Do you think my BTA will move with this solution?

[Kayanarka]

Hi Folks. Yesterday I picked up a bubble tip anemone from the LFS where I got my tank. They sell them in a little glass cup. He seems really attached to his little cup, oth literally and figuratively. Here is a picture showing what I did, I wrapped a peice of paper plate around the cup to help block light to it.

Now I have been reading last night and this morning that some have successfully removed these with ice on the foot (maybe I could rub the glass where his foot is attached with Ice? Putting them in pipes, or gently prying with a credit card or plastic knife.

Some of my concerns , and please dispell them if able, are as follows:

The Ice, I am nervous to stress him out more, also should I make the ice out of DI, would a single cube of ice in the tank hurt much, or two, three cubes? Would the ice on the outside of the glass make the glass too cold too fast and hurt him? Would I hold him out of the water and let him drop into the tank onto a rock, or should I catch him in a net.

Prying with a credit card method, the glass is too small to get in a credit card. I could get a set of angled tweezers in and use them as a scraper, but I do not want to injure him at all, especially if he is relatively safe in the glass.

The pipe method: I have a large dark coffee cup that the glass would fit into, would this be better then my paper plate setup? If he decided to just move and stick the the edge of the coffee cup, it would make it easy to get a credit card under him.

How fast do they move? Inch per hour, foot per minute? Should I give the paper plate setup a whole day to work?

Thanks for reading and for any advice. Here is my second nem.

Clownfish should be out of quarantine in November, wanted to get the anemones established first. I am dosing KH, MG and Ca using 3 dosing pumps.

People say not to feed them for the first week or two, I am worried that they might go "wandering" looking for food if I do not offer some sooner, thoughts?

I have one more gyro and one more light strip to buy, hopefully early this week. My goal is to get everything dialed in so the anemones can settle and find a happy place before I start placing frags.

I have read that anemones require a very stable tank. It is my hope that having the established sand bed and water, as well as dosing pumps to keep parameters in line and steady, dual backup heaters, and a full electronic testing suite, that I can provide these guys with a stable happy home to let them find their place before I start to decorate.

On an unrelated note, I have set up a quarantine tank and have two very tiny mandarins on quarantine. I am curious if the mandarins will know to avoid the anemone, they are aquaculture, about 3/8" long, really tiny.

 

[Karen00]

I am not a nem expert and don't even keep them (my tank is too small) but I find them fascinating creatures so have read a lot about them. I saw a post like yours and I think the solution was to try and darken the are around the nem (like put a dark cover over him) but leave an opening for him to crawl out to where there is light. Make sure no light gets into the blackout area otherwise he might not move. He should crawl to the light. Make sure he has to crawl far enough that he leaves the cup.

I don't know if this trick works for all nems or just certain types so I would wait for folks that also had this issue to chime in. Good luck!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Since the glass is very smooth, you should be able to gently scoop the nem out with your fingers. that should be a lot less stressful than the other methods, besides what you’re already doing.
I have done this before without any issues but if this one is as attached as you think, that might not work. The other methods work pretty well when you have a nem that’s attached to a rock, especially down in a crevice that you can’t reach into.
The only thing I think might not work about what you’re doing to get him to leave the cup is that they can stretch to amazing lengths without detaching their foot to get to light. I’d say to give it a couple days and then if it still hasn’t moved, try to gently scoop it out of the cup.
In terms of movement, they can move quite quickly. You’ll see them inflate their foot and then scoot over slowly. I’d say that if they’re motivated enough, they can easily walk a foot in an hour.
Good luck!!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hi Folks. Yesterday I picked up a bubble tip anemone from the LFS where I got my tank. They sell them in a little glass cup. He seems really attached to his little cup, oth literally and figuratively. Here is a picture showing what I did, I wrapped a peice of paper plate around the cup to help block light to it.

Now I have been reading last night and this morning that some have successfully removed these with ice on the foot (maybe I could rub the glass where his foot is attached with Ice? Putting them in pipes, or gently prying with a credit card or plastic knife.

Some of my concerns , and please dispell them if able, are as follows:

The Ice, I am nervous to stress him out more, also should I make the ice out of DI, would a single cube of ice in the tank hurt much, or two, three cubes? Would the ice on the outside of the glass make the glass too cold too fast and hurt him? Would I hold him out of the water and let him drop into the tank onto a rock, or should I catch him in a net.

