Id My Crabby Hitchiker Please

[littleme1969]

OK I was checking over my frags before I added them to the tank and found theses..

There are 2 of them... look like some type of crab at around 5mm they are tiny. They started beating the poo out of each other when I put them together ina container. Calmed down when I put a bit of rock in with them.
Reef safe or should I just throw them out? They almost look like spiders rather than crabs

 

[Danno]

Eeee! Don't add that frag to your tank! Those look to me like zoanthid eating spiders! You may want to look into a coral dip if you really want to frag....

 

[littleme1969]

The corals are already in the tank, they where only small and I checked them over carefully before adding them.
Thats interesting as they came from a guy who sells nothing but Zoos so its deffo in the bin for these 2... lol
I think I will e.mail him with the pics and see what he has to say...

Just did a quick google check and you are spot on!!!
Check this out...Nasty little critters
Turns out they dont eat them, just live on them and irritate the hell out of the coral until it dies... My god I really do get some scary critters

 

[Danno]

Do you have a lot of zoos in your tank? You kept the spiders out of the tank right?

Keep a look out. I hope none other then those two got in your tank

 

[littleme1969]

Yup I have a few but they came from a different supplier and when checked had nothing on them,
The spiders where removed before the frags went anywhere near the tank so they should be OK, but i'll keep a close watch out . Its a shame as they where really nice heallthy frags too
But i gues these things happen.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, zoo eating spiders... This is why people really should treat frags that come in. A magnesium dip with interceptor works great on crabs and the even more nefarious acropora eating "redbugs". And flatworm exit works great on nudbranchs, sundial snails, flatworms, and other soft-bodied invert pests.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

If in a worst case situation you ended up with something like this in the tank how on earth would you go about getting rid of them???

 

[SkiFletch]

Tearing the tank apart, throwing away (or bleaching) your sand bed, dipping every single rock/coral in the appropriate dip, wait a few days (since few dips kill eggs), do it again, cross your fingers, get down on your knees, and pray? I've heard MANY accounts of people with pest organisms in their tanks and their battles against them... They're usually long, drawn out, and many things other than the pests end up dying.

My own system is plagued with flatworms in the sump (at least the wrasses keep them at bay in the display tank) and sundial snails everywhere, thus preventing me from keeping zooanthids and smaller palythoa... I'm not sure when I contracted the snails although I assume it was very early on before I even knew about them since I've always had trouble with zoos. The flatworms I know came with my original LR shipment since I had them straight away, but again didnt know what they were at the time. I'm unwilling to flatworm-exit my whole tank since I have lots of chitons, bristleworms, dwarf brittlestarts, and other small inverts that it would kill that I'd rather keep. So I just don't keep zooanthids and make sure I treat ALL outgoing frags to prevent other reefer's from contracting my tank's ailments.

Nuisance hitch hikers are bad news and I'd never wish them on anyone.

 

[norite]

Oh, that's just great.....one of those came in on a colony of zoos I just got... It looked weird and interesting, so i let it walk away.....

AAAAAAAARRGHHH!!!!!!!!!!


AAAAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Yikes

 

[norite]

Are there any fish that'll eat these things? I have a bicolour dottyback, a yellow bellied damsel, a couple of clowns and a yellow tang...what about shrimps? will they eat this pest?

excuse me while i go and bash my head against a brick wall...repeatedly for being so dumb!

 

[Danno]

I don't know of ANYTHING that can kill these guys without killing the rest of your stuff in your tank other then individual coral dips. I did dig up some information on them though. One way of ridding them without dips is to set up a tank around 2 to 3 gallons with some of your live rock from your main tank and set all of your zoos in there. Once completed use that small tank as a place to rid your zoos of the spider via chemicals. In your main tank do not add any paly/zoo corals for up to 5 months. This way you are basically taking away the fuel to the flame, the spiders will eventually die.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

i have been looking as well and couldnt find a great deal of information on removing them.

Did find out a little more info about them:
http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/rs/index.php

Thread on removing them:
http/www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...011#post3818011

 

[gigmeyer]

There was a long thread recently by someone who spent 3+ months trying to rid a tank of reef spiders. They started with 90+ zoos in the tank and when the battle was won, there were only 20 or so left. The two biggest challenges as I recall were:

1. No effective natural predators have been identified yet.
2. Dipping the infected zoos weekly only removes the spiders on the outside of the zoo, so the ones inside the polyps live to irritate and procreate for another week (or at least until the next dip).

Was heartbreaking to read through as this person several times wanted to give up the long drawn out war. I only took the time to read this as I had just added a zoo to my tank and wanted to know what I might be in for. From what little I know, it appears that the spiders are more prevalent the UK trade than the US. Please forgive the messenger.

On a separate note, how bad are sundial snails for zoos. I've had the zoo several months now and it is the fastest growing coral I have. I also have an increasing sundial snail population. Should I be concerned?

 

[SkiFletch]

They're prolly not Sundial snails that you have then Gig, but something that looks similar. Sundial snails WILL kill smaller zoanthids over time and prevent them from growing. Larger Palythoa and protopalythoa seem to be uneffected by the sundial snails though. Heck my giant palys have grown like weeds. Bought a 3 polyp colony and now have like 25...