Infestation Problem

cutlass5268 · 2026-09-11T19:09:39-0400

Hello, not sure where to post an issue like this. I have a couple of reef tanks. When my first tank was cycled and up for about a year, I bought a few anemones from a guy who was doing a shutdown in my city. Included was some RBTA and a couple of rock flower anemone's. One rock flower was small, and the other was extremely small. It took them quite a while to grow much, especially the extremely small one. Fast forward a year and I have another reef tank running. The rock flower in my original tank started having a baby here and there, so I move a couple of them into my newer tank (same with the RBTA). The problem I am now having is that the rock flowers are making babies like rabbits!! I gave away about a dozen a few months ago, which I also gave away live rock because those suckers weren't letting go for anything. Now a few months later, I have a couple of dozen RFA's in each tank again and they produce babies non stop. My 75 gallon tank has about 7 babies that have just started growing in the last week or so.
Any ideas on what I can do to reduce the population without destroying my tanks? The are of course all anchored deep in the live rock and they just keep coming and growing!!
If I had a way to safely remove them without tearing my tank apart or removing all my live rock, I could make millions selling these darn things at the rate they are reproducing.
They're encroaching on pretty much everything in my tanks and pushing my RBTA's out of their favorite spots. I have to rescue a couple of RBTA's because they had let go due to the RFA's popping up underneath and beside them like friggin weeds!! I'm at the point where I want to just get rid of all of them so that I don't have to disturb my whole tanks to farm them every couple of months...

Privateye · 2026-09-11T19:25:53-0400

Put a clam shell (or some rubble) over them and they'll likely move eventually to seek light. Hopefully onto the shell. Then you can make millions!

If you want them to stop, then you need to do something less-well lol. Perhaps there's a light or moonlight schedule you could change?

Also, congratulations!

kevgib67 · 2026-09-11T20:09:04-0400

I have had four rfas for a couple years and no babies but I have never put a BTA in my tank for that reason. I have read, I can’t verify, that if you place an ice cube on their foot they will let go. Again I have never did this but I hope it helps.