Prying with a credit card method, the glass is too small to get in a credit card. I could get a set of angled tweezers in and use them as a scraper, but I do not want to injure him at all, especially if he is relatively safe in the glass.

The pipe method: I have a large dark coffee cup that the glass would fit into, would this be better then my paper plate setup? If he decided to just move and stick the the edge of the coffee cup, it would make it easy to get a credit card under him.

How fast do they move? Inch per hour, foot per minute? Should I give the paper plate setup a whole day to work?

Thanks for reading and for any advice. Here is my second nem.

Clownfish should be out of quarantine in November, wanted to get the anemones established first. I am dosing KH, MG and Ca using 3 dosing pumps.

People say not to feed them for the first week or two, I am worried that they might go "wandering" looking for food if I do not offer some sooner, thoughts?

I have one more gyro and one more light strip to buy, hopefully early this week. My goal is to get everything dialed in so the anemones can settle and find a happy place before I start placing frags.

I have read that anemones require a very stable tank. It is my hope that having the established sand bed and water, as well as dosing pumps to keep parameters in line and steady, dual backup heaters, and a full electronic testing suite, that I can provide these guys with a stable happy home to let them find their place before I start to decorate.

On an unrelated note, I have set up a quarantine tank and have two very tiny mandarins on quarantine. I am curious if the mandarins will know to avoid the anemone, they are aquaculture, about 3/8" long, really tiny.

I am not a nem expert and don't even keep them (my tank is too small) but I find them fascinating creatures so have read a lot about them. I saw a post like yours and I think the solution was to try and darken the are around the nem (like put a dark cover over him) but leave an opening for him to crawl out to where there is light. Make sure no light gets into the blackout area otherwise he might not move. He should crawl to the light. Make sure he has to crawl far enough that he leaves the cup.

I don't know if this trick works for all nems or just certain types so I would wait for folks that also had this issue to chime in. Good luck!

Do not use ice - killed one that way - still feel terrible - saw it done by LFS person so there is some skill/trick involved to making it work (NO direct contact & more)

Remember the saying, nothing good happens fast in this hobby... Patience.

Too much light is still getting to your cup - think you could cut/tear the cup away *IF* you feel you can't wait for the anemone ... but recommend you wait for anemone.

If you MUST move at YOUR speed - then this thread for the "Major Steve Nem Removal Tool" aka cannon is the way to go - post #12 of this thread:

BTA Explosion, how to reduce the population?

I purchased one orange/green BTA for my clown fish. My clown fish are hosting in my leather (ARGH) but I now have 40 BTA's in my tank! How do I reduce/remove my BTA population? I DO react quite strong to BTA and if I touch them I do turn red and swell up. Once when I was cleaning my tank I...

www.reef2reef.com

EDIT: I've used the credit card method, but this is doing some light trauma... How much do you want to abuse it to move it... go with the cannon so it goes at speed IT likes, not OUR speed

 

[Kayanarka]

Do not use ice - killed one that way - still feel terrible - saw it done by LFS person so there is some skill/trick involved to making it work (NO direct contact & more)

Remember the saying, nothing good happens fast in this hobby... Patience.

Too much light is still getting to your cup - think you could cut/tear the cup away *IF* you feel you can't wait for the anemone ... but recommend you wait for anemone.

If you MUST move at YOUR speed - then this thread for the "Major Steve Nem Removal Tool" aka cannon is the way to go - post #12 of this thread:

BTA Explosion, how to reduce the population?

I purchased one orange/green BTA for my clown fish. My clown fish are hosting in my leather (ARGH) but I now have 40 BTA's in my tank! How do I reduce/remove my BTA population? I DO react quite strong to BTA and if I touch them I do turn red and swell up. Once when I was cleaning my tank I...

www.reef2reef.com

EDIT: I've used the credit card method, but this is doing some light trauma... How much do you want to abuse it to move it... go with the cannon so it goes at speed IT likes, not OUR speed

I am in no rush, I am nervous if he gets enough flow in the cup. He could live in it for ever as far as I am concerned, as long as it is safe for him. If the cup is safe, I would be happy to just let him have it as a home. In the cup it seems like the back tentacles do not get much flow if the cup is on it's side. Would it be wise to just set the cup straight up?

Or should I make efforts to getting him out of it so he has good flow around him? Should I try the black coffee cup? I could take a picture of what he would look like with his glass in the black coffee cup.

