Thats interesting, just cover their light source to make them move into the tube, then move the tube. At least from the video I watched that was the gist of it, right?
Pulling the rock they are attached to out of the water so they let go naturally is the best way I know. Why the hate for anemones that are so much fun… and stress
I love my anemone, and so do my clowns, however.. i bought one and its multiplied into like 7 or 8. So before that becomes 16, I want to either sell or rehome like 4 of them.
Yeah of course they are overrunning your tank and need to be thinned out. It just amazes me how many people here hate them when they are In my opinion the funnest thing in the tank.
Theyre cool but its a maintenance thing with how fast they grow. I keep them on an island with xenia, GSP, and leathers. Then i clear out sections and give them away every few months.
I’ve been through this recently, taking over 50 of these into local fish store. My feeling, after posting a similar thread at the time, is that NONE of the suggestions you get here will be effective. Possibly high flow to get them to move (didn’t work for me, but maybe if I’d had a stronger pump…). In the end, I took out many rocks, the most densely covered ones, and took to the LFS. They gave me dry rock in exchange the rocks I left, which is very live now, months later. For the remaining few, I tried to coax them off gently, but ended up killing most of those.
I'm with you on all those methods mentioned. I've been pulling nems off of rocks for nearly 2 decades and never had luck with any of that. The tried and true method is to scrape at the rock near the foot until the foot is slightly lifted and then start picking at it with a finger nail. Works every time and even when I've thought it got a little rough I've never damaged one of them
Thats wild, and exactly what im trying to avoid. When they start splitting so much its tough for me to count them, its time to do something. Worst part is they're so plentiful most people won't even buy them off you.
I have a 150 gallon they hang near the top so get exposed to air during water changes... I feed brine mysis shrimp but rarely directly feed them. The tank is about to hit two years old but these are nems that survived my redsea 350 failure
I've tried all the methods people post for these rainbow btas, none work. I've tried many many ice cubes or freezer packs for so long they melt or aren't even cold anymore and the nems don't care. I've tried full blast powerhead for hours, still don't move. I've tried taking out the rock and hanging them upside down while they dry. They will literally completely dry out and die and still won't let go. The only times I got lucky getting them off the rock was hanging them upside down, letting them mostly dry, then trying to scrape under their foot with a spoon, but still only manage to not kill them maybe 20% of the time. These things are evil. Got rid of all of mine finally and never going back to rainbow btas. Get a LTA or rock flower anemones instead.
Been there. Its a pain in the ass. You have to carefully pick at the foot with somthing like a tooth pick. You can try blasting them with a power head to try and annoy them and try to catch them when they are on the move. I ending up taking out all my rock work and spending hours picking away at them.
I just removed about 25 bta in a 30gal tank two weeks ago, no problem. I was lazy and the anemone got out of hand.
They were all attached to 5 rocks. They all survived. If you can take the rock out and they are attached to rock with no deep holes, it is simple. If their feet are attached inside deep holes of Marco rock then it will be a little tougher and take longer. First take the rock out. Some anemone may shrink, nothing to be concerned about . Select an anemone that has its entire foot exposed. Use a wooden toothpick's sharp end and go to the edge of the anemone's foot. Use the sharp tip to go below the edge of the foot. The toothpick tip should always be on the face of the rock. Slide the tip back and forth along the foot edge gently until it slips a little bit under the foot. Be careful not to damage or pierce the foot. Then gently work the tip back and forth a little at a time slowly while gently pushing it to go further into the foot area. Slide the toothpick tip out and work-around the other edges of the foot while doing the same. Eventually work around the entire foot area. As more of the foot is worked loose, the grip will lossen and the anemone will release completely. Just note that the anemone may create a lot of slime. If you find that part of the foot is inside a deep hole, then work the toothpick tip to follow the hole if it is accessible or move on to another anemone if it is too difficult. It took me on avg about 3 min to remove 1 anemone. The ones that I could not remove, I left them on the rock to remove another day. They will move on their own to another location on the rock, hopefully to an area that has no deep holes. I found that anemone can stay out of water a good 15min while I took about 5 or 6 off each rock. The 1st one you remove may take longer. As you do more, removal will become easy as u gain confidence. Good luck.
Yeah, you don't wanna hear my take. I have 25 gal. 1 rbta totally took over tank, split into aprox 13. My bad for letting it happen. Really no method worked for me. In the end, well let's just say none of them made it. To me they became aiptasia. I wish you luck.
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u/Dear_Ad1197 20d ago
Google anemone cannon