Do Angel fish reliably eat majano anemones?

Patman · 10-14-2002, 07:40 PM

I have been researching my Majano anemone problem and cam across this reference:

A similar pest is the majano anemone. This little green anemone closely resembles a miniature bubble-tipped anemone, reproduces and burns in a fashion similar to Aiptasia. Angelfish of the genus Centropyge, Apolemichthys and Pomacanthus all consume these anemones. These fish are all somewhat fond of feeding on corals so care should be taken one for the purpose of consuming anemones.

Is this true? Anyone have personal experience? Any species preference? I hate to introduce a fish just for this purpose and then not have it help..

Pat

nickg · 10-14-2002, 07:56 PM

I have a majano problem myself. I have heard of nothing that will eat these little buggers. I talked to a guy at the lfs and he suggested using a hypo with a super buffer paste instead of kalk. Claims to have killed hundreds this way. My alk was a little low so I injected about 20 today. Let you know the results.

Patman · 10-14-2002, 08:08 PM

I have hundreds.....I tried injecting, but the remnants just grew into new pests...I'm afraid that if I can't control this problem biologically, I'm gonna have to tear down the tank..

Pat

Alice · 10-14-2002, 10:25 PM

Heh...we have a big Racoon Butterfly at the shop. When I find a rock with majano or aips on it, I hold it under the water in his tank and he comes over and munches them.

How big is your tank?

davesy · 10-14-2002, 11:40 PM

ive had the same problem weeks ago got hundreds of that thing some are as big as a 1 peso coin in diameter. ive tried picking it up with a longnose and i git rid of about half the population of the big ones. i do it everyday for 1 week and i see good results as for the small ones that is beneath the rocks( hard to reach area) my copperbanded now developed the taste for it and i usually see it picking on small ones. my french angel pick on this things too. the only problem for me are those aips and those anemonies that are on the viewing glass and on the sandbed hmmm.. any ideas my copperband and french angel dont wonder too far away from the rocks.... tsktsktsk
___________
dave

Junkzoo · 10-15-2002, 12:05 AM

hmmm, i've only used hot kalk inna syringe,,only keep's em at bay,,,curious on the angel/butterfly angle

Spanky · 10-15-2002, 06:30 AM

Hmmmm

You know I suppose it's entirely possible. We have two large angels in our tank, a queen and a french. While neither one of them do any real damage to the corals, the queen has definitely taken a liking to ricordea lately. So it wouldn't be a stretch for one of them to acquire a taste for majano or aips too.

Patman · 10-15-2002, 06:59 AM

I have a 75 g tank...

Pat

tdwyatt · 10-15-2002, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spanky
Hmmmm... ...You know I suppose it's entirely possible. We have two large angels in our tank, a queen and a french. While neither one of them do any real damage to the corals, the queen has definitely taken a liking to ricordea lately. So it wouldn't be a stretch for one of them to acquire a taste for majano or aips too.

Just make sure to prop the book up next to the aquarium that tells them its ok to eat them, as I have tried several fishes to consume them (and I do the kalk paste thing as well) to no avail. Y0U just have to be persistant, they do not disappear, and tearing down the rock is a total waste of time, as they WILL come back.

Almost as bad as Aiptasia but not as prolific.

grazhopr · 10-15-2002, 08:59 AM

does anyone have pictures of these anemones to post in this thread ?
tanks a lot!

Spanky · 10-15-2002, 09:30 AM

jzdziarski · 10-15-2002, 10:09 AM

It had never occured to me that the anemones that came on my rock may be harmful to the reef; I actually liked them because they didn't move around much. I've attached a picture if anyone can identify what exactly it is that I have. It's an old picture and hard to make out, but it has blue horizontal stripes across its tentacles.

fishinchick · 10-15-2002, 10:29 AM

We had someone place a large rock of majano in the fish system at the store I work for. We had majano everywhere!!! It was a plague of them. If you touched the rock that was placed in there you could clearly feel it was solid slick with the boogers. I dont know what they were thinking.

I stood and watched a raccoon butterfly, a midnight angel, and a queen angel eat ALL of the majano. And fat little fishies they were too!!! I think out of the three, the raccoon was the most efficient of the majano eaters.

On a side note... in that same shop...
I also watched 4 green chromis cleaning several tangs like they were cleaner wrasses. That was sorta odd.

tdwyatt · 10-18-2002, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fishinchick
...I stood and watched a raccoon butterfly, a midnight angel, and a queen angel eat ALL of the majano. And fat little fishies they were too!!! I think out of the three, the raccoon was the most efficient of the majano eaters...

Heh!!! I'll bet. Especially the Queen, biggest problem I see is that the angel never knows where to stop... LPS seem to be the next course for dinner...