Reef pests - do you have one?

[ReefGeezer]

If it's not one thing it's another... Pesky red turf algae, then Aiptasia, then Asterina Starfish, now Bubble Algae. It is harder to get to anything bad growing on the rocks without breaking SPS corals now. I got ride of the Aiptasia with a Copperband... Maybe I'll have an excuse to put a Foxface?

 

[steveschuerger]

Does one’s spouse count? All kidding aside, the worst I’ve had was aiptasia and a few majonos mostly. Had a short outbreak of verms but they’ve mostly disappeared. Not sure what did them in, just glad they’re gone. I had one vermitid that grew to 1.5 inch diameter. crushed manually . Ugh.

 

[Bob Boblaw]

I just decided to dip a few of my corals, all different types to see what came off and thankfully nothing harmful

 

[Alexraptor]

Good god... there have been so many.

Years back I had a cotton candy algae infestation, got a Sea Hare to keep them in check.


It worked.... until the Sea Hare got eaten by these vile hellspawn...



After that I tried nuking the tank with algaecide to no avail.
It ended me with wrapping the whole tank in weed tarp for 3 whole months to kill the dang stuff! As a happy bonus it also caused a food chain collapse that almost completely starved out the Fulgida worms, and the stragglers were easily caught with bait. Still have an ongoing infestation of those in my 15G though.

Came at a heavy cost though, in the form of mass coral death and bleaching.

Moral of the story: If you ever see cute fluffy pink tufts, then annihilate anything and everything they are anchored to!!! Don't even try mechanical removal, as even the tiniest most miniscule filament floating free is enough start a new infestation.

 

[PhishMonger84]

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.

thats unfortunate, i love the mushrooms. I hope to have the problem you are describing at some point

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

Not your traditional pest, but damselfish. Especially the crazy one I have that attacks hermit crabs, emerald crabs, and even pistol shrimp.

 

[Sump Crab]

worst pest issue I ever had was a red planaria plague (15 years ago), must of been thousands of them. Once I learned that melanarus wrasse eat them like candy my issue was completely resolved. I have had many tanks since then using many of the same rocks so I still have them in my system as they show up in my refugium BUT my melanarus in DT keeps them undetectable in the display.