Mojanos Infestation - Smthg I learned

[skimjim]

I have a 6ft 180g tank infested with mojanos. like 200+

It got to that number bc I basically gave up after spending days using different Aiptasia paste remedies. Squirting a product like AiptasiaX on mojanos only hacks-them-off. They look sick and look like they are going to die but after about a week they just come back.

So I GAVE UP.

But last week I was doing some routine maintenance with some GHA and i use a very soft wornout old toothbrush to help clean the rocks.

TO MY SURPRISE these mojanos have small "feet" exactly like a bubbletip anemone BUT they dont achor into the rock as hard as most anemones.
TO MY SURPRISE these mojanos came loose with just a few gentle swipes of my very soft wornout toothbrush.

So.... I went to work swiping these mojanos wherever they attached themselve and once they were free-floating in the water detached I'd used a small fish net to gather them and remove them from the tank.
Now...with 200+ this was like 6-8hrs of work with my arm in the tank but this swiping them free and netting them was SURPRISING EASY. its just mundane work.

So... I was always told that once you have a mojano outbreak you're pretty much have no options. I've even been told by LFS staffers to remove the coral from the LR and just throw away the LR that has mojanos on it.
So I now feel like the Jet Fighter Pilots in the movie Independence Day that figured out how to take out the motherships. LOL

I'm positive that mojanos WILL RETURN but if I keep up on the swiping with a toothbrush and netting them when they're free-floating.... THERE IS HOPE!

 

[hkgar]

The purchase of a Matted Filefish took care of my problem.

 

[ca1ore]

Excellent observation - they don't appear to spread like aiptasia (spores) I agree, rather by fission. Just as effective LOL, but different; although majanos will not generally spread across different tanks in a single system like aiptasia. I have mechanically removed them simply by pulling the entire body off whatever substrate they were anchored to. I have also seen them release and settle on a different spot. It's probably true that in the absence of a continuous predator, they will return. I have them in all my tanks, but they only proliferate uncontrollably in those tanks that lack predation.

BTW, I would quibble with your definition of 'infestation' :lol: I just scrubbed the rock in my invert QT and must have removed close to a 1,000 of them - THAT's an infestation. Probably 50 survived the scrub, so hopeful that Apt-X will keep them down.

 

[skimjim]

So what is the natural predator to this majano?

One person suggested the Matted FileFish but my tank is 90% zoas and dont want the FileFish having a buffet on my zoas collection

 

[ca1ore]

Typically the same litany of choices as aiptasia, at least as fish are concerned. My Pyramid butterfly eats them, and in the past I have employed an Asfur Angel.

 

[HouseDJSTL]

I had 4 or 5 pop up on one rock I got from a local reefer. Took the rock out and burned them with a propane torch.

Very satisfying.

 

[mysticobra]

Joe's Juice.
Used it with no ill effects over the years many times. Kills em.
Apitasia killer does not work on them.