2 Hitchhiker Anemone Id's Needed If Anyone Can?

[craigybaby37]

My new tanks been set up for just over 2 weeks now. I transfered my stock from my old 20g into this new tank and along with it i added another 10kg of liverock which i have found there is 2 hitchhiker anemones and would like to know if anyone can ID either of them and possibly tell me anything about them??

 

[SkiFletch]

Can't put a specific ID on them, but they sure do look like pest anemones. I'd kill them now if it were my tank. The last thing you want to deal with is a pest anemone problem with little biological control

 

[craigybaby37]

Whats the best way to kill them then?? can i just tank them off the rock an bin them??

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends... If the anemone is wedged deep in a hole on the rock, you'd have to either chisel out the entire hole, or burn them out with a blowtorch or lighter. since they don't look like aiptasia, obligate predators like berghia nudibranchs or peppermint shrimp probably wouldnt work. Might have some luck with butterflyfish but of coruse those are extremely difficult fish to keep.

 

[craigybaby37]

well they are both on the outside of the rock and not in any holes so will try put pulling them off and if not i guess ime removing a few rocks.

 

[@ombomb]

personally I would try and remove them from the rock outside the tank, then you can either blow torch them off or pour boiling water on the rock, trying to pull them off in tank could cause more harm than good.

 

[littleme1969]

I have one 2 just come in on my new rock.. its about 1.5" across.

So is it curtains for this guy too?

 

[Colin_T]

leave them be, they are pretty harmless. The top one is a coral and the bottom one looks like a local anemone but it is not an Aiptasia so is unlikely to cause problems.

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks..
The rock is indonesian. Hes growing quite well and I'm suprised he survived the 2 week cycle as the ammonia was about 2.5 and now I'm battling try to get the nitrate levels down. I'll leave him alone as hes on a smalish bit of rock that can be easily removed if need be. will be interesting to see what he turns into, and I can always stick him in the quarantine tank.

 

[Colin_T]

The easiest way to drop the nitrates is to do a big water change. Big equals 75-90%.
Small water changes don't do much to lower the nitrate levels.

You can also get denitrating filters that will help keep the nitrates low.

 

[Lynden]

I agree with Colin; leave them. I got a whole bunch of little orange ones a while ago, and most were in fact outcompeted by my other livestock, contrary to what one usually "hears"

 

[littleme1969]

The easiest way to drop the nitrates is to do a big water change. Big equals 75-90%.
Small water changes don't do much to lower the nitrate levels.

You can also get denitrating filters that will help keep the nitrates low.

Thanks for that. I wish I could do a large water change, but at 100g it took me 3 days constant mixing to fill the tank in the first place So I'll have to go with water changes and some type of nitrate remover for my filter.

I agree with Colin; leave them. I got a whole bunch of little orange ones a while ago, and most were in fact outcompeted by my other livestock, contrary to what one usually "hears"

Thanks for the coments, I'm pleased as I hate killing anything especially when it looks like something out of startrek!

 

[fishstick]

Thats the whole thing about looking at what appears on new live rock - its a sort of horrified fascination every morning - your aiptasia-type anemone certainly looks quite scary esp. when enlarged, good luck with it!
If I have to get rid of a bad hitchhiker, I get the rock out of the tank and have a good poke about with an electric soldering iron, however peppermint shrimps control aiptasia v. well.

 

[eschaton]

This thread's kinda old now, but the top one looks like a white ball anemone to me (though it's hard to tell because I don't know the size). Actually a type of mushroom, non-photosynthetic but harmless.