I have been keeping a marine aquarium for 15 years now. Never had a problem till now. Over the last year I have lost all my hard corals that I had grown from frags, they had grown big and beautiful. And all my Lobophillias.There are no bugs, but there are hundreds of those damned little majano anemones, plague proportions. It has only occurred since I installed a calcium reactor. I have used Joes Juice, but i would need a gallon of that stuff.I have taken rocks out and used hot water to kill them all to no avail. I can see the only solution being to take all rocks out and throw out the ones with anemones on them and start again. That would cost too much money. Has any body else had this problem?
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Tank looking sad
- Thread starter starfish 1
- Start date
I have had the problem of plague of mojanos. Covering every rock in my tank, many rocks having 20 or more. This was in a 155, totally full of mojano anemones. I still find one here and there and kalk them when I see them, but I feel I have defeated the mojano scourge. When I look at old photos of my tank, you can see a background filled with mojanos, even though I always try and crop them out, they looked like carpet anemones in some places, wall to wall mojanos. They got that way because I didn't get a handle on them early, and during a period when I wasn't paying much attention to my tank, the population exploded.
What got rid of them was just to make a nightly ritual to cover *some* anemones with kalk paste. Joes Juice works as well as kalk paste but you will spend big bucks buying enough to kill them all. Instead mix up pickling lime or kalkwasser powder to a thick paste and use a small syringe without the needle (like the water measuring syringes that come with Salifert test kits) to put a thick glob on the anemome. Turn off some pumps for about 15 minutes while you do this so the blob can sit and not get blown away. This really, isn't much work once you make it a habit, like thawing food for the fish or something. Make killing a handfull of anemones a regular tank chore, and soon you will see you have made a dent in the population, and just keep going, you can get them all.
For some of the very bad rocks without any corals, I would take the rock out of the tank, kalk all the anemones, and then let it sit in the dark in my sump for a month or two, rotating it back in the tank when I needed to put more rocks in and have more room.
I know that this sounds like a huge task, and it is, but you have to start somewhere. Seeing a spot in the tank clean and free of mojanos will give you the motivation to keep going.
You can't go into it wondering "How I am going to kill thousands of mojanos," You have to just take it one day at a time, and do as many as you can, and just keep up with it.
So good luck! We very much contemplated just tossing the rock and getting new, but that is very expensive in a six foot long tank. So I know what you are going through.
What got rid of them was just to make a nightly ritual to cover *some* anemones with kalk paste. Joes Juice works as well as kalk paste but you will spend big bucks buying enough to kill them all. Instead mix up pickling lime or kalkwasser powder to a thick paste and use a small syringe without the needle (like the water measuring syringes that come with Salifert test kits) to put a thick glob on the anemome. Turn off some pumps for about 15 minutes while you do this so the blob can sit and not get blown away. This really, isn't much work once you make it a habit, like thawing food for the fish or something. Make killing a handfull of anemones a regular tank chore, and soon you will see you have made a dent in the population, and just keep going, you can get them all.
For some of the very bad rocks without any corals, I would take the rock out of the tank, kalk all the anemones, and then let it sit in the dark in my sump for a month or two, rotating it back in the tank when I needed to put more rocks in and have more room.
I know that this sounds like a huge task, and it is, but you have to start somewhere. Seeing a spot in the tank clean and free of mojanos will give you the motivation to keep going.
You can't go into it wondering "How I am going to kill thousands of mojanos," You have to just take it one day at a time, and do as many as you can, and just keep up with it.
So good luck! We very much contemplated just tossing the rock and getting new, but that is very expensive in a six foot long tank. So I know what you are going through.
Oh, I justed wanted to add, I know you probably want something to eat them.
I never found a fish or shrimp that would. Supposedly some raccoon butterflys will, but they were not appropriate for my tank. It took just diving in and becoming the predator myself to get rid of them.
I never found a fish or shrimp that would. Supposedly some raccoon butterflys will, but they were not appropriate for my tank. It took just diving in and becoming the predator myself to get rid of them.
The butterfly fish, Chaetodon ulietensis, reliably eats these anemones. Since you are at the point of considering taking the tank apart, I'd give this fish a try first. Take a look at this article by Terry Siegel for some pictures and a testimonial.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/8/aaeditorial
Greg
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/8/aaeditorial
Greg
Thank you Laura and Greg you have been very helpful. I will try both. If my aching bones let me go up and down the ladder, as my tank is seven foot long and 22 inches high it is getting harder and harder for me. But I would not consider giving up my tank at this stage.So the fish sounds good to me.
starfish 1":2yjbcof8 said:I just thought though, what if my copperband butterfly does not like him and they fight? My copperband has been with me for 10 years now i would hate some thing to happen to him. Does any one have both?
There might be an initial squabble, but I think they'll co-exist. The C. ulietensis is generally a tougher fish than the copperband.
Greg
starfish 1":3ducg2uc said:Thank you Greg, hope it will work out. Next on the Agenda is to get the fish.
Chaetodon ulietensis is a very common butterfly. I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding it. A more exotic alternative would be the closely related C. falcula, which hails from the Indian Ocean.
Greg
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
