anemone over-run

J

johnnyh

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Feb 20, 2004
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I have attached a picture of anemone' that are over taking my tank. It is a little hard to make them out but they are about the size of button coral. They are everywhere. The tank is a 90 gal reef that has been established for 3 yrs. Does anyone have any ideas on what they are and how they should be delt with if at all.
Thanks
John

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That looks like aiptasia....or majano anemones. Both are bad and are generally considered to be a reef keepers worst enemy. They can sting fish, corals, etc. and reproduce very quickly if left unchecked....as you apparently already know.

There are a few ways to get rid of them- injecting them with boiling water or kalkwasser paste is a common method, but doesn't always kill them. Have a look at Joe's Juice; I recently bought some of this and it works very well.

Oh, and Welcome to Aquaria Central!!
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also there are a few critters that will supposedly eat the aptaisia, i know for a fact that a copperbanded butterfly does and i've heard that peppermint shrimp also eat the anemone's, they will help you if there are some that you are missing
 
joes juice

recieved the joes juice yesterday and as advertised all of the anemone's that I could find were gone in less than 30min. One note I would add is that I over ordered big time but I am sure that there are still some hanging out. I used less than 1 container to remove 50+ anemone. Thanks for the help.
 
Re: joes juice

Originally posted by johnnyh
recieved the joes juice yesterday and as advertised all of the anemone's that I could find were gone in less than 30min. One note I would add is that I over ordered big time but I am sure that there are still some hanging out. I used less than 1 container to remove 50+ anemone. Thanks for the help.
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Yep, Joe's really on to something huh?! :)

Like yourself, I over-ordered too. With free shipping on your first order, I figured why not go ahead and buy five bottles, right? I've only used 1/2 of one bottle so far. Then again, I don't plan on leaving the hobby anytime soon, so I'm sure I'll use it all up at some point.

Glad to hear it worked out for you!
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Glass Anemones (Aiptasia) are 1 of the few marine ogranisms that can survive a complete biological break down (Mantis shrimp is another one), and you can put 1 ina blender, and pour the contents back into the aquarium and it will make 100s of new Aiptasia (they often reproduce by basel laceration, meaning as they walk bits of them get scrapped off and those grow into new Aiptasia), and they sting everything that touches them, often killing corals.
 
so if i have little brown anemmones all over my live rock im guessing its bad?
 
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