Let's Talk About ~Pests~

[NaH2O]

and here is another: (photo from same site linked above)

 

[Elmo18]

I believe i have pyramidellids. I'm looking for ways to getting rid of them naturally. What methods work so far?

- Elmo

 

[CarlaW]

a six line wrasse should do the trick.

 

[NaH2O]

Elmo - what inhabitants are they bothering?

Here are some quotes from Barry @ Clams Direct (link provided by Maxx). If you decide to do the quarantine....be sure to remove your clean-up snails as well. The larger snails seem to be a target for these guys, too (Astrea, turbos, etc).

They will suck the blood from the clams. I would inspect all your clams very closely and continue to do this every week till you see none. Look for jelly like mucus as that will be the sack for laying more eggs. Take all empty hermit and snail shells out as they will also hide in there. They can lay eggs in the substrate as well. A six-line wrasse will help keep them under control but will not elimate them all.

Do you have a q-tank that you can place your clams in. Don't think they can live without a host.

What kind of lighting are you going to put over your q-tank? I would not use any substrate, place your calms on PVC rings.

Make sure your clams are well inspected before and also inspect after they have been in the q-tank for a while to assure they do not have any snails on them. Might even clean the shells with old tooth brush and check around the edge of mantles and the byssal.

I truly do not know how long it takes for the parasites to die without a host.

The way we did it with one of our holding tanks was to remove everything and take out all the substate and replace it with new. Now we use mostly baskets with #10 sand any every week we take the baskets out and clean them with fresh water and put in the sun for a few days then back in the tanks and restock clams. Seem to work as I haven't seen a snail in many months. We just take our time when acclimating new arrvials and check them closely before placing in our tanks. We have found some from time to time when bring in new clams from the wholesalers.

 

[Curtswearing]

With zoanthid eating nudibranchs or snails, you can sometimes find them when you see a couple of polyps that don't open like they typically do. This can be an indicator where the little buggers are hiding. The nudibranchs absorb toxins from the zoanthids. You should never remove them with your bare hand.

I have heard that Flatworm Exit also works on nudibranchs.

 

[NaH2O]

The next set of pests I'm going to mention is Stomatopods (mantis shrimp), crabs, and pistol shrimp.

Crabs, mantis, and pistol shrimp arrive in the live rock.....sometimes you won't know they are there until much later. Especially if you hear the infamous clicking sounds at night, while your janitorial crew dwindles in population. More than likely if it is a manits - it will be a small variety and may only knock off a few snails here and there....you may not even notice. With the crabs - they may start off innocent enough, and depending on the species may not cause trouble until after it grows.

Here is a link to The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods

What can you do? Well - sometimes easier said than done . If you know where the den is, and the rock can be removed, then remove the rock and pour either club soda over the den, pour boiling water into the den, or do a high salinity dip. An important note on mantis....sometimes hypersalinity dips don't always work. If the rock is from an intertidal area - when the tide goes out the water that is left behind can reach a pretty high salinity. The mantis that reside in these areas are not always effected by the hypersalinity, so it would make sense that sometimes the hypersalinity dip doesn't work.

Traps are also an option. When dealing with a mantis and a trap - you better catch it the first time with the trap, otherwise you may as well give up. They are intelligent enough to know what's happening the next go around. Crabs on the other hand....lol.

I've made a couple of different types of traps. The first one, I took a soda bottle, and cut off the top (where it begins to form the funnel shape). Place bait into the bottom half of the bottle (represented by the pink barrette ), then stick the spout into the bottom half. Secure with rubber bands.....and you're set! Place near the crab's den and they can crawl in, but can't get out. When trying to catch mantis utilizing this trap, there are several options to try. First you can try with the bottle on its side.....you can also superglue pantyhose to the inside bottom of the bottle (this sometimes works because the mantis may swim-walk out of the trap and get hung up on the hosiery). Another way to utilize this trap is upright, or tie a string to it to stand it up after the hitchhiker enters.

Here is the bottle trap:

 

[NaH2O]

A shot from the top:

 

[NaH2O]

Another type of trap is using stockings (I used my toddler's stockings in this picture because you can see the toothpicks). Take the stocking, place the bait in the toe part, and prop open with toothpicks. The crab will get stuck in the nylon and can't get out.

 

[Maxx]

Who knew panty hose were so versatile????
Honey, they're for the tank, I swear!!!
Nick

 

[Witfull]

Who knew panty hose were so versatile????
Honey, they're for the tank, I swear!!!
Nick

thats my story and im sticking to it!!!!

 

[NaH2O]

Pods in the aquarium are for the most part scavengers. They are a good thing to have, especially when keeping a fish that feasts on them. There are a couple of isopods, however, that are parasitic.

Here is a good article about Pills, Parasites, and Predators; Isopods in the Reef Aquarium

from the above referenced article

The rather odd epicaridean isopods are rarely, but regularly, reported from aquaria. "Epi" means "on" and "carid" means shrimp, so these animals are aptly named, as they are isopods most frequently seen as parasites on shrimp. The males are very small, look like normal isopods, and are almost never seen. The parasitic females may be quite large, and look like large lumps or tumors found on the side of a shrimp. The female lives fastened onto her host's gills or upper leg segments and sucks the host's blood. It lives under the carapace, which becomes deformed over the parasite. The parasite is generally not recognizable as an isopod, but rather looks like a large white lump on the side of a shrimp.