Interested to know, leave in cup with cup sideways spilling to rock, leave in cup with cup straight up, put cup in black coffee cup to hide light better.

I am not in any rush to try prying on him.

 

[Kayanarka]

Since the glass is very smooth, you should be able to gently scoop the nem out with your fingers. that should be a lot less stressful than the other methods, besides what you’re already doing.
I have done this before without any issues but if this one is as attached as you think, that might not work. The other methods work pretty well when you have a nem that’s attached to a rock, especially down in a crevice that you can’t reach into.
The only thing I think might not work about what you’re doing to get him to leave the cup is that they can stretch to amazing lengths without detaching their foot to get to light. I’d say to give it a couple days and then if it still hasn’t moved, try to gently scoop it out of the cup.
In terms of movement, they can move quite quickly. You’ll see them inflate their foot and then scoot over slowly. I’d say that if they’re motivated enough, they can easily walk a foot in an hour.
Good luck!!

I had the glass out of the water a tiny bit , gently, with him hanging. When he did not fall off I was very reluctant to touch him.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I am in no rush, I am nervous if he gets enough flow in the cup. He could live in it for ever as far as I am concerned, as long as it is safe for him. If the cup is safe, I would be happy to just let him have it as a home. In the cup it seems like the back tentacles do not get much flow if the cup is on it's side. Would it be wise to just set the cup straight up?

Or should I make efforts to getting him out of it so he has good flow around him? Should I try the black coffee cup? I could take a picture of what he would look like with his glass in the black coffee cup.

Interested to know, leave in cup with cup sideways spilling to rock, leave in cup with cup straight up, put cup in black coffee cup to hide light better.

I am not in any rush to try prying on him.

I would leave him in the cup, if that’s an option for you. A lot of people do this when they want to keep a nem but they don’t want to risk it walking around their tanks. I have tried to keep an anemone in a cup before but they always walked away and put themselves wherever they wanted to be. If your anemone is unhappy there, he’ll move. otherwise, it will definitely stretch it’s tentacles out of the cup to get to light and flow.

 

[Danroo]

Mine is also recently bought nem? My lfs just gave it to me in a bag I took it out wasn’t stuck on the back put it in a different bucket add the bad water to it and then accumulate it for an hour. After an hour I slowly grab the lower part and start peeling it like taking out a gum but NOT WITH NAILS, it eventually losen up and start reattach itself on my hand slowly placed it near the place I wanted it to be and it landed its leg on the rock. Hasn’t moved from there since.

 

[Kayanarka]

I would leave him in the cup, if that’s an option for you. A lot of people do this when they want to keep a nem but they don’t want to risk it walking around their tanks. I have tried to keep an anemone in a cup before but they always walked away and put themselves wherever they wanted to be. If your anemone is unhappy there, he’ll move. otherwise, it will definitely stretch it’s tentacles out of the cup to get to light and flow.

I'm debating leaving him in the cup, I made this solution, but the lack of flow concerns me. How long can they go with little to no flow? I have to head out in an hour and do not want to leave him in a dangerous situation.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I'm debating leaving him in the cup, I made this solution, but the lack of flow concerns me. How long can they go with little to no flow? I have to head out in an hour and do not want to leave him in a dangerous situation.

Trust us, if/when your anemone wants more/less flow, it will leave cup and either walk around or roll into a ball hoping current will push it to more favorable location. If you have guards on your pump intakes, you've no worries.

Some sort of aquarium anemone law that they mostly move when no one is home to stop them. I've only caught two or three in the act of actual moving/walking (which is pretty cool) - usually I just wake up and find them in some new random place.

If you have corals, in my experience when they move, then they land (or stretch over to) most expensive corals and take them out in order of which you love coral or money you spent on coral... I had 13 anemones but I've been selling off and down to two BTA and 3 rock anemones ...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lay anemone and glass cup on bottom. You can sprinkle a handful of sand into cup although not necessary. They are more interested in light ands water flow and will move accordingly if light low and flow too much

 

[MaxTremors]

I am in no rush, I am nervous if he gets enough flow in the cup. He could live in it for ever as far as I am concerned, as long as it is safe for him. If the cup is safe, I would be happy to just let him have it as a home. In the cup it seems like the back tentacles do not get much flow if the cup is on it's side. Would it be wise to just set the cup straight up?

Or should I make efforts to getting him out of it so he has good flow around him? Should I try the black coffee cup? I could take a picture of what he would look like with his glass in the black coffee cup.

