Can Aptasia be processed into food ?

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I really don't know if the experiment is worth it in the long run other than satisfying curiosity. You could easily set up a separate tank to breed aptasia and berghia. What is the benefit of freezing to make into food?

Valid point on the melting when frozen/thawed - I admit, I'm mostly just curious if you could put Aiptasia into other foods (like pellets for fish and shrimp or gel food for Berghia) and have it retain enough nutrition/potency to be useful without spreading.

Honestly, for the average reefer, I'd see very little benefit to putting Aiptasia in other foods - depending on how creative a business is, there could be a few potential (non-lucrative) options; offering it as a training food, offering it as an emergency backup food for breeders, etc.

Personally, I'm mostly just curious.

 

[dwarfseahorse]

When I first saw Aiptasia in my nano tank I thought it was a new coral. That tank also has crabs in it that were distroying the corals I had in there, so I was in the process of moving the corals to another tank. Luckly when I went to the fish store they told me that I had Aiptasia and it is bad like a weed and told me how to get rid of it. They warned me that if I have 2 I probably have a lot more that I have not seen yet. I was sure I only had 2 and I got rid of them. Turns out I have quite a few of them and my crabs want no part of eating them (they only want to eat my good corals). I got some peppermint shrimp as they are suppose to eat Aiptasia. So far I see the shrimp playing with the Aiptasia and trying to push it around. Since it's such a small tank I'm going to wait and see if the peppermint shrimp will actually get rid of it. I read that you can kill Aiptasia with boiling water so my thought is that when I am done with this experiment, I can put boiling water in the tank to get rid of any left over Aiptasia and then start the tank again. I don't think your experiment is going to work because those crabs eat anything and everything, but even they won't touch the Aiptasia. Clearly it has a different taste than any of my other corals they were eating.

 

[MnFish1]

When I first saw Aiptasia in my nano tank I thought it was a new coral. That tank also has crabs in it that were distroying the corals I had in there, so I was in the process of moving the corals to another tank. Luckly when I went to the fish store they told me that I had Aiptasia and it is bad like a weed and told me how to get rid of it. They warned me that if I have 2 I probably have a lot more that I have not seen yet. I was sure I only had 2 and I got rid of them. Turns out I have quite a few of them and my crabs want no part of eating them (they only want to eat my good corals). I got some peppermint shrimp as they are suppose to eat Aiptasia. So far I see the shrimp playing with the Aiptasia and trying to push it around. Since it's such a small tank I'm going to wait and see if the peppermint shrimp will actually get rid of it. I read that you can kill Aiptasia with boiling water so my thought is that when I am done with this experiment, I can put boiling water in the tank to get rid of any left over Aiptasia and then start the tank again. I don't think your experiment is going to work because those crabs eat anything and everything, but even they won't touch the Aiptasia. Clearly it has a different taste than any of my other corals they were eating.

Disagree

 

[Costareefer]

Anyone else scratching their head over the “nutritional” motivation to use as a food? What is the point?

 

[Ernie Mccracken]

Lots of hassle for something that has minimal nutritional value and could potentially be irritating, anyway. If you want to experiment with food, there are some great DIY fish foods out there that are superior to commercial foods, imo. Tons of nutrition packed into things like green lipped mussels, oysters, different kelps, etc.

If you want a challenge, figure out a way to feed fatty, oily fish without gunking up the tank. I'd love to feed wild mackerel, salmon, and sardines.

 

[GARRIGA]

Blend them as food for nudibranches would seem logical if keeping a colony going was a consideration.

 

[Mark Gray]

I had a pair of Singipore Angels that loved Aptasia lol

 

[Dburr1014]

I would like to point out that anenome are like 98% water right?
So that would be like a thousand aptaisia for one food cube. LOL.

 

[Rjramos]

Freezing doesn’t change the taste of aiptasia. So, I would say file fish and copper band butterfly that normally eat live aiptasia will probably eat frozen ones, but every other fish, probably not. Might be a good idea if frozen aiptasias can be used to feed berghia.
I raised berghia and the hardest part is keeping a constant supply of live aiptasias. Even in a culture tank dedicated to them, it becomes hard to keep up with the demand.
I found a wild supply of aiptasias, I was harvesting.
Only problem, it was a whole day ordeal, 2 hr drive each way, and about 2-3 hrs in the water with mask and snorkel.
Then cleaning all the unwanted stuff they are attached to. I gave up on berghias recently.

 

[MnFish1]

Blend them as food for nudibranches would seem logical if keeping a colony going was a consideration.

No actually with freezing/thawing it doesn't unfortunately. Additionally frozen aiptasia will disintegrate when re-thawed. The idea is as you said - interesting - but the reality is a tank full of busted aiptasia guts and hungry Berghia

 

[dwarfseahorse]

Disagree

Which part do you disagree with?

 

[MnFish1]

Which part do you disagree with?

Apologies I quoted your post - instead of the one I disagreed with.