# ne1 know what these are?



## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)




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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

At first I thought these were duncans, but no, it looks like a majano infested rock to me.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong though 
Just for reference, how big are each of those heads?


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## jkoot (Apr 17, 2012)

JamesHurst said:


> At first I thought these were duncans, but no, it looks like a majano infested rock to me.
> 
> Someone correct me if I'm wrong though
> Just for reference, how big are each of those heads?


I'm thinking the same

>jason


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

thanks for the ID guys but darn it ...


size wise they are about the size of your average zoa/paly. A first for me. They have infested a clients tank and I have to get rid of them without stripping the tank down.


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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

You'll need some anemone eating nudi's, or manual removal through injection, unless you can take the rock out.

They spread fast for sure. Good luck!


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

to flesh out he back story here is the message I just wrote to the boys and girls over at WetWebMedia. Just to clarify, this is the aquarium I wrote of early on gtaaquaria and mistakenly thought this was a colony of zoa's of a type I had not seen before. It was not until I cleaned the glass I realized they were not zoa's and then after plucking out a rock and having a better look I realized they appeared to be anemones of some type that I had never encountered before. 



> Hi,
> 
> First, thank you for your service to the aquarium community. The internet has evolved to become both the best and worst source of information for hobbyists (mostly the worst), but WetWebMedia is among a half dozen web sites I regularly refer people to.
> 
> ...


the following pic shows one end of the tank and everything that looks brown and soft is majano's. The rest of the tank is similar. 








Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Aquatic Kingdom has aiptasia eating nudi's right now


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

altcharacter said:


> Aquatic Kingdom has aiptasia eating nudi's right now


thanks, that is good to know, They do not eat majano's as far as I know but I may be interested in some for another project. Do you know the price of them?


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

I have never heard of berghia nudibranchs eating majanos.
I would take out all of the rock (ALL OF THE ROCK ) and cook it.
It's a shame because you'll lose a lot of good cuc, too.


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

teemee said:


> I have never heard of berghia nudibranchs eating majanos.
> I would take out all of the rock (ALL OF THE ROCK ) and cook it.
> It's a shame because you'll lose a lot of good cuc, too.


Yeah I agree. I think we will attempt to get it under control buy manually removing as much of them as possible and get the water under control and see what we have.

Bob Fenner of WetWebMedia got back to me and he doesn't believe they are Majano's, he thinks they are zoa's. I greatly respect Bob's opinion and even though I initially thought they were zoa's as well I do not believe they are. I'm not 100% sure they are Mojano's either as I have never seen a Majano like them but while I am certainly not an expert on Zoa's they appear to be a anemone of some sort.

For instance, I've noticed that if I turn the lights out on them for a day they loosen their grip on the rock and some of them float off. That pretty much defines them as a type of Anemone.

I was talking to one of the managers at the site today and he told me that they were intentionally introduced to the aquarium. Interesting.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

IMHO, they are Majanos. I don't know of any established zoa or paly that lets go from their substrate easily after a day or two of darkness as you have observed.

They are pretty but if you want to keep other corals, the Majanos have to go as they will overgrow the system like a weed or control their encroachment with regularity. I know someone that has two marine systems and contain the majanos colonies to the bottom strata of the aquascape. IIRC, they had at least 3 color morphs. All started from a single brown hitch-hiker. To each their own as they say .

In a DT that size, it's going to be a PITA keeping the majanos in a confined area unless you are there on at least a weekly basis


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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

wtac said:


> IMHO, they are Majanos. I don't know of any established zoa or paly that lets go from their substrate easily after a day or two of darkness as you have observed.
> 
> They are pretty but if you want to keep other corals, the Majanos have to go as they will overgrow the system like a weed or control their encroachment with regularity. I know someone that has two marine systems and contain the majanos colonies to the bottom strata of the aquascape. IIRC, they had at least 3 color morphs. All started from a single brown hitch-hiker. To each their own as they say .
> 
> In a DT that size, it's going to be a PITA keeping the majanos in a confined area unless you are there on at least a weekly basis


+1 - Zoa's don't 'let go' or wander/move, they just close and die or reach for light and spread. Majanos come in a huge variety of shapes and colours. They are a fast splitting anemone with no natural predators in our reef-safe tanks.

If they're brown, not purple, then they're ugly anyways - just trash em. Boil your rocks or soak'em. Yeah you will lose anything in the rocks like pods, but spreading majanos will take over the tank if you dont, though it sounds like they already have. They will keep spreading if you don't do something.

*If you do not want to physically remove them:*
*A Bicolor Angel or a Raccoon Butterfly will eat the Majanos, however they're not reef safe. They are the proven way to get rid of them in a FOWLR tank.
Similarly, chocolate chip starfish eat majanos like crazy, however again, not reef safe.*


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

wtac said:


> In a DT that size, it's going to be a PITA keeping the majanos in a confined area unless you are there on at least a weekly basis


agreed. Hopefully we can come up with a system that works based on visiting every two weeks as that is what I have agreed to.

Majano's, those that I am familiar with, do not grow or spread fast if the system is in good operating condition. I'm going to assume that this is the case with these as well and there is some evidence to back that.

While the tank is currently blanketed by 10's of 1000's of them it has not taken over the entire tank yet. When we factor in that they have been in there for at several years ( a colony was introduced intentionally), the tank has not been maintained for almost two years and poorly maintained prior to that and there is has been no functional filtration system on the system that entire time ... well the fact that they have not fully blanketed the tank suggests that are not that fast a grower. Common Aiptasia ( which I saw one of in there the other day) would have killed everything in the tank except the fish under those circumstances.

I guess we will find out. I'm told by staff that they will change color when I change the 18 month old MH bulbs.


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

JamesHurst said:


> /
> *If you do not want to physically remove them:*
> *A Bicolor Angel or a Raccoon Butterfly will eat the Majanos, however they're not reef safe. They are the proven way to get rid of them in a FOWLR tank.
> Similarly, chocolate chip starfish eat majanos like crazy, however again, not reef safe.*


you think a Bicolor angel will eat them? We are talking about the common yellow and blue dwarf? I've always loved dwarfs and use to always stock lots of them. I've kept pretty much all of them in mixed reef systems at one time or another.

I currently have 2 clients that have Bi-colors in mixed reef tanks. I sold them to them from my reef tanks. Like almost all of the Dwarfs, they nip at corals but I've never had one that I actually saw consume coral as long as they have plenty of space and are kept reasonably well fed. I have had a few that were smart enough to look right at me and nip a coral as a message that they were feeling a bit peckish and I might want to break out the kibbles and bits 

There is a clam in there but it is 25 lbs+ so it would have to make a real concerted effort to hurt it. They are pugnacious little shits though and awful hard to catch in a big tank. I'll have to read up on them in regards to Majono's.

We are going to try and control the population though other means but it would an interesting tidbit of knowledge and perhaps a last resort if the other methods fail.


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## acksonl (May 8, 2012)

SUM has matted filefish that will eat those.


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