Reef nutrition

Need Anemone (Aiptasia) Project Ideas

MolaMola

Supporting Member
Title says it all.
Back story: End of January my very first semester elective class of marine science (middle school) will end and I will get a new crop of students. I convinced the admin to let one marine biology-crazed student stay on to work on projects I help him set up. Although I don't really have any plans for this, it seemed like a cool opportunity for said student and figured we would come up with something.
I know he loves anemones so thought he could do some research and be responsible for our BTA and rock flower nem to start. Then I remembered a big bio supply house sells aiptasia and I wondered who would buy it and why. Really, it is a super cool anemone and it is so hardy. A 5 min internet search revealed that some people study aiptasia and their concentration of symbiotic algae as a model of coral bleaching. Interesting. Probably too advanced for us, but since there is a tank full of healthy aiptasia at my mother-in-law's house I think we should set up an aiptasia tank for him.

What would YOU do with a tank of aiptasia if given time dedicated to it?
(Objective is FUN, interesting, and some science/measurement/investigation skills - nothing too serious.)
 
I would task him with finding the best way to kill aiptasia :D. As they are notorious for being difficult to eradicate, there are multiple treatment groups: kalk, aiptasia X, epoxy burial, laser, peppermint shrimp? Which works best? Hardly scientific, but would definitely be fun!

Another is some people train peppermints to eat aiptasia. Might be fun to train your shrimp, and can start a business selling aiptasia loving peppermints.

If you want to me more scientific you can explore aiptasia growth rates by varying water or light properties. But I would find these less interesting, personally.
 
I had the same thought. I think most of the companies that make products for killing them would gladly give you some of you wrote to them with what you were doing.
 
Thinking about the peppermint shrimp training. Was shying away from the full on aiptasia killing objective because it isn't so environmentally friendly, but then again it is similar to an invasive species. Yes, it would be so fun! Hmm. I was thinking about the effect of light, water, food but maybe that is less interesting.
Thanks for the ideas.
 
Food coloring comes to mind. How fast can they metabolize that out in different temperatures/conditions. Or see if they prefer to attach to reef rocks or rubber tires or other garbage people throw into the ocean. Those won't lead to the creation of a super breed of <kill method> resistant aiptasias, anyway...


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Food coloring comes to mind. How fast can they metabolize that out in different temperatures/conditions. Or see if they prefer to attach to reef rocks or rubber tires or other garbage people throw into the ocean. Those won't lead to the creation of a super breed of <kill method> resistant aiptasias, anyway...

Interesting ideas, thanks.
OMG - aiptasia super breed is terrifying.
 
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