Copperband eating, but getting thinner.

[daniella3d]

they are mostly made of water and are toxic, it is well known.

just squash an aiptasia and see to what it retract to...practically nothing. Even large anemones become tiny when they expulse all the water they contain. As to their toxicity....it is also documented. Larger anemone can even crash a system and kill fish if they get stuck in a pump. Smaller aiptasia are also toxic, and not because they are smaller does not mean they are less toxic than larger anemones.

Aiptasia can easily sting and kill coral. I have seen it often in my nano tank where they are growing out of control.

so yeah...I came to the conclusion with observation and logic. How often do we read in these forums "my copperband ate all the aiptasias and then died"...

It is easy to verify that aiptasia are not part of copperband diet, it is well document what exactly they eat. And last but not least, do your own research on this, you will find lots of info on aiptasias and copperband diet.

"Like all members of the Cnidaria phylum, Aiptasia have the ability to sting for both offensive and defensive purposes. All Cnidaria have a stinging cells called cnidocytes, each of which contains a stinging mechanism, cnidae or nematocyst. Aiptasia possess both cnidocytes on their tentacles as well as specialized cinclides around the lower part of the column (small blister-like protrusions) through which it expels acontia.
Acontia are threadlike defensive organs, composed largely of stinging cnidocytes cells which are expelled out of the mouth and/or the specialized cinclides when the Aiptasia is irritated. (Many anemones do not have acontia or cinclides but Aiptasia do.)
The nematocysts of Aiptasia have a toxin that is more potent than the majority of corals kept by the hobbyist (with the Elegance Coral - Catalaphyllia jardinei being one exception) and can cause tissue regression in sessile corals, immobilize prey, and even kill unlucky crabs, snails or fish."

"Crude extracts of the coelenterate Aiptasia mutabilis (Anthozoa, Aiptasiidae) nematocysts have been tested for their cytotoxicity of Vero and HEp-2 cells monolayers. The results indicate that the nematocyte venom contains one or more toxins with an extremely powerful cytolytic activity. An extract containing the equivalent of as little as 0.6 nematocysts/microL is sufficient to induce significant cellular necrosis, and IC50 can be estimated to be ca. 2 nematocysts/microL on Vero cells.'

Originally Posted by marie

Playing devils advocate here..... you came to this conclusion how?!?

My cbb loves aiptasia and berghia nudibranchs literally live on the stuff and can't live without them