coral sites with NO aiptasia?

[JoJosReef]

Sorry @ellfe can totally relate. Such a turnoff browsing through an LFS and seeing a huge aiptasia (or a bunch of it). C'mon! Knock that aiptasia out! It's your store! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've purchased most of my vendor-bought corals from AquaSD and Cultivated Reef. Aiptasia on both (Cultivated Reef is my favorite place, but I did get one aiptasia on a zoa frag ). I've also bought from Unique Corals and Golden State Corals and no Aiptasia yet from them, but I haven't ordered too many from them.

 

[jlitz]

Top Shelf Aquatics, Worldwide Corals, Cherry Corals, and TCK Corals all have very clean plugs and their staff have treated me well. Dip and all that and protect your tank, but the quality online at these vendors is much better than any of my local lfs which seem to grow more aiptasia then corals. The downside is coral can also be more expensive to order online especially with shipping costs. I usually try to save for a bit so I only pay shipping once or take advantage of free shipping over a certain amount. You can find good deals on live sales here on r2r as well. In the end, there’s only so much space in your tank and once pests are in they’re hard or impossible to get out, so I think it’s worth the investment to be picky with your corals and your vendors.

 

[TomTheSeagull]

@ellfe I have zero aiptasia. Iv'e only ever bought coral from Tidal Gardens except for my first GSP I got from the LFS. It did not come with aiptasia but instead sprouted some very invasive sponge about 2 months after I got it.

 

[Jmp998]

Aiptasia are one of the more difficult pests to avoid, as there is no effective dip and in the absence of heavy feeding they have a relatively slow growth rate so a very long ‘quarantine’ would be required to exclude their presence on incoming corals. Cutting frags off plugs is a good idea for SPS, but obviously you can’t remove the skeleton for LPS e.g. torches.

However aiptasia are manageable. If you have only a few hit them with F-aiptasia or whatever. If you have more try biological control-copperband butterfly, aiptasia eating filefish, peppermint shrimp, berghia, whatever. None of these methods are perfect and some people have success or failure with any of them, but with the multiple options available you can almost certainly find one that works for you. Avoid aiptasia if possible, but don’t be overly worried about them. They will not destroy your tank overnight.

 

[CenlaReefer]

I have been in this hobby non-stop since 2011. I have collected corals from a large number of sources and I remain free of aiptasia. I had it at the start because it was imported with free chaeto from an online seller. Thanks for the gift! It took me years before it was finally gotten rid of by using berghia nudibranchs. That was in 2014.

Now I do this procedure for all coral I get:
(1) Cut the coral off the plug or rock or snip away the plug/rock. Sometimes I use a sharp chisel to shave a mushroom off of rock.
(2) Reattach the coral with lots of superglue and sand while being certain to encase every speck of the coral's exposed skeleton and all rock in superglue and fresh sand.

Keep in mind that this method is almost impossible to do when getting a zoa colony. You can try it with some zoa frags yet you need excellent eyesight and sometimes the zoas may not like the abuse involved in this. I much rather have the loss of a coral than getting aiptasia.

Morgan with Reefgardener.net recently shipped me some mushrooms that were detached from rock/plugs/gravel. There is no risk of getting aiptasia from those. I have to keep them in low-rimmed glass jars or cups in a low flow tank until they attach to some rock. I trust Tidal Gardens, yet I am not sure if they would give you an aiptasia-free guarantee. That should be a new thing in the hobby!

 

[Uncle99]

I’ve never seen a mature tank with not one aptasia.
It’s there.

 

[CenlaReefer]

I’ve never seen a mature tank with not one aptasia.
It’s there.

It would be a drive, but you can come by my house.

 

[Uncle99]

It would be a drive, but you can come by my house.

I’d be interested in a FTS?
Never seen that in 40 years.

 

[CenlaReefer]

I’d be interested in a FTS?
Never seen that in 40 years.

What is a FTS? This is a picture of my system- a 34 gallon and 80 gallon tank sharing a 40 breeder sump. I have a toadstool leather coral that can we trace it's lineage back to the 1980s.


Aiptasia-free since 2014:

 

[Jmp998]

What is a FTS? This is a picture of my system- a 34 gallon and 80 gallon tank sharing a 40 breeder sump. I have a toadstool leather coral that can we trace it's lineage back to the 1980s.


Aiptasia-free since 2014:

FTS=full tank shot (I presume).

Nice tank, I like the classic selection of corals including large well grown leathers, especially that one in the center with longer polyps. Is that the one that has been in aquariums since the 80's?

It's great that you are still aiptasia free, that is becoming harder as they are in so many vendor/aquaculture systems now.

 

[paragrouper]

I find them in my AIO and I find them in my refugium, but they do fare well in my display tank. I have a couple of peppermint shrimp in the tank and, according to @Biota_Marine, where I got this Molly Miller Blenny, they will also feed on Aiptasia.

 

[Uncle99]

What is a FTS? This is a picture of my system- a 34 gallon and 80 gallon tank sharing a 40 breeder sump. I have a toadstool leather coral that can we trace it's lineage back to the 1980s.


Aiptasia-free since 2014:

Very nice.
10 years aptasia free.
In todays terms, super impressive!

 

[exnisstech]

@ellfe I have zero aiptasia. Iv'e only ever bought coral from Tidal Gardens except for my first GSP I got from the LFS. It did not come with aiptasia but instead sprouted some very invasive sponge about 2 months after I got it.

If you wait they will come

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I have a birds nest that grows faster than Aptasia, Majanos, bryopsis, or anything else. I chop a colony worth of coral out every couple weeks...
So what is the definition of a pest?

 

[CenlaReefer]

Nice tank, I like the classic selection of corals including large well grown leathers, especially that one in the center with longer polyps. Is that the one that has been in aquariums since the 80's?

No, it is not. The toadstool that I got from my friend who kept it since the 80s was not extending polyps at the time of my photo. The arrow points to it. When the light spectrum is ideal, it gets a bit orange. I have been having it for at least 4-5 years, yet it has not grown as much as the others. I have cut many frags from these other toadstools over the years.

 

[Jmp998]

I have a birds nest that grows faster than Aptasia, Majanos, bryopsis, or anything else. I chop a colony worth of coral out every couple weeks...
So what is the definition of a pest?

 

[gbroadbridge]

for those with no aiptasia, where do you buy your coral(online)?
both of my LFS have visible aiptasia.. grr
worried about pests and other things as well but aiptasia cannot be removed from frags from what i have read .. obv planning on dipping as well
thanks friends^_^

If you worry about Aiptasia, have you considered Horse Riding or painting as an alternative hobby

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

If you worry about Aiptasia, have you considered Horse Riding or painting as an alternative hobby

I read that too quick, and thought I read "House Painting" as a hobby. While I am sure that hobby exist, my thought was "Wow that is certainly from left field"...

 

[gbroadbridge]

I read that too quick, and thought I read "House Painting" as a hobby. While I am sure that hobby exist, my thought was "Wow that is certainly from left field"...

Having painted my share of houses over the years, I can attest that Aiptasia keeping would be less trouble and more enjoyable

 

[steveschuerger]

They can actually be quite beautiful under certain lighting. I was feeding this on in my sump for a while until it disappeared. I keep natural predators (peppermint shrimp and CBB) so I don't see them in the display very often.

Can you come over and teach my CBB to nosh on aiptasia? He’s picking at rocks and the sand so he’s eating buuut…