Zoanthid eating spiders!!

[elcapitan1993]

So all of the frags I received from AquaSD.com are infested with zoanthid eating spiders I have pulled 6 off so far and cut off a bunch of shredded polyps, what should I do? How do I make sure my tank is not infested I have had these frags in my tank for a few weeks and it is a zoanthid dominant tank....

 

[mdb_talon]

As far as i know there is no good solution other than manual removal. Dips help in my experience on the ones it can get to, but in many cases they are basically inside the zoa and has little impact. I cut off any unhealthy polyp and frequently check with red flashlight after dark.

The good news is they require sexual reproduction and so dont really spread as fast as some pests. I recently had a lot on some frags i got in, but luckily have them in a QT and think i have them eradicated, but will be waiting at least a few more weeks before the DT.

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

I would get my money back too

 

[elcapitan1993]

I would get my money back too

I’m going to try but I doubt they will...it would be nice most of the polyps are dead or infested with spiders

 

[elcapitan1993]

As far as i know there is no good solution other than manual removal. Dips help in my experience on the ones it can get to, but in many cases they are basically inside the zoa and has little impact. I cut off any unhealthy polyp and frequently check with red flashlight after dark.

The good news is they require sexual reproduction and so dont really spread as fast as some pests. I recently had a lot on some frags i got in, but luckily have them in a QT and think i have them eradicated, but will be waiting at least a few more weeks before the DT.

So just keep removing the ones I spot?
That sucks, I did dip these corals before I added them in and I didn’t help I guess, I removed all the polyps that looked like it could have housed a spider and did a freshwater dip on every single frag I have, hopefully I got them all...,that would be nice

 

[Zakery Murray]

@AquaSD welp here ya go maybe they'll respond.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Okay stop freaking out. We can do this . Hydrogen peroxide dips and anti-pest dips are your friend. Maybe even freshwater dips if you think the situation is bad enough. The trick is to dip often enough to kill the adult spiders and the baby spiders before they get to reproduction stage.

Definitely get the infested frags out of your tank ASAP, they will crawl off the AquaSD frag and onto any other zoas you have. I would put them in a separate tank entirely or a bucket with an air stone and frequent water changes to avoid contaminating anything. Dip dip dip, inspect, scrub, dip again, keep repeating for at least a month, 6 weeks to be super extra safe. Toothbrushes, spoolies (disposable eyebrow brushes), razors, hydrogen peroxide, anti-pest dips, iodine dip, and perseverance are extremely important. Of course, you could always choose to cut your losses entirely and chuck the frag; or you can cut 1-2 polyps off the infested frag and treat them intensely, throwing away the main colony.

 

[elcapitan1993]

Okay stop freaking out. We can do this . Hydrogen peroxide dips and anti-pest dips are your friend. Maybe even freshwater dips if you think the situation is bad enough. The trick is to dip often enough to kill the adult spiders and the baby spiders before they get to reproduction stage.

Definitely get the infested frags out of your tank ASAP, they will crawl off the AquaSD frag and onto any other zoas you have. I would put them in a separate tank entirely or a bucket with an air stone and frequent water changes to avoid contaminating anything. Dip dip dip, inspect, scrub, dip again, keep repeating for at least a month, 6 weeks to be super extra safe. Toothbrushes, spoolies (disposable eyebrow brushes), razors, hydrogen peroxide, anti-pest dips, iodine dip, and perseverance are extremely important. Of course, you could always choose to cut your losses entirely and chuck the frag; or you can cut 1-2 polyps off the infested frag and treat them intensely, throwing away the main colony.

I did a freshwater dip on every single zoa I have I the. Cut off the polyps that looked infested or were not opening for some reason, I will keep doing dips like you said and hopefully this will eradicate them, I hate having pests in my tank..

 

[FishyFishFish]

I've just found a Zoa Spider on one of my frags from @AquaSD too.

My frags were in a QT for a couple of weeks and were dipped in Coral RX but they still got through. I had just added 2 sexy shrimp to my tank and thought they were doing the damage to my Zoas, but maybe not.

I have only seen one, which I have managed to remove. I have dipped that frag again and another one that was showing signs of damage bit haven't seen any more (yet). Is there a possibility this is the only one or are they now likely to be infesting my tank? Would you just observe over the next few days or take them all out and QT/dip them again? That would be possible but they would all have to be in the same QT, so I'm not sure how much benefit that would have

 

[CMMorgan]

I would be freaking out thinking that I had zoa eating spiders getting busy after dark in my tank. Nope ... can't think about it ... gonna give me nightmares.

