How To Remove Sea Anemones

Sea anemones are my #1 saltwater tank invertebrate. I won't lie - I like them more than coral!

Being that anemones are delicate creatures, there are right ways and wrong ways to remove them both of which I outline in this episode of Mr. Saltwater Tank TV.

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Closed Caption:

i'm mark allen mr. salt water tank this
is mr. saltwater tank TV and enemies are
by far my favorite invert for saltwater
tank
I love their color I love their motion
and I love watching clown fish darting
in and out of them
I just love them all the way around now
and enemies are delicate creatures and a
lot of people ask me well if they're so
delicate how do I move them and get them
off a rock safely
well the answer is carefully and with a
couple other important steps that i'm
going to talk to you about today before
we start
always remember the golden rule about an
enemy's they have a mind of their own
therefore they move and park themselves
wherever they want
if you don't like where you're an enemy
is parked and you think moving it will
solve your problems
you're better off not even trying as in
any more likely move back to where it
was
bottom line the enemy will do what it
wants so deal with it
the most important thing to remember
about removing an enemy's is that you
don't want to be forceful and
potentially damage them if you tear the
enemy especially its foot
the animal will likely die so be firm
yet gentle and don't rush the process
for those of you who are impatient and
want instant results
let's have a look at the near best-case
scenario first
then I'll show you worst-case scenario
which is what happened to me
wait I said near best case scenario well
what is the best case scenario best-case
scenario is if the enemy is already in
motion like it's walking across your
tank
why is that the best case because if
they're already in motion
if the easiest time to get them off
because their foot isn't attached is
usually right there where you can go to
work on it and you can easily get an
enemy off
so let's look at the near best-case
scenario which is it the enemy is
attached to a flat surface like on this
tank here the enemy is attached to the
back of the tank so i can easily get to
its foot to remove it and it's up high
as well which makes it extra nice once
you can get to the foot of the enemy
you want to gently massage it with your
finger to encourage it to detach
you can also use a credit card or a
smooth object to get any of the foot and
whenever out you go
you're likely has a massage it for
several minutes before it starts to let
go
therefore be patient and stay after it
notice I'm gently massaging the foot not
digging at it or trying to pry it off
again we want to be gentle
once the enemy starts to let go
focus on the area where the foot is
attaching to encourage it to let go more
in a few minutes
the enemy will let go until it
eventually completely let's go
there's always more than one way to skin
a cat
so let's have a look at other ways to
remove enemies before i show you my
worst case scenario
now you could try dragging the enemy
which I strongly don't recommend some
people think it's a good idea but I
don't
and please don't try it you could try
taking the rock out of your tank and
hanging it upside down to the enemy
falls off
this is ok but if you can't get the rock
out of your tank or if the rock is a
piece of bass rock or a major structure
in your tank that option is out
therefore we have to look at some in
tank options you could get a bag of ice
and put it next to the enemy
if you go this route make sure you touch
the enemy and then take the bag off
don't leave the bag line on the enemy
also keep in mind that unless you can
get to the enemy's foot it will likely
shrink up to avoid the ice so ice is ok
but it's only useful if you can get to
the foot of the enemy
a lot of times an enemy like to bury
their foot way down a piece of rock like
my Rose mobile tonight it's got his foot
way back in here
there's no way i can get to it to get
that foot off to get the enemy off the
rock
so in that case what I have to do is
encourage that an enemy to move so I can
get to its foot to pop it off
now how am I going to encourage it to
move i'm going to put a powerhead
pointing directly at it and we don't
want to blast a thing the bits but
basically you're going to want to annoy
it so it says that i want to be here
anymore
I'm going to take up my foot and move my
house
I left this power head pointed at my
Rose bubble to the enemy for two days
and it didn't move an inch
highly annoying meanwhile i saw my tank
but not the enemy
so I had to resort to drastic measures
which included removing the rock and
placing ice next to his foot
I did that for 30 minutes and that
didn't work i hung my enemy upside down
over a bucket of tank water and I left
it there for another 30 minute
it still didn't let go and then tried
cutting around the piece of live rock in
hopes of preserving the big piece of
live rock as I love that piece of rock
the idea was to cut a smaller piece of
rock that saw the enemy attached on it
that way i can just move the rock around
and keep my nice big piece of live rock
however that didn't work either could I
have hit the rock with a chisel and
hammer
yes but the rock minor fraction of
crossing enemies foot and turn it
arming the animal so chisel and Hammer
was out
so what did i do in the end I gave up
and I just moved the whole rock into the
sexy tank now before you start thinking
about moving in an enemy is hard
it's really not my roses bubble tip is a
rare case because I moved 40-plus and
enemies in my lifetime and never had a
problem like this one
so I'm renaming it the redheaded
stepchild it's going to do what it wants
and I get to do with it
big thing to remember about removing
seen enemies is take your time in be
the patient and gentle you don't want to
hurt him you don't want to tear a foot
we don't want to farm animal they will
come off in time
and if not go get another tank and put
them in there
what the heck is excuse to have another
tank in your house which I know you're
not going to complain about
until next time I'm mark Alyn mr. salt
water tank this has been mr. saltwater
tank TV
have a good one enjoy your tanks and no
you think personality
yeah
ok
ok
yeah
yeah