Reef pests - do you have one?

[vetteguy53081]

We all dread certain things in this hobby and one of them is pests. When we hear the word pests, we think of a worm, or crab. Pests can also be a certain coral such as sympodium or cloves, algae itself and other specimens?

Do you have a current or past pest?
What was it and how did you get rid of it?

Mine was a hitchhiker mantis shrimp and several large bristle worms. I added arrow crab for bristleworms but some worms were smarter than the crab. Mantis was hard to locate but eventually caught.

 

[j.falk]

There is a pistol shrimp (or maybe a mantis) that has been in my tank for over a month. It came in with some live rock and I have yet to see the thing...but it pops constantly throughout the day. I've tried looking in the tank at 2-3 a.m. when all the lights are out to see if it was out where I could get to it, I've tried using a bottle trap, I've tried sitting in front of the tank motionless several times a day...nothing...whatever it is, it's smart and knows to stay hidden whenever I'm in the room.

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is a pistol shrimp (or maybe a mantis) that has been in my tank for over a month. It came in with some live rock and I have yet to see the thing...but it pops constantly throughout the day. I've tried looking in the tank at 2-3 a.m. when all the lights are out to see if it was out where I could get to it, I've tried using a bottle trap, I've tried sitting in front of the tank motionless several times a day...nothing...whatever it is, it's smart and knows to stay hidden whenever I'm in the room.

When I finally found mantis- was the same experience. The constant popping sound told me mantis versus pistol- was a good guess. The mantis was maybe two inches.

 

[SPS2020]

Vermetid snails! Crushing them one by one by one by...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Vermetid snails! Crushing them one by one by one by...

I cant stand those things. I am fortunate as I found many from a tank buy out and added only 4 bumblebee snails and thought as much as around Easter, their not doing much and a week ago realized- They may all be gone. I dont see webs anymore.

 

[Evil1]

Asterina Starfish…just one that hitched a ride on a zoa colony I purchased. Unfortunately for the starfish but fortunately for me my clown trigger made short work of him as soon as it migrated to the glass! Lol

 

[george9]

I had a TON of vermetid snails for a while and it seemed they were getting worse and worse until one day they randomly started disappearing on their own and stopped spreading. I still see a few here and there but they largely took care of themselves as the tank matured which I was thankful for.

Aiptasia I'm dealing with on a rolling basis. A berghia shipment once or twice a year has handled this well though!

As I get more into SPS corals, I'm finding my definition of 'pest' is changing lol. Zoas and mushrooms grow like freaking weeds in my tank!

 

[X-37B]

Disco mushrooms in an sps system are a pest. They release float around and kill whatever they land on. Even when you think they are removed they show up again.

Pest 2 is aptasia in my overflows. I scrape them and then remove the sock but you never get them all.

 

[george9]

Disco mushrooms in an sps system are a pest. They release float around and kill whatever they land on. Even when you think they are removed they show up again.

Pest 2 is aptasia in my overflows. I scrape them and then remove the sock but you never get them all.

Yup, I have removed them and then glued little rocks with giant globs of glue on top of the spots they were attached to and without fail, a tiny mushroom pops out from under the glue within a week. None are anywhere near my SPS at the moment but I regret ever adding them. My future systems will be way more intentional about corals I add.

 

[Evil1]

Love Zoa’s The quickest growth I ave seen in my tank is from JF Captain Jerk palythoa. It has grown from a 2 polyp frag to this in under a year.

 

[paragrouper]

Vermetid snails, which I manually remove.
Aiptasia, which I eradicate with F Aiptasia.
Bubble Algae, which is another fun manual removal event.

 

[NkSde]

Spirorbid worms
But they’re cute so it’s control moreso than eradicate

 

[ptrahan]

I had a TON of vermetid snails for a while and it seemed they were getting worse and worse until one day they randomly started disappearing on their own and stopped spreading. I still see a few here and there but they largely took care of themselves as the tank matured which I was thankful for.

Are the Vermited shells (houses) still there? Or did you remove them?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Mine remain as most I cannot get to

 

[ptrahan]

Mine remain as most I cannot get to

Thanks. Figured as calcified they are they would not dissolve on their own.

 

[george9]

@ptrahan​

Many are still there but many also have seemingly vanished. I was pretty good about crushing most of them as they grew but I'm not sure what I did right to stop them from spreading further

 

[fish farmer]

Disco mushrooms in an sps system are a pest. They release float around and kill whatever they land on. Even when you think they are removed they show up again.

Pest 2 is aptasia in my overflows. I scrape them and then remove the sock but you never get them all.

Disco mushrooms are a pest in any system....mine don't even let aiptasia settle.

Slowly scraping and monitoring where my discos appear.

Aiptasia come and go for me, I noticed less since I added peppermint shrimp. Hitting the big ones with kalk.

Lots of vermetids, trying bumblebee snails and may try marine snow. They don't seem to bother my lps and softies, but appear on any dead skeleton.

 

[1112-425XL]

I've had three single aiptasia sightings in completely different areas. A syringe with 0.4 ml of distilled vinegar to the heart shriveled them right up, one of them I had to hit twice. I don't think I got the center the 1st time.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Me. I’m the biggest pest in my system!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Disco mushrooms are a pest in any system....mine don't even let aiptasia settle.

Slowly scraping and monitoring where my discos appear.

Aiptasia come and go for me, I noticed less since I added peppermint shrimp. Hitting the big ones with kalk.

Lots of vermetids, trying bumblebee snails and may try marine snow. They don't seem to bother my lps and softies, but appear on any dead skeleton.

Thats wierd. Mine stay i one place however my hairy mushrooms are getting out of control