[jason@jasonsaquatics]

I remember when i started this hobby i had my fair share of coral deaths and with the help of my LFS always came to the conclusion that my water was the cause and by adding this bottle of liquid and this bottle all would be ok again .

Well years on i now ask myself what would kill one or 2 coral but leave most of the others alone .

Pests

In this post I'm going to add a few pests that cause problems for the corals we house in our systems .
I'm this topic I'm going to add some of these pests for us all to keep a close eye out for and the corals they pray upon


Zoanthus sp


Zoanthus sp is a coral that most of us like in out systems as they come in an array of colour and sizes and in the market place are one of the most sought after corals out there .
But guess what ,yep these corals are one of the most prayed upon .


Asterina Starfish:


To someone new to the hobby this may look like a good animal however it will eat zoanthus and other corals so if you see one on the coral or often on the glass of your aquarium you need to take the critter out .

eunice worm:


This worm is out of my own system and decimated my zoanthus garden and damaged other corals and unless your lucky this animal will require a strip down of your rock work

Nudibranch


This critter will again decimate zoanthus sp but can be sorted out with freshwater dips of the coral it is hosting on .One dip will not do the trick as the dip will not kill the eggs .You will find that a weekly dip for a month will help .I find the best way to deal with this critter is to find its predator and in this case try to find a wrasse to deal with them .

Sundial snails


In my experience these are an easy one to deal with as there easy to spot by taking the zoanthus rock from the water and carefully with a blunt instrument look between each polyp and there you will find them .

Zoanthus eating spiders


The zoanthus eating spider is a tricky one to deal with.
They usually eat a hole in the matting of the zoanthus and hide between the rock and foot of the zoanthus polyps.
The best way to find them is to shine a torch into the tank an hour or so after the lights have gone out .
Again a freshwater dip helps as is will make the spider let go of the zoanthus polyps and fall into the bucket of fresh R/O water,however this does not always kill them nore the eggs .
I have yet to see a fish eat these critters so manually removal is going to be the best option and keep up this treatment untill you see no more .


A very good idea when getting zoanthus is to quarantine them for a few weeks before adding to the main display tank but if this is not an option then do a 3 minute R/O freshwater dip on them before adding them to the tank

Also make sure you have some waterproof gloves on as a lot of the Zoanthus sp have nasty toxins that can cause you health problems

[coddy]

THANK YOU I HAVE ONE OF THESE STAR FISH AND THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD FREEBY I SHALL BE TAKING IT OUT AS SOON AS IT SHOWS ITS FACE AGAIN THANKS

jason@jasonsaquatics, on Feb 9 2008, 03:56 AM, said:

I remember when i started this hobby i had my fair share of coral deaths and with the help of my LFS always came to the conclusion that my water was the cause and by adding this bottle of liquid and this bottle all would be ok again .

Well years on i now ask myself what would kill one or 2 coral but leave most of the others alone .

Pests

In this post I'm going to add a few pests that cause problems for the corals we house in our systems .
I'm this topic I'm going to add some of these pests for us all to keep a close eye out for and the corals they pray upon
Zoanthus sp


Zoanthus sp is a coral that most of us like in out systems as they come in an array of colour and sizes and in the market place are one of the most sought after corals out there .
But guess what ,yep these corals are one of the most prayed upon .
Asterina Starfish:


To someone new to the hobby this may look like a good animal however it will eat zoanthus and other corals so if you see one on the coral or often on the glass of your aquarium you need to take the critter out .

eunice worm:


This worm is out of my own system and decimated my zoanthus garden and damaged other corals and unless your lucky this animal will require a strip down of your rock work

Nudibranch


This critter will again decimate zoanthus sp but can be sorted out with freshwater dips of the coral it is hosting on .One dip will not do the trick as the dip will not kill the eggs .You will find that a weekly dip for a month will help .I find the best way to deal with this critter is to find its predator and in this case try to find a wrasse to deal with them .

Sundial snails


In my experience these are an easy one to deal with as there easy to spot by taking the zoanthus rock from the water and carefully with a blunt instrument look between each polyp and there you will find them .

