small anemone - not aptasia - multiplies quickly

[patrick stroupe]

Can someone help me out with this one.

I have an outbreak of dime sized anemones. They look like a tiny bubble anemone. They are showing up everywhere and stinging whatever is located next to them. I started out with 1 and in the period of 9 months have divided to over 1,000!!!

Does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them?

Please, they are killing my stonies

[rshimek]

Hi Patrick,

Sorry to hear of your problem, :(.

Sounds like you have an outbreak of "majano" anemones. When they become really abundant, probably the only remedy is to break down the tank and start over. As far as is known, there doesn't seem to be a predator upon them, and any poison that would kill them will kill the decorative livestock.

Individual anemones can be removed using the "kalk paste" treatment, but when they become very abundant you simply can't keep up with them that way.

Sorry not to have any good news. :(

[mattman]

So that you don't lose all hope, there is a product called "Joe's Juice" that some people have had some success with. It's safe to corals as far as a know and kills on contact from what I understand. Do a Google search or a search on here for it. I, personally don't have any experience with it, just didn't want a fellow reefers hope to be diminished. :)

Matt

[NicoleC]

Patrick, Pacific Reef in Fountain Valley carries Joe's Juice, as does the PR in Anaheim. It's about $8 per bottle, which can take out a lot of aiptasia.

Majano's are more difficult to kill with Joe's Juice than aiptasia. Aiptasia eat it and die; majanos are smarter. Basically, you have to cover the majano like the kalk paste method. It does work, but I only had a few. I successfully eradicated them. Kalk paste might be a much cheaper way to go considering how many you have. You can buy it in a LFS or buy food grade unflavored pickling lime, which is the same stuff but much cheaper.

Either method, keep an eye on your CA and Alk levels. JJ seems to be mostly kalk and your regular dosing schedule will probably get out of whack if you use a lot of it.

But you have a long term if not never ending battle. You'll have to hunt and kill them every day or two for a long time to come to get them back to manageable populations. It might be worth it to start with as much fresh rock as you can and only transfer rocks that have a lot of encrusting corals or favorite pieces.

[patrick stroupe]

Thanks for the replies so far.

These little buggars are everywhere, in the scutes of my clams, in between polyps even found one inside my tube worm!

I'm such an idiot! I saw the first one and thought "hey it's kinda cool". Doh!

I'm afraid I'm gonna have to break the tank down. I'll try and isolate the clams in a "hospital" tank and remove the hangers-on!

I'm wondering if I dip the infected rocks in white vinegar for a few minutes if they react negatively and "let go". Just a thought.

I was planning on getting a bigger tank anyway. Argh!

[racrumrine]

Majanos don't seem to regenerate from piece like aiptasia are said to do.

I have a pretty easy method I use. I took a cheap chop stick that you get from a restaurant and broke a smaller piece off. The rough end of the stick is very abrasive. I stick the rough end into the majano and twirl it. So far, I've been 100% successful with this method. You can also use the rough end to knock them off rocks. Once they float off, you can advertise them for sale on Reef Central as Tulip Anenomes. With the broken chop stick method, you can wipe out a lot of them pretty quickly.

Again, this method won't work with Aiptasia.

Best of luck,

Roy