Anyone got pest critters?? Discuss..
 

got pests? or maybe had and vanquished them? Let's discuss!

I've had pretty much all of the above!

Asterina Starfish - Still got them.
Vermetid snails - had them early on, died out or hunted down maybe?
Pyramidellid nails - died out or hunted down ?
Aiptasia - none that I can see in the tank (have pepperment shrimp) but have some in my overflow box.
Evil crabs - slowly hunted them down over the years. Still one left that I occasionally see at night.
Planaria flatworms - hitchhiked on some live rock once. My wrasses took car of them quick.
Red Bugs - got from a bad frag. Nuked with Interceptor.
Zoanthid eating spiders - Caught one out of a zoa colony once. Haven't seen any since.
Zoanthid eating nudibranches - had lots at one point but none seen since adding a leopard wrasse a couple of years ago.
Other hobbyists - Lastlight still parks in front of my house all the time :neutral:

:rofl:
Thankfully I haven't had that particular pest.
A large number of those pests wont make the drive to the north end, So I luck out that way.

My Tanks have had:
Flatworms
Bumble Bee Snails
Evil Hairy Crabs
Colonial Hydroids
and 2 Aptasia that I just cant get to.

oh and Blue clove polyps and Kenya tree's those should be on the list.

What are your plans about it? LOL make him bring :pizza: and :hungry:
Kidding aside i have a Bobbit worm in my tank, he moves rocks so big i am afraid to imaging how big the worm itself is.

Currently I'm dealing with pest anemones of the bubble tip variety. Seemed fine at first but now they seem to be popping up everywhere and causing serious damage to SPS corals. I remove them when I can but most are on rocks that aren't accessible without major rework. I'm considering lethal methods but reluctant as many other hobbyists seem to want them and occasionally find my clown fish housing them :cry:

Oo, I forgot about the hyroids!! ya, good call, I have those buggers.

I've become so frustrated with my aiptasia that I'm about to build a zapper for them. And I have asternia stars I don't know why people consider them pests tho, mine dont hurt anything

this ?

Crabs...back to the Dr.'s. I go

Blue cloves for sure!
I'm also fighting the odd zoa eating nudi. My wrasses are doing a great job in my display (haven't seen any zoas closing at all in months) but I found my new candy apple reds closed up in my frag section and after a quick dip I saw what seemed to be a nudi. I think I need to add a wrasse to my frag section.

I love blue cloves!! :-).

.. And yes I know I'm the only person on this planet who does.

I used too. I bought them multiple times but now that my tank is stable and growing they are showing up on every rock, pipe and snail in the tank.

That's what mine have done. I guess I still don't consider that a bad thing. I still prefer the fields of purple/blue cloves over brown rock. I prefer them over coraline even. They but up against all sorts of corals from chalices, zoas to SPS and have never killed, stung or over taken any of my corals.

Very true. The wife says it's her favorite thing in my tank so maybe I just need to enjoy it instead of wondering how to kill it.

I tried the diy aiptaisa zapper and found it to just cause more. Maybe i did something wrong ( followed directions to a t though) as it just seemed to cause them to shrivel up and then come back with about 20 buddies. I have now invested in some berghia nudibranchs and they are slowly killing them off.

I no longer have a bare bottom tank, it's a blue clove bottom tank.

That. Is. Awesome!!! Pics??

I second this. Pics!?!?!?

Attachment 10836
Away from home this week so I don't have any updated photos.
This is an older pic. cyphestria also covers the bottom of my tanks.
The cyphestria actually overtakes the cloves.
Sideway pic, can't correct that

Attachment 10838
Some reason can only add one photo at a time

Astneria Starfish- I have those as well but they appear to be harmless, makes me think that maybe there are two similar species....

Vermatid Snail- destroyed it with pliers quick and easy, not really harmful, just an irritant

Aptasia - had 3 of them on my corea clam --> just add peppermint shrimp all gone within 3 days

Planaria Flatworms - had a few on my black suncoral (even after I coral Rx'ed it!) just recently added a Flatwormicide...Lost my stomatella snails in the process even after a 30% water change ony 30min after adding the stuff :cry:

Zooanthid eating nudibranchs- I had many! it took me a while to figure out what they were but I set up a zoo hospital! basically did 5min freshwater dips in RO water and scrubbed with a toothbrush to remove eggs. Didn't lose a single polyp :mrgreen:

That looks sick! Looks like more of encrusting sps then Cloves tho.

pests
 

i have a 40 gal and a 30 gal for aptasia to feed my berghia

that is awesome! I bet that looks killer with the flow. I love how my cloves flow in the current like a meadow.

At one time or another: Aiptasia, majanos, hydroids, evil crabs, flat worms, kenya trees and mushrooms. Oh, and a breeding Mama Fireclown that insists on taking a piece of me everytime I put my hand in the tank. Bitsh!

Have you tried dipping to remove this one?:lol:

He is too big for my small frame.. besides, he prefers to lead.

LOL!! Dammit, this one just sent me into a coughing fit :razz:

I've got some digitate hydroids and some rusty colored flatworms that need to die.

I see others have used wrasse to kill flatworms, what types? I was thinking of adding a wrasse (130 gal with only two clowns and corals and occupants.. lol)

I don't want to flatworm exit them because the tank is not easily accessible due to its height. It's one thing to vaccuum the sandbed, but trying to fish in around a bunch of rocks 6 feet in the air does not sound fun.

even more pest
 

Hi,

I would like to add green star polyps and a strange kind of aptaisia that has green centers and lives mostly in the sand. It should be easy to scoop them out but not so. They are lightening fast and if you don't succeed the first couple of times removing them, they move somewhere else.

AquaAddict

I've had everyone's favorite nuisance coral aptasia but I now have two peppermint shrimp and all is gone or cowering in fear from the shrimp

Never had the displeasure yet of meeting the other critters listed yet but lots of algae issues

Potters angel(eats zoas) and matted filefish (eats any fleshy LPS)..... aiptasia, asternia and vermnetid snails all grace my tank

- red bugs and black bugs : interceptor...
- AEFW, still have them probably but acros don't care now and none seen for 2 months...
-vermetids snails : crushing them with cutters, wrasses love them...

some others not in the poll :

- zoas (eagle eyes are really a pest !)
- green ricordeas, rhodactis and discosomas... and they sting...
- montipora capricornis
- pumping xenia (tweezers)

for all of theses hammer and screwdriver does the trick if you can remove the rock

Virmitude? Snails are a huge pain cuz of the webbing they spread to catch food.

How about peanut worms?

Valonia. Ugly wretched stuff.