How to humanely end this tank?

[Tinnerito]

Hello everyone! Un-important question coming up. My very first saltwater aquarium, was an experimental aquarium set up, which just inhabited various hitchhiker invertebrates, algaes, sponges, and corals making for not a very pretty, but a very natural looking scape. My main focus on this tank however was to keep aiptasia anemones. I am aware that these are despised amongst the reefing community as they sting and kill corals, and livestock, but I found them to be cool so I decided I'd try keeping some. Now, I'd like to move on with my reefing journy, and I've begun setting up a few more tanks. Therefore I would like to finish this one. I plan to remove all rocks, and inhabitants and place them into a larger, higher quality tank. But what should I do with the aiptasia? I grew so empathetic for them, and I can't see myself injecting a chemical into the anemones that I've been raising and feeding for over a year. I may just have to man up and kill the things. But before resorting to that, any natural or humane ways to kill aiptasia without making me feel bad perhaps? Tank conditions are not suitable for berghia nudibranchs unfortunately

 

[Timfish]

Aiptasia can be a pest but they do promote beneficial autotrophic microbial processes the same as BTAs and soak up nutrients like other corals so not all that bad. How do you feel about raising Berghia nudibranchs for awhile?

 

[Tinnerito]

Aiptasia can be a pest but they do promote beneficial autotrophic microbial processes the same as BTAs and soak up nutrients like other corals so not all that bad. How do you feel about raising Berghia nudibranchs for awhile?

Like mentioned, the quality of this tank is quite poor, as it is an experimental tank. The water params are very unbalanced, and although it is very established, and various animals can survive, I simply feel that a nudibranch given their complex care requirements could not survive. The only thing that is really making me want to rid of the anemones is that they proliferate very quickily, and since I can't get myself to kill them, they'll only spread more.

 

[Spare time]

Don't worry about killing them. They don't have any knowledge of their existance, have no emotions, and are serving no beneficial role in their environment (your tank) that would significantly disrupt what you want to keep in the tank.

 

[Tinnerito]

Don't worry about killing them. They don't have any knowledge of their existance, have no emotions, and are serving no beneficial role in their environment (your tank) that would significantly disrupt what you want to keep in the tank.

Yeah you're absolutely right! But their bodies will still do whatever it can in its power to keep the body alive, and prohibiting that is just sad you know

Will probably have to just have to kill them and get it over with though...

 

[PharmrJohn]

Well, if you want to keep the rock alive, your options are severely limited. Look at ot this way.....Were it not for you, they would have had no life at all. So you gave them that. Also, have you ever been under conscious sedation? Any pain you may have felt never happened since you cannot remember it. I've been there. It's a trip just to think about. So without a complex nervous system and the wherewithal to remember  anything, they will not experience discomfort. Just a reaction to something bad.

 

[MissMolly]

I feel you. I was taking down a freshwater nano, a tiny vase, that I had. No "big" animals, only critters, a few plants, tiny worms and so. I kept it for a year because I couldn't "kill" the "inhabitants".

 

[IceNein]

I agree with the others. It's admirable that you have the empathy to not want to harm even the lowest of creatures, but ultimately they are no different than plants. You do not feel bad for the weed that you pull from the ground and discard onto the concrete to wither and die, because it doesn't have the capacity to understand or remember anything. Even small animals might be able to remember some threat, or something that caused them pain, but simple creatures like anemones or plants don't have the capacity for that.

 

[DaJMasta]

You could just do a water change and then add berghias, a filefish, a copperband, etc. for a short time. Could also see if someone locally is raising berghia and offer them as food (they go through it fast, so it will probably be welcome.)

You could use it as an experiment for removing aiptasia with various methods, or you could try to see if you could corral them by changing lighting/flow/etc.

...or you could just rinse it out with freshwater. Most of the more humane ways to euthanize things are hard to apply to an entire tank (unlikely you can put the whole thing to sleep and then into a freezer), and its not like the "better" alternatives of using them for food or experimentation are really more humane, even if they are more productive. While I'd agree our understanding of them suggests they are lower order organisms in terms of consciousness, I'm not about to make claims about their experience or understanding of the world or themselves.

The reality is that if they have become a problem, and you're the one caring for them, it falls to you to take responsibility for that and decide on a path forward. When working with organisms of nearly any type, you will often find yourself in a situation to decide whether something lives or dies, and by simply participating in that activity you must then be responsible for making that choice and the ramifications that may come of it. True for livestock, true for house pets, true for vegetable gardens, true for aquariums.

