Aptasia removal method? Works for me and it is free

[Mikenhecker1]

I'm not sure where I got my glass anemone, but every time I try to remove a piece it just gets worse. And I can't bring myself to use chemicals on them so I have just been living with them.

About two weeks ago I was contemplating their removal when I realized an easy way to get them out. Everyone knows if they are on a small rock, you just take the rock out and boil it or whatever. The problem I had was the aptasia were on a piece that has a whole bunch of little tube worms on it.

First I found a place on the sand where I could move my rock. Then I placed the rock with the anemone all the way at the top. Then I put a shell that was in my tank( empty oyster shell ) over the anemone. Three hours later, I picked up the shell and bingo, there it was stuck to the shell. After that you can dispose or treat the rock much easier than if other life were present. Therefore all it takes is a little time and patience to save a little money.

Hope this helps someone out there. Might take longer than three hours, that was just my experience. I will try to duplicate and document.

 

[saltcreep1025]

Great idea

 

[Mikenhecker1]

Thank you, I have a lot in my tank so it should be easy to duplicate. I'm going to try to get two or three this time lol wish me luck

 

[Mikenhecker1]

We shall see

 

[carey]

That is a perfectly awesome idea!!

 

[Marco V]

Definitely going go try this , thanks .

 

[woody390]

Very good idea

 

[Mikenhecker1]

Looks like the closer the shell is to the glass amemoe the more Likely it is to move. The first shell had too much room between it and the other rock. So I found a shell that was flatter on the bottom.








But y'all get the idea.

 

[Dav3]

Great idea. If I had any left I'd try this. Probably anything that blocks the light would work as they will move to get some light. My only concern is they may leave part of their foot behind to grow new.

 

[Mikenhecker1]

At one time, I only had one. I tried to remove it manually( exactly what I was advised not to do)and it retracted into the rock. One week later I had three. After there were more than one they started having babies, little ones started popin up everywhere. I'm always moving stuff around to keep the detritus down, and that's when I noticed that they move. I have kept track of where they were and haven't seen any new baby's pop up. So either they haven't left any behind or they swim or crawl somewhere else. And I'm not giving a guaranteed method, it's more like another good trick to save money.

I would like it if people tried the method and posted their results. That would be awesome.

 

[Tipton34]

That's a brilliant idea. I will be trying this tonight for sure!!

 

[katsam]

Have noticed my first aptasia and am trying your method but at the mo the pesky thing keeps moving to the side instead... Will persevere and let you know if I get the little blighter

 

[Tipton34]

I injected mine with lemon juice. The one I injected say fairly large. So far I haven't seen it in the past 5 days

 

[Sniperhank]

This might be a viable option, but I would ensure you pull that shell off outside of the tank. Remember glass anemones can reproduce themselves from just 1 shell, and pulling them will send shards of them everywhere, hence their name sake.

 

[Lea meakin]

Peppermint shrimp

 

[katsam]

Just achieved removal using your method, I eventually got it right and it moved on top of the shell and both are now in the bin

 

[Nick862]

I had a few on a large piece of rock and removing it from the tank would of caused a big problem, also it had 3 different corals attached so using chemicals just wasn't a good idea, I used a 2 part putty to plug the hole where the little critter was growing and if that didn't work I would inject boiling Water into crack,

 

[katsam]

That was my first one and hopefully the last!! I don't like using chemicals either, I like your boiling water idea tho and will try using that if any others appear