I bought a rock, infested with anemones,took it back, now I find tons of itty bitty anemones everywhere! How do I get rid of them?

I had this same problem with Rock Anemones, and Colin advised me to inject the anemone with boiling water. This works very well on small ones, and believe me, you don't want them to grow!

You can use the kind of syringes that are sold for injecting insulin - ask at your pharmacy, they are probably not out in view.

I've also been careful to use RO/DI water or distilled water for the injections.

Nancy

Thanks, I went to the LFS and asked Paul, he said that he had some calcium powder that I should mix with boiling water, would this work?

The boiling water by itself does work. Try it and see.

Nancy

Many people advise using calk or calcium based stuff for them but i found it less effective than water straight off the boil...... you need to be FAST!!! :D

Also, i once tried leaving a small rock with aiptasia on it in freshwater for about 3 hrs and they still came back the next day, tough little things!

This is a bit mad considering its now been decided that im gunna cycle my tank with a big anemone and its clowns plus a few crabs etc.

Dont suppose it will be a prob thou unless he leaves bits of his feet on the rocks that grow to be monsters do you?

Heres a pic of the fella, he's a mates who needs time to rebuild his tank and think what to do with him since he found out its a different species than first thought. It is already killing corals it touches and is likley to grow up to a metre long.

Its about 15inches at the mo, to give you some perspective.

Shouldnt pose a problem to me thou should it?

Dont worry about that species.. i think thats a purple foot malu?

The anemones we are talking about are the aiptasia genus that breed asexually and are worse than weeds...

The malu can divide but that is quite rare

C

Cheers Colin.

do you actually have to inject them with a needle? could i just use a flavor injector or a baster? i don't have my octo yet and i'm really not worried about hurting anything else in the tank (just hermit crabs and turbo snails) so could i just squrt the hot water directly at it?

No, you have to inject them. Get a needle used for injecting insulin or a glue syringe. I use distilled water - bring it to a boil in a 3 quart saucepan, rush it to the table by the aquarium, fill the syringes and stab and inject the rock anemones. This won't hurt the other inhabitants of your aquarium if you limit the water to four or five syringes full at a time.

There are some substances you buy, the latest being Joe's Juice I think, that you just squirt on them.

Nancy

What's joe's juice? I mean what's the active ingredient?

Its a secret that they wont tell us!

perhaps some sort of self heating water :razz:
would orange juice work in place of boiling water?

Well, chrono, you're closer than you think. I've read of people using lemon juice!

You have to be very careful about what you put into your tank. I'm going to try some of Joe's Juice for my rock anemone in the overflow. I don't think I'd use it if I had an octo in my tank.

Nancy

Joe's Juice is widely available in reefkeeping stores/circles. About 10 bucks USD for a small bottle. Used to use it all the time myself in my reeftank until we picked up a fish (copperbanded butterfly) that is an anemone/aiptasia predator. Although I've no experience with octopii--I'm just here researching and contemplating the possibility--I doubt you'd want a CBB fish in an octopus tank, though! Very expensive snack for the octy...

i Have heard of many people using calcium paste but most people who try plain boiling water agree that it is about the same - i personally went a bit over the top - took the rock out of water , got a lighter and burnt it - looking back it wasnt very humane and i feel kinda bad... the reason i did that was cos they kept retracting into their holes when i got close...hmmmm

but hey no anemones left (except my nice big rosebud!)

and some people will chew chewing gum until the flavour has gone, poke the aiptasia into its hole and then press in the chewing gum like a plug!

If its only one of two aips, you can place small stones on them, they will then climb onto the stone and when it does jut remove aip and stone to torture device of your choosing

sounds fun. :razz:

torture device - wow you really are making me feel worse and worse...lol

i spose it was a little fun though...hmmm