 

[FishyFishFish]

Arrgghh. I've just found another one on the same polyp. :mad:

They're really difficult to spot. I saw something that looked maybe like a leg so I thought I'd take that frag out and cut the damaged polyp off completely; the leg was indeed attached to another spider.

I'm not sure it's worth buying from these big coral resellers if they are going to be infested; it doesn't appear to be any 'safer' than buying from a fellow reefer or other unknown source.

 

[elcapitan1993]

I would be freaking out thinking that I had zoa eating spiders getting busy after dark in my tank. Nope ... can't think about it ... gonna give me nightmares.

Yeah it’s really horrifying and knowing that I put my hand in my tank all the time with them in there.... freak me out lol

 

[CMMorgan]

Yeah it’s really horrifying and knowing that I put my hand in my tank all the time with them in there.... freak me out lol

 

[elcapitan1993]

Arrgghh. I've just found another one on the same polyp. :mad:

They're really difficult to spot. I saw something that looked maybe like a leg so I thought I'd take that frag out and cut the damaged polyp off completely; the leg was indeed attached to another spider.

I'm not sure it's worth buying from these big coral resellers if they are going to be infested; it doesn't appear to be any 'safer' than buying from a fellow reefer or other unknown source.

Yeah yesterday I pulled 6 more off the frags I got from them, I really annoyed and I have hundreds of dollars in zoas in my tank and I think it’s wrong for these online coral sellers have infested corals, i had better luck with petco corals than buying online, and it sucks dipping doesn’t take care of most of the pests that come in on these frags, AquaSD still has yet to email me back but it only has been a day or so, hopefully they will reimburse me for the lost frags “at least the ones they sold me”
I had one polyp that had 5 in it and the polyp was see through and you could see all 5 nesting in one polyp

 

[reefinatl]

Buy from local hobbyists. It's 1/4th the price, you make new connections, and you should be doing QT anyways.

 

[elcapitan1993]

Buy from local hobbyists. It's 1/4th the price, you make new connections, and you should be doing QT anyways.

I live in white city Oregon where there is absolutely no reefers, at least none that I can find, if I had the space for a QT system I would have one, I have 6 freshwater tanks and my 90 gallon reef in completely out of room, also I cannot afford a whole new reef setup either

 

[FishyFishFish]

My QT didn’t help but maybe I didn’t do it long enough.

I do wonder what impact, if any, adding the sexy shrimp had. I know they can be Zoa eaters so I was watching them closely. They started ‘eating’ one of the Zoas so I was thinking about banishing them from the display. What they exposed, I thought was the internals of the Zoa but it was actually a spider. Either it was coincidence, the Zoa was already damaged by the spiders inside and the shrimp were just cleaning it, or the shrimp was going for the spider (but unfortunately didn’t kill it!). Or maybe I was just looking more closely than I had been and the damage was already there.

At the moment the shrimps have extended their probation slightly!

 

[reefinatl]

I live in white city Oregon where there is absolutely no reefers, at least none that I can find, if I had the space for a QT system I would have one, I have 6 freshwater tanks and my 90 gallon reef in completely out of room, also I cannot afford a whole new reef setup either

That was really meant moreso as a reply to fishyfishyfishy. I'd google oregon reef clubs and see what you find. Even if the nearest one is in a big city a few hours away typically if go throw a flag up and say "hey new dude here, anyone live by me in x" a few guys will pop up.

Also google images for your city are a gun range and some project cars so sounds like a great place to live. I'm jealous

 

[mdb_talon]

I'm not sure it's worth buying from these big coral resellers if they are going to be infested; it doesn't appear to be any 'safer' than buying from a fellow reefer or other unknown source.

Generally speaking i would much rather buy from a true hobbyist. In this case i define "true hobbyist" as someone who is selling frags of their actual tank raised coral....rather than just being a chop-shop.

 

[FishyFishFish]

We're getting a little off track but I mistakenly thought these larger frag companies grew all of their own 'clean' corals, which, is clearly not the case.

Whilst they might do this to some extent, they clearly are fragging and selling corals that they buy in, and therefore they have minimal control over what pests they are shipping out, even if they have a QT/dipping protocol (which I'm not convinced they do). This doesn't just apply to AquaSD but, presumably, other big coral suppliers too.