[johnf]

I have a 65g with one colt coral, a few mushrooms that refuse to open and literally 30 or so small anenomes that must have come out of the live rock.

Is there anyway to get rid of these anenomes? Isn't there a certain type of crab that would do it?

Thanks

[adron420]

They are most likely Aptasia sp. anemones, they can sting other corals and totally take over the rock in the tank. Certain peppermint shrimps are known to eat them, also injecting them with Kalkwasser will kill them, there is also a species of nudibranch that will eat them, some butterflies will also eat them, ex. copperband, longnose. Ive had good luck with peppermint shrimps. These anemones may or may not be the reason your corals are not opening, are any othe the anmones in direct contact with the corals? Are these the only corals in your tank? Have you tested your water?

[David]

Everybody has an opinion, here's mine. IME yes, pepermint shrimps do eat aiptasia but it would take an army of them to keep pace with an established heavy infestation. I have pep shrimps and they can't keep up. Injecting them is not so easy as it may sound, they tend to retreat into the rock when approached and rarely just hold still while you stick a needle into them. Also, mine seem to almost develope an immunity... what used to kill them now just makes them angry! Again, IME the answer was a racoon butterfly. I had one for several months which I kept in a seperate tank and rotated rocks from the 125 reef into the butterfly tank. Yes, he also ate any coral polyps that happened to be on that rock. That butterfly became so addicted to aiptasia that it would eat nothing else, and believe it or not, actually starved to death when I ran out of movable rocks with aiptasia. Of course I still had them on the big base rocks in the reef so now my tank is once again overwhelmed. I don't know what else to do, I am going to get another racoon and after he picks all the small rocks clean in his own tank I will put him into reef. Yes, I will lose some coral, I just don't know what else to do. To make matters worse, I will surely have to virtually dismantle the reef to get him out when his work is done. Any better ideas out there would be greatly appreciated.

[johnf]

The only corals I have are one colt which is doing great and several mushrooms all of which are closed. Several of the anenomes are within the mushroom colony. I also have a lot of snails and crabs.

I would think the butterfly would eat other animals in the tank in addition to the anenomes. I thought they were not reef-safe. I did some research and found that there is a sea slug, berghia verrucicornis, that only eats this type of anenome and thus are reef safe.

Does anyone have any experience with this creature?

[junkzoo]

you might want to check outhttp://www.coralsandbar.com
Rob has great knowledge and success with the nudibrach in question.

[organicreefer]

you need to eliminate them when you first see them ,or youll have long term problems ,IME.pepermnit shrimp will only eat the little ones the big ones you have to take out with a syringe.if they retreat into a hole ,and you cant inject them then simply "entomb" them in that little hole that it likes so much with some epoxy putty the butterfly fish cure is not permanent ,as david has found out.the butterfly wont eat every little peice of the anemone ,and you know what those little peices are capable ofthe berghia is something i havent tried yet.they are VERY expensive,and i think ive only been able to locate "egg sacs" that will hatch after like three months in youre tank or something.supposedly they work .

[Joaco]

Check this out:

http://www.wyx.com/iheo/tank/aiptasia.htm

Includes information about berghia and much more.

Joaco

[johnf]

Thanks Joaco for a comprehensive link on this pest.

Today I purchased some pickling lime and followed the directions on making a solution of calcium hydroxide. I obtained a vet syringe and applied a small amount to each anemone. All the ones I treated are closed up and covered in white. I turned off my skimmer and powerheads so as not to blow the white powder around. My live rock looks like a mountain range after a snowfall. The mushrooms are still closed up, but the colt coral is fine. I don't have a calcuim test kit, but I would assume my calcium level is sky high. Would this be a problem if I had a lot of corals? Tomorrow I will do a water change and try to siphon off the 'snow' on the live rocks. This was too easy, something tells me this isn't the end of it.

[junkzoo]

johnf , keep us posted on how things are going,,,kill ratio etc.,,,
Jeff

[Gabriel]

I had a medium sized aptasia that the peppermints wouldn't touch. They stayed on one side of the tank and the aptasia grew wild on the other side. When I rearranged some rock, the aptasia ended up just in front of the powerhead. It shrank and either moved down where the shrimp got it or just couldn't take the flow.

Be careful when buying peppermints. Several LFS tried to sell me camelback shrimp and said they were peppermints. They were not aware of their aptasia-eating qualities and figured camels and peppermints were the same thing.

Gabriel

[johnf]

The day after my 'pickling lime' treatment ALL the aptasis anemones I treated were killed. There are still a few that I missed that I will treat today. I siphoned away all the lime powder and many anemone carcuses and did a large (25%) water change. The change in the tank is incredible. I did lose my arrow crab. No effect on the hermits or snails or fish. The bag of 'Mrs. Wages pickling lime' cost about $1.50 and I only used 2 tsp. of it. I will get one or two peppermint shrimp just to prevent any further problems.

This inexpensive and easy treatment worked great!!

[chromis]

after a little research, I ordered a large berghia nudibranch from inland yesterday to tag along with my fauna kit. I will certainly post results and I hope to be breeding these pretty soon!