Interested to know, leave in cup with cup sideways spilling to rock, leave in cup with cup straight up, put cup in black coffee cup to hide light better.

I am not in any rush to try prying on him.

It will move if it’s unhappy. And they can move surprisingly quickly. I’ve had nems move 3-4 feet over night, and it’s probably 6-8 feet because they always take a meandering path.

 

[Kayanarka]

Trust us, if/when your anemone wants more/less flow, it will leave cup and either walk around or roll into a ball hoping current will push it to more favorable location. If you have guards on your pump intakes, you've no worries.

Some sort of aquarium anemone law that they mostly move when no one is home to stop them. I've only caught two or three in the act of actual moving/walking (which is pretty cool) - usually I just wake up and find them in some new random place.

If you have corals, in my experience when they move, then they land (or stretch over to) most expensive corals and take them out in order of which you love coral or money you spent on coral... I had 13 anemones but I've been selling off and down to two BTA and 3 rock anemones ...

Ok, Thanks everyone in the thread for the help. I am his cup inside the dark cup. We are headed out for several hours, I will update when I return home.

 

[Danroo]

Lay anemone and glass cup on bottom. You can sprinkle a handful of sand into cup although not necessary. They are more interested in light ands water flow and will move accordingly if light low and flow too much

In my case I started to test this theory on my anemone. I moved some rocks lowered my lights and played with the water flow. It retracted in to the rock due to a shadow caused by the rock. With more flow it lost all of its bubbles and also retracted, same with less light. All of this and it didn’t move whatsoever.

 

[Kayanarka]

He has not budged an inch. I will leave him in the dark cup overnight. If he still has not tried to budge by tomorrow late morning I will give up and let him keep his cup. I hear if they like the cup it can be handy to be able to move them around so easily.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

If all else fails, this works. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/safe-and-easy-diy-way-to-remove-nems.861213/

 

[jt8791]

Not sure I would recommend putting any sort of paper cup or plate in your tank. Imagine that will break down before long, probably not something you want in your tank.

 

[Kayanarka]

If all else fails, this works. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/safe-and-easy-diy-way-to-remove-nems.861213/

That is essentially what I am doing right now with this setup.

My LTA was happy all day with the spot I had found him, then he pushed himself out of it when the light cycled down...

At least he was able to get all the gravel out of his feet. I am wondering, will I need to keep him higher in the tank or would he be happy with the light levels at the bottom? I could keep him in a cup of sand higher up in the light in a lower flow area, thoughts? Anyone had luck keeping an LTA in the bottom of a 20" tank in like a 100 to 150 par area?

 

[Kayanarka]

So just to give another update, I have given up trying to plant my LTA. I put him in a glass with sand in it. He attached himself to the side of the glass, then I tipped it 9ver and that covered him with sand. I figured this was the best way to get him high enough in the lights to keep him happy. So far so good. If anyone has an LTA and a 4k Kryocool gyro, I would love to hear what top speed you run on the gyro in various modes.

The BTA I decided to leave in the glass. He knows how to get out if he needs to, and he is super easy to move around in the glass. I will try to remember to update the thread in a week to see how they are doing.

 

[Kayanarka]

Tonight I was able to get the BTA out of the glass. It was very cool to watch him move around once he took hold of the rock. I hope he finds a spot where he will be able to be seen. I also hope he does not run into my LTA.

The LTA latched onto a glass filled with sand. I then set the glass down in the sand and so far so good. I am hoping he stays on the glass as he is super easy to move that way, especially if the bta approaches him.

If the LTA detaches from the glass tonight I may attach him again and then bury the glass so as he leaves it he ends up right next to the aquarium bottom.

These two have been an adventure so far and I can see how they could be easy to kill. I was very discouraged at several times in the past few days, but the more I learn the better I feel and my confidence increases.

I will try to get pictures tomorrow night, I don't want to mess with lighting while they are moving, but here are some with the room light on:

I am a bit worried about how bleached the LTA is. He had a stressful day yesterday and today. I am wondering if anyone has any advice on my lighting for these guys as they settle in. I am running one UV and one White Nico Bar 48". I may add a blue nico bar soon, but these guys can pit out some serious light. The UV bar has a few UV LED but mostly blue, and the white bar has a few blue LED but mostly white.

Anyone with these lights have suggestions what to run them at while the LTA settles in?