Just a quick update, we’ve finally started restocking the fish system after the new tanks were fitted last week. The feedback on the tanks has been positive with the new colour showing off the fish much better.
We have had a huge clean up crew delivery this week so we are stocked back up with snails, hermits and urchins with the usual great prices. We also have had a large shipment of cleaner shrimp and can offer a special price of £12 each or 2 for £20! This deal will last until the end of next Sunday.
We also took delivery of some more special paly’s and zoanthids including Blue steels, Darth mauls and several other sought after morphs. Don’t forget we still have the 10% offer on all Seabray custom built tanks, this has proven very popular with several of you ordering this week! We only require a 30% deposit in February to secure the 10% deal and current delivery times are 3-4 weeks.
Monthly Archives: February 2012
New Fish System Tanks In!
Our new tanks arrived today for our fish system! We’ve been hard at work painting and plumbing all day but they are nearly finished and look great
We’re looking forward to stocking them next week, all being well.
The new quarantine tanks also arrived today and will be set up soon. The next stage in our refurbishment plans will then be to fit tanks at the end of the shop where we currently have our small invertebrate tanks. This current set up will be replaced with a larger two-tier system to allow us to stock and display a wider range of clean up crew, nano fish and other invertebrates.
We picked up some more of the high colour, rare zoanthids today, including some more Darth Maul’s. We also restocked with cleaner shrimps.
I’ve been very busy fragging and our frag tank is absolutely rammed full at the moment. We still have some of the bright blastomussa wellsi as well as acropora, mushrooms, xenia, zoanthids, plating montipora, seriatapora, stylophora, trumpet corals /candy cane (Caulastrea), leather coral, African bush coral and more.
True Peppermint Shrimps Back In Stock
We have true peppermint shrimps (lysmata wurdemanni) back in stock for any of you with the pest anemone aiptasias.
New Corals and Tank Offer
We’ve got some stunning bright red and green blastomussa wellsi just in ranging from 1 head frags to 15 head colonies along with some striking Aussie prism favias. We’re also fully stocked on soft corals again after another crazy weekend.
The dry goods room has had a bit of an overhaul today, carrying on our shop improvements. Our new fish system tanks should be arriving mid-week and Matt has been busy designing our new quarantine system.
There’s been lots of interest in our promotion offering 10% off custom built tanks ordered in February. If you’re interested in a quote for a new tank, built entirely to your specification, fill out our Tank Quote Request Form on the website, email me at claire@southwestmarines.co.uk or call the shop on 01454 633633.
Majano Wand Review
Any of you who have battled against the dreaded pest anemones may be interested in the Majano Wands that we now stock.
We tried a unit out, lending it to a few customers with long-standing aiptasia issues to see how well it was received. Apart from having great fun zapping the troublesome anemones, the wand seemed to do a great job of helping to eliminate the unwanted hitchhikers so we added the Majano Wand to our stock list.
One of our customers who purchased a Majano Wand from us has written the following product review:
“My tank is a 400 litre mixed reef aquarium. Initially, I took little notice of what looked like harmless random coral polyps. It was only when a member of staff from South West Marines came to my house and made a positive identification that the penny dropped – they were the dreaded Majano Anomone. They reproduce at a prolific rate and colonize any available unused surface. This even includes the glass sides of a reef aquarium. The problem with Majano Anemones are: they take over and sting other desirable coral species. There are various strategies for dealing with Majano Anemones:
- Remove and “cook” the live rock – effectively starting again.
- Mechanical removal.
- Inject a non-proprietary substance such as lemon juice, vinegar or kalkwasser.
- Inject a proprietary substance such as Joe’s Juice or Aiptasia X.
- Try adding a fish such as a butterfly or filefish.
- Introduce Berghia Nudibranches to the tank.
- Try a Majano Wand.
As you can imagine, option 1 was the least appealing. I decided that a blend of all of the other options was required. I’ll confine this narrative to the use of the Majano Wand as it’s a product review after all.
What is a Majano Wand?
Looking at the picture, you see a black plastic rod 65 cm long including the metal tip, a mains power adapter, a US to UK power converter plug and a press switch to energize the metal tip. The rubber boot protects the metal tip when not in use. The three-page printed instructions that accompany the Majano Wand are very simple to understand.
Without breaching copyright and reproducing their instructions verbatim, here’s what you do:
- Remove the rubber boot over the needle tip.
- If you’re living in the UK, using the US to UK converter, plug the Majano Wand into the mains. I know how counter intuitive this sounds as you’re about to thrust a piece of mains energised, metal-tipped equipment into your reef tank.
- Identify a target Majano Anemone and insert the metal tip into the body. Of course, the Majano Anemone will retract in self-protecion.
- Presss the switch whilst the metal tip is embedded in the Majano Anemone. A fine stream of hydrogen bubbles will be emitted from the tip – most likely electrolysis.
- The Majano Anenome will start turning into a white paste the more you prod and poke the unfortunate organism.
- Depending on the size, this white paste is the disintegration of body tissue which will float to the surface where it should be removed. My demsels seemed to eat some of this paste with no ill effects – if only they could do that with a living Majano!
Just touching the Majano Wand metal tip against the body of the Majano Anemone will cause the desirable disintegration of tissue. Leaving Majano Anemono tissue intact is inviting regrowth so do thorough job.
Due to the production of hydrogen gas, the manufacturer’s instructions recommend that you observe a maximum session time based upon the volume of the tank. I think this is sound advice.
In summary, I found the Majano Wand a very useful tool in the battle against Majano Anemones.”
- Greg Scott
New Coral Shipments and Improvements
We’ve had some amazing high colour soft corals in this week. Lots of mixed zoanthid and mushroom rocks (including some purple people eater palys!). A few rocks have the beautiful and incredibly bright metallic red mushrooms in the mix, these are flying out at the bargain price of £45. We’ve also got a very densely populated large, round, red dragon eye zoa rock, about 7 inches diameter for £50.
Also in this week on the coral front are some stunning cultured acropora in various colours including yellows, purples, blues and greens starting at £35 each. For those looking for larger sps colonies, we have twenty plus large wild acropora including many table and rare deep water acros, with many of the same species as featured recently on Reef Builders http://reefbuilders.com/2012/01/13/bali-maricultured-acropora/. We’ve had some lovely gonioporas in purple and fluorescent green and some really unusual alveopora. On the euphyllia front we’ve had some nice branching hammers, torches and frogspawn.
We’ve made some improvements in the shop this week too, sprucing up our frag tank and ordering new tanks for our fish system to make the place look shiny and new again.

