Aiptasia Anemone Culture Methods

 

Order: Actinaria, Family: Aiptasiidae

 

AIPTASIA BIOLOGY...

 

Aiptasia are very common in shallow, nutrient rich water, but are also found in most tropical and cold water seas. Culture means creating the environment required by the species you will be raising. Most Aiptasia imported into the aquarium trade are from tropical and sub tropical waters. The two most common are the Aiptasia pallida from Florida to the tropical Carribean and Aiptasia pulchella from the tropical Pacific region. They grow well at a warm room temperature of 76^o F. (28^o C.) or higher up to even as high as 85^o F. An environment high in nutrients and detritus seems to encourage faster growth.

 

Materials Needed:

    - 10 gallon or 20 gallon long aquarium (or larger)
    - Aquarium Light Fixture
    - Aquarium Light Bulb (or grow lux plant bulb)
    - Light Timer
    - Thermometer
    - Hydrometer (To measure specific gravity [salinity])
    - Heater (Depending on your room temperature at night)
    - Filter, Power Head or Air Pump and Supples
    - Live Rock Rubble and/or Sea Shells
    - Undergravel Filter (Optional but a great method)
    - Live Sand or Bacteria Cultures (System startup)
    - Innoculation of Aiptasia Anemones
    - Snails (Optional cleaning crew)
    - High grade of Marine Aquarium Salt Mix
    - Pure H2O source; Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Deionized water (DI)

 

Method: Aiptasia are easy to culture. A 10 gallon aquarium with aquarium or plant grow lighting and equipment is all that is necessary. Provide circulation, a few snails and tiny hermint crabs to keep algae to a minimum. Photoperiod of about 14 to 16 hours, artificial sea salt at specific gravity of 1.023 to 1.025 and temperature of 76^o F. to 80^o F. To reconstitute artificial sea salt, purified water is recommended from a Reverse Osmosis (RO) treatment filter system. Normal tap water can not be trusted to be pure enough for consistent culture methods. If RO can not be obtained, then distilled water from your local grocery store would be the next choice. For long term marine aquarium keeping with reef animals, an RO water source will be very beneficial. For convience, a light timer is recommended set for 14 to 16 hours of light. The night time cycle should allow for 8 hours of darkness during the normal dark hours of the day. Setup is simple normal aquarium setup^*. Circulation can be provided by several methods, including an air pump, out side power filter or small power head. By far, a small power head or outside power filter installed so that it breaks up the water surface a little is the best choice. No filter media is needed in a power filter as the Aiptasia will be the filter. In the case an air pump is used, a glass bead air stone for larger bubbles or an airline running into a pipet tip and two valve system is recommended. The extra air valve is to allow a bleed off of extra air so that the water does not foam. An air pump is the least effective choice between the power head, outside hang on power filter and air pump. Evaporation make up water is the same as the reconstituting water with RO being the best choice. Aiptasia can be fed a variety of small particle fish food from the local fish store. Feed 2x to 3x per week. Aiptasia reproduce quickly in good conditions but it will take some time to populate the tank well for use to feed your nudibranchs.

 

^* This is not an aquarium setup instruction. There are many good books and articles about basic aquarium setup to refer to for instructions. To keep marine aquariums, the user of this site should already be familiar with this subject or have a teacher or lab partner that is experienced with aquariums.

 

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