# ~ natural reef pest solutions ~ #

[TJ's Reef]

~ The Natural or Alternative methods to controlling common Reef Pests other than Medications and/or Chemicals ~

Many of us Reefkeeping Hobbyists would prefer a 'Natural' way to control or eradicate common Reef Pests like MI (Marine Ich), Aiptasia, Mojano, Red Bugs, AEFW (Acro Eating Flat Worms), Pyramidal Snails etc... without having to break down or medicate our beloved systems often eliminating the Good with the Bad. The Wild Reefs have many creatures/organisms large and small that keep things in balance and typically from becoming Plague like in numbers, these are the things we'd like to share in this Thread. There is most always Pros and Cons to any solution so this to will be a major topic with each scenario suggested.

I'll have to do some tweaking here and there until we can figure out the best way to present each scenario and keep it a easily read Thread without getting lost in a jumble of information. So for now I'll add a couple quick empty posts that can hold the primary list of Pests with Natural solutions and can then edit into them discussion points from below or our continuing solutions.... if this makes sense.


Cheers, Todd

 

[TJ's Reef]

# Marine Ich (MI) :

# Marine Velvet (MV) Amyloodinium :

# Brooklynella :

# Gill Flukes :

# Head and lateral-line erosion (HLLE) :

# Lymphocystis :

 

[TJ's Reef]

# Aiptasia Anemone :

# Mojano Anemone :

# Red Bugs :

# Acro Eating Flatworms (AEFW) :

# Pyramidal Snails :

# Planaria :

# Asterina Starfish :

# Vermetid Snails :

# Sundial Snails :

# Zoanthid Spiders :

 

[TJ's Reef]

BUMP

OK, would like to hear some actual hands on experiences treating or controlling of with any of the above posted 'Pests' or others yet unmentioned. We can keep a dialog going here and when agreed upon or by consensus will start to fill in above with editing, the findings or results to each as we go. I'll Moderate the thread YOU ALL fill in the details with your experiences both good and bad.


Cheers, Todd

 

[TUSI]

My experience with marine ich [ich]. Marine ich is in our tanks at all times. It is dormant until a fish is introduced and it get stressed by others. The new fish become a magnet to ich. What I found out that worked for me is a lot of Garlic mixed with food. Fish needs to eat to stay strong and fight Ich, garlic helps tremendously. Ich have a cycle, I believe it is 1 to 2 days attached to the fish and then it releases and then attach again and on and on. But each time the fish gets less ich as it gets imuned to it and less stressfull in the tank. Tangs are no 1 fish to get ich when introduced into a tank that already have other fish. The mistake a lot of reefers do is mix Ich with Brooklynella and its by far not the same thing.

 

[KoleTang]

My experience with marine ich [ich]. Marine ich is in our tanks at all times. It is dormant until a fish is introduced and it get stressed by others. The new fish become a magnet to ich. What I found out that worked for me is a lot of Garlic mixed with food. Fish needs to eat to stay strong and fight Ich, garlic helps tremendously. Ich have a cycle, I believe it is 1 to 2 days attached to the fish and then it releases and then attach again and on and on. But each time the fish gets less ich as it gets imuned to it and less stressfull in the tank. Tangs are no 1 fish to get ich when introduced into a tank that already have other fish. The mistake a lot of reefers do is mix Ich with Brooklynella and its by far not the same thing.

A stressed fish may not have as healthy of a slime coat, causing the fish to be more susceptible to ich. This does not mean that a healthy fish is immune. Ich is a parasite, not an illness.

If you quarantine properly you can have an ich free tank.

 

[TUSI]

Asterina Star fish- All I did was adding a pair of Harlequin Shrimps and ever star fish ran to the glass. It was the most fascinating thing. After the star fish are gone then I keep em alive by adding star fish as food. They do keep a tank clean from Asterina Star fish.

 

[WindeyD]

I have had success dealing with vermitid snails using metal tweezers. I simply use the tweezers to crush the snail at its base, the cleaner shrimp feeds on the remains. While it can be a bit labor intensive it does the job. There may always be a few out of reach and you may never 100% eradicate them bit it keeps them well controlled.

 

[TUSI]

A stressed fish may not have as healthy of a slime coat, causing the fish to be more susceptible to ich. This does not mean that a healthy fish is immune. Ich is a parasite, not an illness.

If you quarantine properly you can have an ich free tank.

I agree quarantine is always the proper way, but Ich is in every tank regardless especially if there are corals. Corals sometime are a host to ich too. I do agree with the slime on fish. Tangs have different body scale and slime then most other fish and that's also why they get ich much easier then other fish.

 

[TUSI]

Red Bugs- dragon pipe fish are known to eat red bugs in a reef tank. They are not the easiest fish to acclimate to a tank since they love to eat only live food but if you start them in a quarantine tank and feed them both live and frozen food they eventually will eat anything.