Zoanthus eating spiders


The zoanthus eating spider is a tricky one to deal with.
They usually eat a hole in the matting of the zoanthus and hide between the rock and foot of the zoanthus polyps.
The best way to find them is to shine a torch into the tank an hour or so after the lights have gone out .
Again a freshwater dip helps as is will make the spider let go of the zoanthus polyps and fall into the bucket of fresh R/O water,however this does not always kill them nore the eggs .
I have yet to see a fish eat these critters so manually removal is going to be the best option and keep up this treatment untill you see no more .
A very good idea when getting zoanthus is to quarantine them for a few weeks before adding to the main display tank but if this is not an option then do a 3 minute R/O freshwater dip on them before adding them to the tank

Also make sure you have some waterproof gloves on as a lot of the Zoanthus sp have nasty toxins that can cause you health problems

[gturnbull]

Hi Jason,

I was going to be talking to you soon anyway's, the Zoa eating spider you talked about, would it appear like a small bump at the base of the Zoa, as I have lost a few small frags, to something and I can't see anything, I do have alot of amphipods crawling all over my Zoa's but have been told many times they do not eat Zoa's.

I have seen web like strings coming from the Zoa's, very fine starnds of what you could say was silk??

Could this be a zoa spider?

[Dave.I]

Also chaps when looking for nudibranchs be aware that some of them will match the colour of the zoo perfectly.I have found yellow nudis on yellow zoos,orange on orange etc.They can be easy to miss but once you get youre eye in it's easy to remove them.

Dave

[Ben B]

Good guide there Jason.

Very helpful.

I have one colony of Zoas disappearing, so will keep an eye out for trouble.

Ben

[lindsay]

We know that some wrasse will eat nudis but i would love to know what eats the spiders as ime sure its out there somewhere .

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Problem is with all corals from the wild they often come with a friend (Pests) and 9 times out of 10 you don't know until its to late .
With all hobby's you guys are getting wise and its time us shop owners got off our thrones lol oops and listen to you as you as hobbyists are doing a lot of homework into certain areas .
Karpman is the guy i listen to regarding zoas as he knows his stuff when it comes to the health ,lighting and what to look for when it comes to pests on them .

We also had some great info from Si C ,Si g ,twistedpro and friend when they came down regarding (THE ALL KNOW DIRTY WORD THAT US IN THE TRADE NEVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT LOL ) red bug flatworm and nudis and now we are more aware of what to look for and how to deal with it .

All in all we can all learn from each other as not one person has all the answers to all the problems and to make this a more fun and successful hobby we need to share info.


jas

[Rockstar]

My Zoo Spiders as discovered tonight.



Good thing is they are slow movers. So ill get-em.

Rocky.

[Dave.I]

Its worth dipping that rock.I saw a couple on a zoa rock once and took it out for a proper look.I ended up removing 84 spiders! I lost alot of zoas but won in the end

Dave

[dave14]

I had spiders and dips wont kill the eggs, I found the best way was to remove the rock every two days at night and with a torch and magnifying glass check all over and flick the spiders off with a cocktail stick. took about 4 to 5 weeks before I finally got rid.

[sparticus]

hi guys iam a bit of a noob not totally but compared to you guys yes iam . on my glass tonight i have found what looks like a baby star fish, it has 5 legs clearly like the sand sifter i have, would it have a baby on its own or should i remove?

[Social D]

Hi mate sounds like a Asterina starfish , Try google and see if it brings up a picture.

If its white then these imo dont do any harm , However if its a mottled blue/grey colour i like to kill these as they munch on some acropora.

[Cranberry]

jason@jasonsaquatics, on Feb 8 2008, 07:56 PM, said:

Asterina Starfish:


To someone new to the hobby this may look like a good animal however it will eat zoanthus and other corals so if you see one on the coral or often on the glass of your aquarium you need to take the critter out .

That's my pic of my asterina. He was in a coral tank and never ate anything. Just FYI, as the statement is incorrect.

[rjay]

Thanks for the pest pictures found some nudies had a bad feeling about them! shame really as they are pretty or shall i say where pretty !
Picked off eleven little buggers with a chopstick.

[ben]

you will need to keep checking for them for a few weeks as there may be eggs that havnt hatched yet, plus there could be others you cant see.

[rjay]

Yes i,ll definately keep eye on them! Also have hundreds of what I thought may have been their eggs over the glass though not so sure now. They are couple mm wide, white flat like an over coiled c shape but they have little fan feelers coming out surely eggs dont need feelers? sorry not a very good description.

[ben]

thats not eggs its tiny fan worms. you may find snail eggs on the glass but they arnt anything to worry about. the eggs laid but the nudibrachs will be amongst the zoas, out of site

[rjay]

Thanks put my mind at rest!