Removing an anemone

[mikelam]

Since no one had any suggestions about how to get my nem off the back glass of the tank, I did it on my own and would like to offer help to anyone else that is in the same situation.
My nem got huge and began stinging the mushrooms that were to close to it. I was unable to move them as they were already up against the front of the aquarium. My nem had attached itself to the back glass and fortunately it was on coraline algae too. I used as plastic grease remover from my kitchen supplies, it was similar to the blue plastic algae scraper I use on the coraline algae in the aquarium so I think you could use one of those too. I slowly scrapped the nem off the glass, putting all the pressure on the glass, not towards the nem's foot. It didn't take very long and the nem was off and into a bag and on the way to the LFS for a trade. The scraper worked really well and the nem's foot was not damaged at all. It took a while to figure out what to do but I'm glad it's gone.

 

[Frankie]

Thanks for sharing your idea!

 

[mikelam]

Thanks for noticing. I was desperate and I'm afraid my original post asking for help must have been a little too "cute", because no one responded.

 

[DBrinson]

Sorry, didn't see your post at the time

I actually use a hair dryer to remove anemones from glass, heats up the glass a little, they let go.

Works like a charm

 

[acroboom]

any suggestions for removing an anemone that i cant get to foot of. tried ice cubes.... blasting flow on it... need it get it out! help

 

[DBrinson]

any suggestions for removing an anemone that i cant get to foot of. tried ice cubes.... blasting flow on it... need it get it out! help

Can't get to the foot of it at all? I have no advice unless you just want to kill it. But I can't imagine a situation where you can't target the foot of an anemone at all.

Can you run a small airline tube into a hole in the rock it is attached to?

Blasting with flow not a good idea, most anemones are more likely to release if there is no current at all ... unless you manage to kill them, in which case, there are better ways. (Just ask Paul)

P.S. Welcome to RS acroboom!

 

[acroboom]

there really is no way to get to foot with any sort of equipment.... been in tank for 3 years... and it is encroaching on all my sps....i would rather not killl it... i tried poking a proding its foot with my tongs but it simply wont release.....

 

[DBrinson]

Don't touch the foot with tongs! Not what I meant by "targeting" the foot. h:

What kind of anemone? Can you move the rock on which the anemone is attached? Better yet, do you have a picture of the situation? This could be a great first challenge for this forum community to take on for you.

 

[acroboom]

its a condy anemone.... 10 bucks... thought it was a good idea when i first started tank as a filler however a few years later it is HUGE... no picture sorry DBRINSON. how should i go about this foot?

 

[DBrinson]

its a condy anemone.... 10 bucks... thought it was a good idea when i first started tank as a filler however a few years later it is HUGE... no picture sorry DBRINSON. how should i go about this foot?

Can you move the rock to which the anemone is attached?

 

[acroboom]

absolutely not... its the base of my main structure... i would have to rearange 200 lbs of rock... tough situation...

 

[DBrinson]

If you can touch the foot with tongs, you should be able to access the foot well enough to squirt a bit of hyposaline water behind it.

Another thing you could do:

Partially block your light source so the "shadow" of your obstruction falls over your anemone. It will eventually shift to move out of the "shade".

 

[acroboom]

excellent... thank you... we shall see what happens

 

[DBrinson]

Acroboom emailed me a pic, here it is:

Great pic by the way. Nice tank, plenty of red coralline algae to spare.

If you have any 1/4" OD tubing, you can run it into the holes on that rock and pump a bit of fresh water into that rock, the rock is very porous, it should "let go" pretty quickly.

(Turn the pumps/powerheads off first of course.)

Any other suggestions RSers?

 

[acroboom]

any advice anyone? this is starting to bother me enought to kill it

 

[DBrinson]

any advice anyone? this is starting to bother me enought to kill it

No luck with the light method yet?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

any advice anyone? this is starting to bother me enought to kill it

Quite irresponsible. All anemones wander until they find a spot they like and that spot might not be the one you want. This is something you should have factored in and been prepared for before purchase. The tank it's in is much different from the ocean it evolved to survive in.. if the spot it's in now is where it thinks it has the best shot at survival, how about cutting it some slack?

 

[Irrsinn]

Hi Guys,

I joined the forum just to say thank you for the ideas, I had the same problem and used warm RO water on the foot of my Anemone and he came right off. He is now located in a much more ideal location and my clowns are very happy.

Rob

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

 

[catran]

Welcome Trrsinn!

@acroboom- You've left it in your tank like that for 3 years and now you want to kill it? You allowed it to get that big without trying to get it off earlier. Please have patience, don't kill it. Like DBrinson said, if you can touch it with a utensil, you can stream water at it.. Make sure it is as dark as it can get where he is too.....