of Xenia I had bushels of the stuff growing everywhere a year ago, but the star polyps and yellow polyps are growing crazy and melting the Xenia away. I've started yanking out large mats of the stars to save some of the Xenia. Still haven't figured out what to do about the yellow polyps. :x

 

[Will C1]

same thing happened to me tom my star polyps are stinging my xenia. and the ones close to them are dieing oh well what can ya do. if ya wanna get rid of those anemone's i will gladly take some off your hands.

 

[Mogo]

I have 1 aiptasia exactly a year with addition of new live rock. He is now full grown (I think). Yesterday I noticed a new one growing in another area of the tank about 1/4" in size. My immediate reaction- uh oh. I have to assume there are another 1 or 2 in areas that are not easily visible. I'm going to have to remove them for fear of infestation.

 

[44Tom]

Will these small anemones I have are the pest variety described in Sprung's Vol II book. The pictures he has in that book look exactly like the ones I have. They look like baby roses, but don't grow much bigger than 1" across and they are starting breed. They aren't nearly the pest an aipstatia is since they don't breed as fast, but they are not something you want many of.

 

[Vixyswillie]

What I DO have is the very small anemone (sp?) that resemble a small rose bubble tip.

8O Majano - the twin devil child of the aiptasia!

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I had zero aiptasia until I took in some rock from other reefers shutting down their tanks....those SCUMBAGS.... :lol:

Thats how I got mine. I was at a LFS and saw this great piece of rock....I purchased it for about 45 bucks. The Aiptasia showed up on it in a couple days. I have had it on this rock now for a couple months now. I added Peppermint shrimp that seem to keep it from spreading. It comes and goes. Today I noitced one large stalk(I thought it was gone)and two new ones on thius same rock. I am goin to get some more Peppermint shrimp to keep it on check. They don't seem to get the big stalks though. If I have a chance I am goin to try a nudibranch. I don't like the idea of using chemical weapons in my tank.