Epicarids appear to be rather well-adapted parasites, and do not seem to harm their host much, in spite of their rather ghastly appearance. They may be found occasionally on the sides of all of the various shrimp imported for the hobby. They appear to be most frequently seen in peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni.

from the above referenced article

The taxonomic Family Cirolanidae is huge, consisting of several dozen genera, and probably many hundreds of species. Many of them are generally benign animals that are obligatory carrion-feeding scavengers. Some of these scavengers have been found in aquaria, and appear to be very well adapted to being part of "the clean-up crew." Many of the rest appear to be capable of scavenging when such food is available, but they will occasionally swim up into the water and attack fish, fastening on and sucking their blood. Finally, several species appear to be more-or-less obligate blood-sucking parasites of fishes, although some may be able to live for extended periods by scavenging some dead food. Within the last couple of years, some of these latter species have been seen in aquaria with alarming frequency. In many cases, these infestations appear to be the result of a pregnant female that enters the aquarium and then drops her brood of 10 to 30 young, all of which are immediately hungry for a nice meal of fish blood. A hobbyist will see the alarming sight of one or more fish with from one to twenty blood-sucking parasites on it. Often the isopods are nocturnal, and unless the aquarist is alert, they may not notice the parasites, as the bugs drop off the fish shortly after the lights go on and find shelter in the rocks. Prolonged exposure to such densities of blood suckers WILL kill fish.

 

[Curtswearing]

Mantis are very fascinating when they are in their own species-only tank. Don't be in a hurry to kill them after you trap them. It is very likely that someone wants it.

 

[Angelscrx]

I have read about the red BUGS on acros but what about little white bugs? I have seen them crawling around on one of my stony corals (don't ask me what the coral is I got it as a surprise frag. The frag has some missing flesh on it but it looks as if it is growing back because there is less exposed skeleton. Any ideas?

 

[Oscapus]

Can I go back to flatworms? I have lots of them in my seahorse tank. Seahorses are such sloppy eaters that I am sure I have lots of organics that fuel the flatworms. My seahorses love to wiggle into the Gracilaria weedbeds and other tight spots, and so frequently get flatworms all over their bodies, but don't seem bothered by them at all. No attempt to scratch etc....I want to get rid of the worms, but it is purely asthetics so I haven't done anything yet. I am not going to use chemicals.

 

[Electrokate]

There is an LFS in Portland that tested Flatworm exit and it killed some SPS, maybe was result of the worms releasing toxin when they died. If it was me I would have a dip ready and move the coral to a quarantine tank and possibly the fish too, dipping the coral before they go to the QT and then treating the main tank, then before returning the coral to the main tank do a water change with carbon addition to remove the med and any toxin from the dead worms, then dip the coral again before returning them to the main tank in case any worms survived. Don't know if the chemical kills beneficial worms too, that is a concern.
Feeding less may help, but if you have a fish that just has to eat several times a day (anthias?) this maybe isn't an option.
We tried the velvet nudibranch at the store and it worked well, was joking about "renting" it but that is not a bad idea. Only problem is it could die of shock if not acclimated properly or get sucked into a powerhead if it doesn't have a sponge prefilter. That sucker eats flatworms so fast it's like watching someone play Pac-Man. Looks cool too! Getting one for a club to share sounds like a good idea to me, you just have to figure out how to split the cost so that if one person kills it they are responsible for the cost of replacing it. It has been in the 72 for a week and still hasn't eaten all the worms but they are greatly reduced. One problem is that you may find you order the velvet nudibranch and since it is a common name might get the wrong nudi... that happened the first time we ordered them.
Kate

 

[Maxx]

Kate,
the sps dying at the LFS near you was most likely caused by the toxin released by the flatworms. I have used FE before in the past when I was dealing with an infestation and no ill effects towards corals, clams, shrimp, anemones, or feather dusters, and I tripled the reccommended dosage after reading about other people's experiances. I did notice thay my snails had some issues and so did my tanks population of bristleworms...they were all grokked out and acting as if they were intoxicated. Both snails and bristleworms recovered after carbon was used to remove the FE from the system.

Neat thoughts on the velvet nudi though.

Since getting rid of flatworms, I have, (and will continue to) always acclimated new tank aquisitions (except fish) in water treated with FE to kill off any hitch hikers. Seriously contemplating doing the same with interceptor for red bugs.

Nick

 

[spongebob lover]

hello everyone
Months ago i used to have these red flatworms all over the place, no joke it was so horrible.
I bought a mandarine dragonette first, to see if it would eat these horrible things and it didn't he died after 4 days.
I read about these worms everywhere and i found something which it kind of work for me :
1) lower the water temperature to about 76 degrees( the flatworm multiply very very fast at high temperatures)
2) raise ph to 8.3 and do your best to keep it there.
3) maintain alk at high levels.
i also sucked the flatworms with a turkey paster everytime i chage the water and bought a six line wrass.
I don't know if the wrass ate the worms but he used to pick on the rocks (now he's in some mantis shrimp belly ) , so far i have way way less flatworms than before, so hopefully they will disapear pretty soon.
I have also been reading about the CHELIDONURA VARIANS (blue velvet sea slug), and i heard that they work pretty good but there's a problem with them.
They are wild animals that are very sensitive to change in water chemistry, and to heat and cold.
i red that because of the stress they have to go through shipping, they pretty much die sometimes and you could notice it because of the tinted black in their bags (just in case someone decide to get one ) or like Curtswearing said you can just keep passing the slug to someone else who has the same problem.
Anyways, i've read that the scooter blenny works like a charm, so i guess i'm gonna have to buy one since my wrass is gone and i'll let you know if is it another hit or miss
Well i hope this helped

 

[spongebob lover]

Nah2o i forgot to say that those are great traps for the mantis shrimp and I will try both if i have to.
Ohh ya baby, that shrimp is going down !!lol and well if i catch him i'll see if someone wants him

 

[Oscapus]

If you catch your mantis, I would love to have him. I would put him in with mine. It would either end up as an aquatic cock fight, or (hopefully) love at first snap!

 

[spongebob lover]

lol sure i'd be more than glad to give it to you