 

[seanocode]

Do digitate hydroids have a mortal enemy?

 

[rayn]

Aptasia I have controlled two ways.

One-peppermint shrimp, but they seem hit or miss. They also seem to prefer smaller ones. Once the tank seems to be under control, mine seems to manage it quite well. Also it is one peppermint to my 40b and doing fine.

Two-aptasia eating file fish...or matted file fish. This guy just plain rocked on aptasia! Didn't care about the size of anything, just went to town and mowed them all down. Kept the tank clean of them after that too. Big issue I have with this fish is...its a picker/grazer for sure. Once the appies were gone, he picked on anything that looked tasty, this included my bottom dwelling Inimicus japonicus. Tore him up! I caught the file fish and the Inimicus recovered, but lesson learned on those guys.

 

[aran]

I disagree that ich is in all tanks ... I QT all live stock and treat prophylactically with formalin , prazi and hypo and I treat any ich with cupramine and I have had absolutely no ich in my system in years .

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I disagree that ich is in all tanks ... I QT all live stock and treat prophylactically with formalin , prazi and hypo and I treat any ich with cupramine and I have had absolutely no ich in my system in years .

+1 It's scientifically impossible for a living organism to be present in a closed system if it's never put there. If you make sure that everything going in is ich free (a lot of work, but definitely possible), then there's no way it can be present.

 

[KoleTang]

I agree quarantine is always the proper way, but Ich is in every tank regardless especially if there are corals. Corals sometime are a host to ich too. I do agree with the slime on fish. Tangs have different body scale and slime then most other fish and that's also why they get ich much easier then other fish.

Ich is not in every tank.

Ich can be present in its dormant phase on coral skeleton and frag plugs. Coral itself is not a host to ich. If you quarantine your coral for longer than ich's life cycle (without fish present), you have effectively prevented ich.

 

[gacolt]

limpets will eat hydroids

 

[gacolt]

sixline wrasse will eat aefw and there eggs seen this first hand.

 

[gacolt]

copperband butterfly,berghia and some filefish will eat aiptasia.
bi color angels are know to eat majano anemone
rabbit fish can eat bryopsis
dragonets i have heard will eat red bugs but i have not seen this myself cause i have no red bugs

 

[Triggreef]

A stressed fish may not have as healthy of a slime coat, causing the fish to be more susceptible to ich. This does not mean that a healthy fish is immune. Ich is a parasite, not an illness.

If you quarantine properly you can have an ich free tank.

+1

I agree quarantine is always the proper way, but Ich is in every tank regardless especially if there are corals. Corals sometime are a host to ich too. I do agree with the slime on fish. Tangs have different body scale and slime then most other fish and that's also why they get ich much easier then other fish.

This is mostly bad info. You really should familiarize yourself with the ich life cycle. Then you will realize that you can have an ich free tank if you quarantine properly. The dormant phase of the ich parasite, which is more or less like an egg cyst, can attach to any hard surface (not living coral tissue) and can be brought into your system this way. If you QT your coral (in a system without fish) for 72 days (the longest recorded time frame for the stage) you should be good. After the cyst hatches the parasites have about 1 day to find a fish host or they die. I don't quarantine coral but I do remove and plugs, rocks, or dead portions prior to putting them in my tank, as well as dipping them for other pests.

Do digitate hydroids have a mortal enemy?

Limpets? Thats a new one for me. If it's true, then I learned something today. I thought hydroids were more or less a game ender.

Ich is not in every tank.

Ich can be present in its dormant phase on coral skeleton and frag plugs. Coral itself is not a host to ich. If you quarantine your coral for longer than ich's life cycle (without fish present), you have effectively prevented ich.

+1

 

[Triggreef]

I have halichoerus wrasses to control red planaria. But I have 6 in my tank so I'm not sure which are actually doing the job.

I have a copperband in qt which is eating aptasia so far seemingly well.

Just throwing it out there but cleaner shrimp, and gobies, do nothing for ich. I'm sure someone will say they do, but they don't. Ich cannot actually be seen by your naked eye, what you see on the fish is actually a mucus reaction by the fish, where the parasite is. The ich parasite actually burrows in under the skin where these creatures couldn't get to anyhow.

I use a harlequin shrimp for asterina stars, he does well but hasn't put a huge dent on them in the 5 months or so that I had him.

I have an interesting find that I was just planning on starting a thread about. I have a chocolate chip star fish in my sump. I just found it eating some asterina stars, which explains why I almost never see any asterina stars in my sump. I have a frag tank plumbed into my system, where the lonely wrasse is not doing his job eating red planaria. Water from the frag tank flows directly into my sump, which used to be, and should be loaded with red planaria. I'm proposing that I believe the star might be eating the planaria. I have nothing else in the sump that would eat planaria.