Ok so I'm sure that Im not the first with this issue but my anemone's are a giant pain in the butt!!!! They either stink other corals or they find a spot they like and block all of the light from anything under neither and slow or even kill some of my poly's. Their feet are logged deep into my rock work of the main structure so my question is, is there any way to entice them to move on their own?
Anemone removal
- Thread starter Reeftroubles
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Sure, make the position that they’ve claimed no longer desirable. Increase the flow to directly hit them. Point a type of light they don’t like directly at them. As you know they move to positions that meet their needs. Don’t meet their needs and they’ll move on. Just like a girlfriend that drives a Hyundai but demands a Porsche. No Porsche and no girlfriend. She moved on
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
I had a giant nem that decided to move all over my tank. Finally had enough when it was hitting my sps that were on the top of the tank and the nem was anchored to the bottom. Thing was massive. I tried everything possible to get it out. Took me 3 hours! I tried using ice next to the foot and that didn’t really work. I used a blow dryer to heat up the glass to get it to move. It worked a little bit was too slow. The thing that worked the best was blowing a power head directly at the foot and that’s what I did for hours making sure not to get the arms sucked into the power head. I’ve gently scraped other nems off items with a credit card. But you have to make sure not to tear the foot. If u can reach I would do this. Works the fastest but I wasn’t able to get under where my nem was.
If it’s unhappy it will move. So do the little things to make it move such as flow directly at it.
If it’s unhappy it will move. So do the little things to make it move such as flow directly at it.
Thanks I might try to annoy it with blasting it with the power head. I have used the power head on the foot trick before and it works great "if" you can get to it. Mine just has its entire foot lodged into a hole that is impossible to reach.
I have had regular success with a slight variation of the power head. Instead I use a spare mj1200 with a short length of hose on the output. If I can, I move the rock to a bucket of water, if I can't I do this in the tank.
I then manually hold the hose in place, directing the output from the hose at the edge of the foot and use the water flow/pressure to slowly peel the foot up. I recently used this method successfully to remove 3 BTAs from my tank (kept 3). It took about 20-40 minutes per anemone depending how into the rock the foot was. Patience is required and it's not easy on the back, but it worked without any injuries to the anemone. The anemones were all traded in to LFS and quickly found good homes.
I then manually hold the hose in place, directing the output from the hose at the edge of the foot and use the water flow/pressure to slowly peel the foot up. I recently used this method successfully to remove 3 BTAs from my tank (kept 3). It took about 20-40 minutes per anemone depending how into the rock the foot was. Patience is required and it's not easy on the back, but it worked without any injuries to the anemone. The anemones were all traded in to LFS and quickly found good homes.
jd371
Valuable Member
I've temporarily glued down some small tiles around where the foot is and blasted the nem to get it to move onto one of the tiles for removal. Slow going but it works. I've never done this but another way is if the nem is positioned so that's it's easy to cover it with a small length of PVC it has to move through it to get to the light.
I got 4 of them and they all stay on one side tank. But I got one that I have had for maybe 6months and I sware it moves ever other day. But just point a power head on it and it will start to puff it foot up and then u just scoop it up with ur hand.
I got 2 off this weekend by using a credit card. One was already on the move so it was easier to get off. The other one I used a hammer and broke the rock apart to get under the foot better. I have another that is surrounded by GSP and dug down into a rock. I'm about to break that rock apart too.
I like that pvc idea I bet I could make that work. Thanks
Jon Fishman
Cleveland Ohio, buy/sell local!
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Good luck. I wanted to give one of mine away to make room for a new one, and it is in a 20+ lb man-drilled rock, so way into a hole, and I blasted it for 2 days with a powerhead, shoved ice-cubes into the hole, and tried to pry away the foot.
After I killed a shrimp I gave up. If it weren’t in a smaller aquarium I would have dumped the rock upside down for a day or two
After I killed a shrimp I gave up. If it weren’t in a smaller aquarium I would have dumped the rock upside down for a day or two
I love it!!
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
I wish I had this problem!
Get them out of my tank and the problem is all yours.. I have some lovely coral in my Q tank that I refuse to move over until I get them managed. Maybe I can train them??????
Jvesche20
Valuable Member
How many do you have??? I had 5 anemones that I just got rid of. Sold them to my LFS and got $120
