Disheartening Problems

[Bifferwine]

As most of you probably know, I've gotten down in the dumps about my tank lately, and I've been able to identify 2 key factors that have led to this.

1) Majano anemone infestation. Many people do not consider this anemone a pest, and claim that it doesn't have a harmful sting. They say this anemone can be enjoyed and considered part of the reef tank. This is not the case in my tank. I started off holding that point of view, when I found one majano on a piece of rock. I let it be, because so much of what I had read stated that this anemone was pretty much harmless. Well, not so much. A year later, and I probably have close to 50 of these guys now. They have effectively killed off 99% of my fox coral from growing on top of it. They have moved onto my frogspawn, and they have killed off several colonies of zoas from smothering and/or stinging.

Control methods I have used unsuccessfully: peppermint shrimp, kalkwasser paste smothering, salt smothering, Joe's Juice injections, Aiptasia Control injections.

I need to find something to kill these guys.

2) Kenya tree infestation. Probably the biggest mistake I have made as a reefer is introducing one tiny branch of kenya tree to my tank years ago. I have about six square feet of the stuff now. It covers every rock, and has killed pretty much every piece of my SPS (competing for the light, I suspect, as it quickly grows higher than the SPS it surrounds). A few months ago, NDB and I went through my tank by hand and removed approximately 4 lbs of the stuff. Within weeks, it had sprouted back. Manual removal doesn't work, as it just grows back from the stump.

Control methods I have used: manual removal.

My first priority is the majano, since it seems to be actively harming the corals it touches. Kenya tree is a second priority since manual removal, although time consuming, is easy to do and can give my tank a reprieve at least for a couple weeks. And I have no more SPS left for it to kill.

This thread will be for me to explore other options for getting rid of these two unconventional pests.

Oh how I long for the days when I had aiptasia!!!!!!!!!

[Bifferwine]

Two potential "natural" controls of majano have come up this morning.

1) You can supposedly "train" a raccoon butterfly in quarantine to eat majano. This would be so risky, as I do have quite a bit of other corals still living in my tank. This would also take several weeks to months to carry out, as the fish has to be quarantined and taught to feed on only majanos.

The nudibranch spurilla neapolitana supposedly eats majano. Let's see if I can even find one to buy.

[RyanG]

Biff, on my live rock i had some majano's hitchike their way in. I have had to kill close to a dozen of these guys. Ive been using about 1ml of lemon juice per nem, injected with a syringe into it and once its in I move it into several positions. I havent had one come back yet.

Onto the Kenya's, do you still have your 55? If so could you stuff it full of the good corals and put in a coral eating fish of some sort to clean them up? Just shooting from the hip here.

EDIT You need a crown of thorns

[Gooseman]

Lemon juice eh ... i never knew that worked ... does the same method work on these ... actually i dont even know what these are any ideas

[dustin_P74]

ill have to agree with ryan on the majano control, but if that doesnt work have you tried cutting them off as close to the rock as possible and then smothering whats left of the base with some super glue? and for the kenya weed problem, if you can get the butterfly to eat majanos then you could move the corals to your fuge as a safe haven

[dustin_P74]

goose your picture is gone

[Gooseman]

it shows up on my screen

[Gooseman]

Biff i am really sorry to hear about your tank ... i wish i had something i could say to help you since your always helping everyone else

[dustin_P74]

its showed up on my screen as being deleted from photobucket but it works now

[Melonbob]

I have no idea what to do about your majanos Biff, although Nudi's are common up here in Canada as control for aiptasia. As for the Kenya, I have a similar issue with Anthelia. If you remember, you all laughed at me when I got my first coral, a nice little patch of anthelia. And with good reason! I hate the shit now, it was all over my tank. I got this tip from a reefer, and I think it will work on your kenya too.

Go harvesting again, cut everything you see down to a stump, as close as you can. Then go to a Homesense, or Target etc, and pick up a sonic scrubber. It looks like a giant electric toothbrush. You can also buy a pack of assorted heads which is really handy. Every day or two, fire it up and go to town on those little stumps. I'm not sure about Kenya, but with the Anthelia, it doesn't allow it to rebound from the cutting, and after doing this for a couple times with the anthelia at least, it finally dies off. It sounds like a ton of work, but you can buzz along the stuff pretty quick, and distress it. I tried to do it in patches as I was scared of the tank getting contaminated from the anthelia juices, but nothing ever seemed to suffer except for the anthelia.

And the fish weren't bothered in the least from the sonic scrubber