 

[Tinnerito]

You could just do a water change and then add berghias, a filefish, a copperband, etc. for a short time. Could also see if someone locally is raising berghia and offer them as food (they go through it fast, so it will probably be welcome.)

You could use it as an experiment for removing aiptasia with various methods, or you could try to see if you could corral them by changing lighting/flow/etc.

...or you could just rinse it out with freshwater. Most of the more humane ways to euthanize things are hard to apply to an entire tank (unlikely you can put the whole thing to sleep and then into a freezer), and its not like the "better" alternatives of using them for food or experimentation are really more humane, even if they are more productive. While I'd agree our understanding of them suggests they are lower order organisms in terms of consciousness, I'm not about to make claims about their experience or understanding of the world or themselves.

The reality is that if they have become a problem, and you're the one caring for them, it falls to you to take responsibility for that and decide on a path forward. When working with organisms of nearly any type, you will often find yourself in a situation to decide whether something lives or dies, and by simply participating in that activity you must then be responsible for making that choice and the ramifications that may come of it. True for livestock, true for house pets, true for vegetable gardens, true for aquariums.

You make great points. I may consider adding an aiptasia eating organism just to see what happens. I appreciate you taking the time to type all of this for me.

 

[Tinnerito]

Y

Well, if you want to keep the rock alive, your options are severely limited. Look at ot this way.....Were it not for you, they would have had no life at all. So you gave them that. Also, have you ever been under conscious sedation? Any pain you may have felt never happened since you cannot remember it. I've been there. It's a trip just to think about. So without a complex nervous system and the wherewithal to remember  anything, they will not experience discomfort. Just a reaction to something bad.

Yeah I agree. I will see what I can do and just bare it I suppose.

 

[SliceGolfer]

You could advertise in local FB groups, marketplace, or even your LFS. There may be people breeding Berghia or need food for natural predators.

 

[Tuan Black]

Just put your live in a large tote with a lid with no light and cure the rock for several months. Wash and cure some more. They won’t know anything.

 

[Mickle]

If your tank has sponges then why wouldn't a berghia nudibranch survive? Sponges usually equal healthy water quality

 

[PharmrJohn]

Just put your live in a large tote with a lid with no light and cure the rock for several months. Wash and cure some more. They won’t know anything.

Oh! That's a really good idea! Glad I thought of it!

 

[James M]

Yeah you're absolutely right! But their bodies will still do whatever it can in its power to keep the body alive, and prohibiting that is just sad you know

Will probably have to just have to kill them and get it over with though...

Genuine question, Do you feel bad for weeds when they are cut or pulled from the ground

 

[Timfish]

Like mentioned, the quality of this tank is quite poor, as it is an experimental tank. The water params are very unbalanced, and although it is very established, and various animals can survive, I simply feel that a nudibranch given their complex care requirements could not survive. The only thing that is really making me want to rid of the anemones is that they proliferate very quickily, and since I can't get myself to kill them, they'll only spread more.

Do you see the contradiction you're presenting? It's ok to have them live in a tank with poor water quality (torturing them?) but it's inhumane to let them be eaten?

Whether keeping animals in captivity or conserving animals in the wild there will always be sticky ethical questions. I would argue the top and most important priority is the ecosystem maintaining the animals. As far as killing invertabrates like anemones humanly, I would guess, and I want to emphasize it's just a guess, would be to freeze them. Since they are almost certainly ectotherms with out any body temperature regulatory systems that would cause them to go into shock like mammals thier body functions "likely" will just slow down and stop as their temperature ceases.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Yeah you're absolutely right! But their bodies will still do whatever it can in its power to keep the body alive, and prohibiting that is just sad you know

Will probably have to just have to kill them and get it over with though...

I absolutely understand your dilemma! I would be the same.

 

[Miami Reef]

I may consider adding an aiptasia eating organism just to see what happens.

They don’t feel pain though.

How is intentionally adding a predator to eat them alive going to be any less “painful?”

 

[Tinnerito]

Genuine question, Do you feel bad for weeds when they are cut or pulled from the ground

No. Because weeds do not have nervous systems, and sea anemones do, and although they cannot feel pain, they can feel discomfort, and I said this already, but honestly its just the thought that their bodies are doing what they can on all of their power to survive is what is doing it for me.