Since I left home for college at the age of eighteen, I have not been in a living a situation that has allowed me to set up an aquarium.
After recently upgrading from an apartment to a two-bedroom house, my first purchase- before the couch, bed, or even groceries - was a stellar ninety gallon saltwater aquarium.
Indeed, I was home again.
I took to stocking the tank with all of the usual suspects, including an assortment of corals, a few little ambiance pieces that serve as good conversation starters at parties, and some very artsy live rock.
The term, 'live rock' is a reference to the literally millions of organisms that live on each piece of rock.
The rock is pieces of rugged calcium encrusted in coraline algae.
It is actually dead pieces of coral that have fallen off of the coral reef.
On a cloudy Wednesday, after about three weeks of problem-free living in my new house, I noticed some small, translucent growths had sprouted from the rock bed in the back region of my aquarium that included the majority of the live rock.
Having never seen anything like it before I was in awe.
It looked a lot like a translucent dandelion puff that I used to kick into pieces as a youngster at recess.
I left it alone, and soon it had three or four friends that had also sprouted little tentacles that waved softly with the motion of the water current.
While making a routine visit to stock up on fish food, I happened to bring my new little translucent guests with me to the aquarium store.
After only a few sentences into my description of the stuff, he had developed a frightened look.
He mentioned he was pretty sure I had what is known as aiptasia.
He said I needed to do something about it immediately.
What I soon learned is that aiptasia is a genus of symbiotic cnidarians, and a not-so-distant relative of the jellyfish.
Its presence in aquariums is a very bad thing, as it can lead to the bleaching and killing off of live, healthy coral.
Much like the jellyfish, its tentacles can also pack a mean sting when they come into contact with approaching fish.
Luckily, I was able to cut to the heart of the matter with the most effective solution known to the fish keeping public.
A person can spend a lot of money on chemicals or cleaning products to solve a problem like this, but that requires a transfer of the aquarium inhabitants, which is never preferred.
So, I decided to take the fight directly to the uninvited guests.
I simply introduced some Berghia Nudibranches into my tank, and let them do their work.
Often referred to as sea slugs, Nudibranches come in over 3,000 known varieties, and they absolutely feasted on the pesky aiptasia in my tank.
Within a week, all traces of the aiptasia were gone.
The effectiveness of the Nudibranches, combined with their amazing color patterns involving a plethora of neon blues and greens, made them my new favorite in my once again healthy and peaceful aquarium.
After recently upgrading from an apartment to a two-bedroom house, my first purchase- before the couch, bed, or even groceries - was a stellar ninety gallon saltwater aquarium.
Indeed, I was home again.
I took to stocking the tank with all of the usual suspects, including an assortment of corals, a few little ambiance pieces that serve as good conversation starters at parties, and some very artsy live rock.
The term, 'live rock' is a reference to the literally millions of organisms that live on each piece of rock.
The rock is pieces of rugged calcium encrusted in coraline algae.
It is actually dead pieces of coral that have fallen off of the coral reef.
On a cloudy Wednesday, after about three weeks of problem-free living in my new house, I noticed some small, translucent growths had sprouted from the rock bed in the back region of my aquarium that included the majority of the live rock.
Having never seen anything like it before I was in awe.
It looked a lot like a translucent dandelion puff that I used to kick into pieces as a youngster at recess.
I left it alone, and soon it had three or four friends that had also sprouted little tentacles that waved softly with the motion of the water current.
While making a routine visit to stock up on fish food, I happened to bring my new little translucent guests with me to the aquarium store.
After only a few sentences into my description of the stuff, he had developed a frightened look.
He mentioned he was pretty sure I had what is known as aiptasia.
He said I needed to do something about it immediately.
What I soon learned is that aiptasia is a genus of symbiotic cnidarians, and a not-so-distant relative of the jellyfish.
Its presence in aquariums is a very bad thing, as it can lead to the bleaching and killing off of live, healthy coral.
Much like the jellyfish, its tentacles can also pack a mean sting when they come into contact with approaching fish.
Luckily, I was able to cut to the heart of the matter with the most effective solution known to the fish keeping public.
A person can spend a lot of money on chemicals or cleaning products to solve a problem like this, but that requires a transfer of the aquarium inhabitants, which is never preferred.
So, I decided to take the fight directly to the uninvited guests.
I simply introduced some Berghia Nudibranches into my tank, and let them do their work.
Often referred to as sea slugs, Nudibranches come in over 3,000 known varieties, and they absolutely feasted on the pesky aiptasia in my tank.
Within a week, all traces of the aiptasia were gone.
The effectiveness of the Nudibranches, combined with their amazing color patterns involving a plethora of neon blues and greens, made them my new favorite in my once again healthy and peaceful aquarium.
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