Need Help Identifying And Removing Anemone Infestation

[myrrhlin]

Please help!
I've been trying to get rid of these things for about 8 months now and they just keep coming back stronger and stronger. I've tried two different chemicals recommended that is supposed to be injected into the center of these little beasts, but as soon as I kill 10 then 30 more pop up with a week. Could someone please help me to identify these anemones that are spreading into the hundreds. I'm also looking for other ways to be rid of them since the syringe method is just not very effective.

Thanks!
~Greg

 

[gigmeyer]

Looks like Aiptasia to me. Peppermint shrimp work pretty well at taking care of the smaller ones. I added a shrimp when I saw my first aiptasia growing and never saw an anenome again. Other aquarists may have mixed results though. If you decide to try peppermint shrimp, be sure you don't have anything that will prey on it!

 

[BigC]

Good answer above for natural method
or try
"Joe's Juice"
http/www.joesjuice.com/
Regards
BigC

 

[littleme1969]

Hi.. someone is probably going to correct me here but here goes anyhow.
From what I know of these (kept them in an 8 gallon out of interest They only spore when they get to a certain size. Then there stems gets really big and burst out lots of little one. hence the large infestation. It may be that you have a large one of these somewhere that you cant see that is constantly infesting your tank. So see if you can get rid of the largest first them work your way down. This will stop any further nfestations while you remove the smaller ones.
The affore mentioned things should also help. Trick with these is to get them while they are still tiny so they never get a chance to grow into monsters that chuck out spores every other week

 

[shibby]

i had a fairly big one but vinegar did the trick before it could spread!

 

[SkiFletch]

Definitely Aiptasia. Peppermint shrimp work as a biologic deterrent probably 80-90% of the time. If peppermint shrimp don't work for you, you're in luck that you live in the US. Track down some Berghia Nudibranchs. They are obligate predators of aiptasia (meaning they ONLY eat aiptasia) and will wipe them out within days gauranteed.

 

[myrrhlin]

Thank you to everyone for your help with this. I've already tried Joe's Juice (among others) and while it seems to work temporarily, I can never "get them all' and they just keep spreading and growing. I like the peppermint shrimp idea, however I have one large coral banded shrimp in my tank and do not know how they would relate to one another. Does anyone know if they'll be okay together?

Thanks also for the helping to identify these little monsters.

~Greg

 

[SkiFletch]

if the coral banded (CBS) is of decent size or has been in the tank for a few weeks/month, he'll kill any newcoming shrimp

 

[Musho3210]

try kalk, dont kill them all at once with kalk, kill a few every hour or so, you dont want to introduce too much kalk at once to the tank.

 

[zeo]

I had the exact same problem. I sorted mine out with a couple of peppermint shrimps.

Althru it took almost a month for me to start seeing the apti disapearing. After 2 months, all gone.
Weird thing is whenever I looked into the tank, they always seemed to be hiding in rocks, night or day. But they did the job, no more left in my tank, big or small.

 

[AK77]

I seem to remember on garf.org that they keep a copperbanded butterfly fish in their tanks, soley to demolish aiptasia. Joe's juice and vinegar are probably the cheaper options though lol.

 

[L200]

Im currently trying jif lemon juice on the lil buggers....

 

[littleme1969]

Im currently trying jif lemon juice on the lil buggers....

Let me know how that goes..lol Ive just spotted a few after getting new rock ..gggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[L200]

Its ok,takes a few attepts tho,havent seen any mardy corals or dead fish so the acidic lemon juice cant be too bad!

 

[littleme1969]

I tried vinegar on mine and it worked a treat 2 down one to go