Anemones killing my corals

[Khackman]

I have some Condy anemones absolutely destroying some of my corals- including some really well established birds nest, brain corals and montiporas. My clown is actually matched to a hammerhead coral anyway, so I'm thinking of just getting rid of the anemones, by putting them into a non-reeef predator tank. They are so ensconced in the rock that I am losing patience. I have very successfully cut a number of them off the glass with a razor blade, but I still have 12 in my 125g reef tank. At this point, I'm willing to just kill them off. Will Aiptasia-X work on them? Any solutions? Ive tried flow, I froze water into a plastic bottle and then cut the bottle away..... Everything I know....
I'm at wits' end.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I would pull the rock out if you can and pry them off from underneath their foot. Other methods to remove anemones include hanging the rock upside down with the anemone tip touching the water and they should let go. Massaging the foot with an ice cub til it lets go. Pointing a wavemaker directly at the foot until it lets go.

 

[Khackman]

I can't pull out the rock without rearranging my whole tank, as the rock is one of the base rocks for an entire formation that has cap Montipora and others growing and wrapped around it. I have tried the ice, but its hard to reach the foot, and they just close up and wait for me to melt the whole bottle of ice, (I freeze bottled water and then cut the plastic away with a box cutter, then hit them with a huge bottle sized cube until it is all melted.), and am now trying the flow. Hopefully that will do it. If not, I'm screwed. They have already taken out several of my faves. I was just hoping at this point that I could just take them out.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I have some Condy anemones absolutely destroying some of my corals- including some really well established birds nest, brain corals and montiporas. My clown is actually matched to a hammerhead coral anyway, so I'm thinking of just getting rid of the anemones, by putting them into a non-reeef predator tank. They are so ensconced in the rock that I am losing patience. I have very successfully cut a number of them off the glass with a razor blade, but I still have 12 in my 125g reef tank. At this point, I'm willing to just kill them off. Will Aiptasia-X work on them? Any solutions? Ive tried flow, I froze water into a plastic bottle and then cut the bottle away..... Everything I know....
I'm at wits' end.

I'm no expert but if you are contemplating killing them all with Aiptasia-x, wouldn't you try other methods that have at least some potential for saving the nems? If you're not concerned with their mortality and are going to kill them, just pluck them off. I bet some will yield, some will die, some will split but that's a better outlook than nemicide. <-- like that?

 

[jsbull]

I am in your same boat. I put 1 beautiful bubble tip in and now I have 4, taking over the main rock in my display. They are beautiful so I don't want to kill them, but can't get them off of the rock.

 

[McMullen]

Formally had same problem! Finally bit the bullet and pulled rock out and scraped them off.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I am in your same boat. I put 1 beautiful bubble tip in and now I have 4, taking over the main rock in my display. They are beautiful so I don't want to kill them, but can't get them off of the rock.

Are they still bubble tipped? My nems are stringy.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I am in your same boat. I put 1 beautiful bubble tip in and now I have 4, taking over the main rock in my display. They are beautiful so I don't want to kill them, but can't get them off of the rock.

Btw, are those rock flowers in your profile pic yours? I would say they are my favorite nems.

 

[Khackman]

I really didn't want to kill them, I just feel like I am having no other choice. By the time I get them peeled away from the rock as they are, they are shredded. I would love to get them out whole and let others have them, but I can't seem to do it for all the reasons listed above. If I had a another salt tank, I could just remove the rock and hang it over the water like JaimeAdams suggested. I have a predator tank that I may try that with, but I would have to rebuild my entire 125 reef tank that has some nice corals growing in such a way that the corals embedded in some rock would be greatly torn apart. Not exactly how I would frag my corals.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I really didn't want to kill them, I just feel like I am having no other choice. By the time I get them peeled away from the rock as they are, they are shredded. I would love to get them out whole and let others have them, but I can't seem to do it for all the reasons listed above. If I had a another salt tank, I could just remove the rock and hang it over the water like JaimeAdams suggested. I have a predator tank that I may try that with, but I would have to rebuild my entire 125 reef tank that has some nice corals growing in such a way that the corals embedded in some rock would be greatly torn apart. Not exactly how I would frag my corals.

When they're shredded, do they die or just look bad?

 

[Khackman]

Really dont know yet. Just started today.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

[McMullen]

Foot shredded usually equals death. Ripping off a few tentacles is survivable.

 

[dbl]

I feel for you...I went down this road last year. Ended up having to remove essentially everything to get the things out. The 'hang over water' trick does work, it just takes time.

Although I didn't want to redo everything, I took the opportunity to rescape and ended up pretty happy with the results.

 

[jsbull]

Are they still bubble tipped? My nems are stringy.

Yeah, they are. They lose the bubbles some times, but the ones content and in flow are still nicely bubbled.

 

[jsbull]

Btw, are those rock flowers in your profile pic yours? I would say they are my favorite nems.

Yeah. I have a 5 gallon nano with RFA'S and sexy shrimp. Such a fun little tank. I've considered moving them over to my main tank. The sexy shrimp wouldn't make it though. I have a fuzzy dwarf lion, Porcupine puffer and rhinopias in there.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

Yeah, they are. They lose the bubbles some times, but the ones content and in flow are still nicely bubbled.

I can't get mine to bubble.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

Yeah. I have a 5 gallon nano with RFA'S and sexy shrimp. Such a fun little tank. I've considered moving them over to my main tank. The sexy shrimp wouldn't make it though. I have a fuzzy dwarf lion, Porcupine puffer and rhinopias in there.

That sounds like a cool tank. Low maintenance? Sounds like a night stand tank. How many do you have? I have two, an ultra and plain. I love them but the ultras are too expensive. Are yours reproducing?

 

[jsbull]

That sounds like a cool tank. Low maintenance? Sounds like a night stand tank. How many do you have? I have two, an ultra and plain. I love them but the ultras are too expensive. Are yours reproducing?

Oh, I probably have 20 in there. Rare Reef has some nice combo packs. They've spawned, but no babies.

 

[jsbull]

Per the original post, I was able to get the largest 2 RBA's off my rock today. I removed a massive fused arch that they were stuck on and held it upside down over a bucket. I tried ice, but that didn't work. I just waited maybe 10 minutes and gravity took effect. They drooped super long. I used my nail and got the feet up just a bit, then took feeding tongs and basically pried the anemone off from under the portion of foot I had pulled loose.

The two small ones sucked completely into the rock, so I gave up.

The sad news is that a beautiful acan is really banged up and 2 frags of nice cyphastrea are dead. Stupid anemones.