Been out of the loop - Pesty anemone outbreak

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DeanneL

Membership Expired
Hi! I used to visit your forum quite a bit. Life has gotten busy, I've been away but now I'm back looking for some help! I've had my 55 gallon RR tank up and running for almost 6 years. In the past year or so, I've neglected it a tad. (Hangs head in shame). But it's summertime, I'm on vacation from work until August and I've got a renewed interest in making my tank look nice again.

Here's my problem. My tank is FULL of majeno anemones. The anemone forum says to try joe's juice, peppermint shrimp or a copperbanded butterfly. I'm thinking joe's juice would cause my tank to crash since there are hundreds of those little boogers to kill. I set out to a few stores today looking for the shrimp. However, one employee at the LFS says that the shrimp will eat aiptasia, not majeno. He thinks I need to remove my tang (I would if I could catch him!) and get a racoon butterfly. He says a copperbanded butterfly will only eat tiny majenos.

Does anyone have experience with majeno anemones? I'm not talking one or two or even a handful of them. I need advice on ridding my tank of a major outbreak.
 
I would spend the coin to buy, or rent/borrow an aiptasia zapper. They work 100% or the time it seems, and you can take you time killing them in batches until you get all of them.

http://reefgizmo.com/2010/10/the-aiptasia-zapper/
 
You can kill them in sets, every single day. Mow down 100 a day and in a week you've killed 700. A syringe full of boiling water is one way I used to do it. You can use hydrochloric acid as well.

Or that zapper. You need to kill it (stab it 8 times and then remove the leftover tissue so it won't regenerate in your tank.

When something gets away from you, it's going to take a lot of work to get it under control. We've got a member with a 400g reef that is suffering the same infestation and is considering tearing down the tank and replacing the rock.

This is not a small challenge; it's a big deal and you'll be at it for a while.
 
Hey Marc,

I've read several posts about this (including the one on your site) but am afraid to try. I had an outbreak last year as well that is completely out of control. I tried to kill it with Aiptasia-X and I think because of the amount I put in, I caused an outbreak of GHA that I'm still trying to get rid of.

Does using the zapper release toxins into the water? If I use boiling water or the hydrochloric, etc, do I still need to try and remove the leftover pieces?

Thanks -
Jeff
 
I have the same file fish in my tank. I bought it from a member for $30 to get rid of my aptasia. He did a great job. I have none in my tank. He does not bother my sps, clams, paly, zoa or blastos. He eats whatever I feed, including pellets and algea sheets. I would not trust him with acans though. He ate one in my tank but left the others alone.
Let me know if you want him.
 
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