Pests - Where Do I Start?

[nickkohrn]

I picked up some corals over the summer from a well-known, reputable shop. After dipping and inspecting them, I put them into my tank. Shortly after, I noticed a bunch of colonial hydroids on two of the six frag plugs. So, I covered the plugs and a lot of the tissue of the corals with epoxy to smother the hydroids.

Well, the epoxy didn’t contain the pests. They are covering the underside of my frag platforms, which you can see below.

I recently brought home a handful of frags from Reef-A-Palooza Chicago, and I think that’s where my problems got worse as I’ve noticed a lot of pyramid snails on the shells of my Trochus snails and Dwarf Cerith snails, which you can see below.

I have also noticed very tiny red flatworms on my PVC frag platforms. I haven’t noticed them on any of my corals, though. You can see a small one in the photo below.

I picked up some Salifert Flatworm eXit, which I’ll be administering soon.

I also found some Bryopsis on a couple of the new corals, and I treated my system with Reef Flux, which seems to have taken care of it within a little more than a week.

Lastly, I woke up to find this nudibranch on my glass.

I have not noticed any indication of damage to corals, specifically my Montipora corals. However, I will be monitoring everything closely.

Before I noticed these issues, I started dosing Vibrant, which has slowly been killing my plague of brown hair algae. I’ve witnessed many of my SPS frags turn brown, but I expected that. However, I don’t know where to start with all of these problems. Everything was noticed within the last few weeks, except for the hydroids, which have been present since August of this year.

I feel completely overwhelmed, and I don’t know what to tackle first. Where should I start?

 

[Jon Fishman]

Flatworms are the only thing I would get immediately aggressive with

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

#reefsquad

The reef squad will have a lot better idea on how to handle all of these issues. It can be fixed!

First things first, what size is your system?

What fish do you have?

Do you know your parameters?

 

[KJ]

Where should I start?

montipora eating nudibranch - - Image Search Results

 

[LAReefer4Life]

+ 1

 

[MichaelReefer]

Wrasse solve all problems

 

[KJ]

Wrasse solve all problems

No sorry for bad news.

 

[nickkohrn]

Flatworms are the only thing I would get immediately aggressive with

That's what I thought about tackling next since I have a, seemingly, low population. I'd rather take them out before their population grows out of control and the toxins put my inhabitants at risk when they die during treatment.

#reefsquad

The reef squad will have a lot better idea on how to handle all of these issues. It can be fixed!

First things first, what size is your system?

What fish do you have?

Do you know your parameters?

I have a Waterbox 100.3, so it contains roughly 90-95 gallons after displacement. It houses a small Tomini Tang, a Forktail Blenny, a Blue Sapphire Damselfish, a Firefish, and a Walsh's Fairy Wrasse.

Regarding my parameters, I tested last Sunday, and I received the following results:

• Alkalinity - 8.1 dKH
• Calcium - 466 ppm
• Magnesium - 1275 ppm
• Nitrate - 2 ppm
• Phosphate - 0.07 ppm

montipora eating nudibranch - - Image Search Results

That's what I figured after searching prior to creating this thread. I have only a few small Montipora digitata and Montipora palawensis frags, so frequent dipping should not be an issue.

Wrasse solve all problems

I have yet to see my Walsh's Fairy Wrasse pick at the glass or rocks. It's great at grabbing food out of the water column, but it doesn't do much else besides chase my Damselfish and Blenny.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Melanurus Wrasse will annihilate them. I had a few worms, he slurped em up like spaghetti. Never saw them again.

 

[nickkohrn]

Melanurus Wrasse will annihilate them. I had a few worms, he slurped em up like spaghetti. Never saw them again.

I wouldn't mind picking up a Melanurus Wrasse, but I don't have sand. I would quarantine it, so would that give the pests a chance to proliferate and cause more damage before the wrasse can decrease their population?

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

I wouldn't mind picking up a Melanurus Wrasse, but I don't have sand. I would quarantine it, so would that give the pests a chance to proliferate and cause more damage before the wrasse can decrease their population?

A buddy of mine has one on a frag tank without sand. Right now it would be an investment for the future. Hopeful your pest issues would be resolved before it was done with the Quarantine process.

 

[rkpetersen]

Melanurus wrasse or other halochoeres wrasses will be a problem if you don't have any sand bed at all.
A 4 stripe wrasse or sapphire damsels are other possible predators.
Do you have tridacnas? If not, pyram snails shouldn't be much of an issue.
If you do have tridacnas, you'll have to keep an eye on them and remove any snails periodically.
Red flatworms aren't dangerous, just unsightly. They won't eat your corals, but they may sit on them;
if you don't see many, I'd wait and see what happens before going with flatworm exit and siphoning.
Hydroids, I don't know of a way to control just them.

 

[kireek]

Oh dear.Sorry for your troubles.

The Montipora eating nudibranches should get dealt with asap.These pest will hide in the tiniest crevices underneath the coral.This makes it difficult for even the most agile of fish to eat them. It might be best to frag off the top portion and discard the rest.

As for the hydroids ,can you remove the rack and sterilize it? Hot water and a Vinegar soak should do it.

No experience with those snails.You might need to hand collect them.

As for the red flatworms ,You can use a airline hose to suck up as many as you can. You will want to do this before the treatment process.

 

[Midrats]

Don't waste your time with Flatworm Exit. They just come back even with increased doses. Get a few Chrysiptera springeri, they enjoy red planaria, cleared my tank of them quickly. My Chrysiptera starcki eats them too.