Hitchhikers, Predators, Pests - the Bad Guys

mck > reef > livestock > hitchhikers

This is the third saltwater aquarium I have set up and this one has been plagued by far by the most unwanted pests, hitchhikers, predators, etc. It's uncanny and pretty disheartening.

In order of appearance:

- Box Jellyfish

- Hydroids

- Red planaria (flat worms)

- Aptasia

- Montipora nudibranches

- Red bugs

- Pest algae

- Eunicid worms

Box Jellyfish:

We had at least two box jellies appear in the tank in March 2007. Our best guess is that they came in as hitchhikers on a rock covered in mushrooms from the Indopacific. After posting on reefcentral we sent the photos below to the Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit and were fortunate to have someone reply - none other than Dr. Jamie Seymour! Dr. Seymour has been featured in several Discovery Channel programs. (In fact, what we found exciting at the time was that we had just recently watched a program on the Discover Channel that featured him and a colleague, and included footage of them after being stung by an Irukandji. You can watch a bad clip of the action here). Dr Seymour relieved our fears that they may have been Irukandji, with this email:

"OK, from your pictures, my guess is yes, it is a cubozoan, box jellyfish, but PROBABLY a thing called carybdea marsupialis. Little hard to be definitive from the pictures you sent though. IF it is this species, then it is no threat to you at all."

The jellies in the photos were ~2mm from tip to tip depending on whether it was swimming or drifting at the time. They had 4 tentacles. They were strong swimmers, very fast, and appeared to have some type of eyesight. It was very interesting to see all the fish in the tank give them WIDE berth, like they instinctively knew they were dangerous.


Box Jellyfish	Box Jellyfish	Box Jellyfish

Hydroids:

We noticed the hydoirds (well, we think they were hyrdoids anyway) in April 2007. If they were in fact hydroids, they were in a medusa phase of their life cycle. I syhponed them out whenever I saw them. It must have worked, because none have made a re-appearance since.


Hydroid, From Above	Hydroid, From Side	Hydroid, From Bottom Angle

Red Planaria (Flat Worms):

First saw the flatwworms in April 2007.

Three words: Salifert Flatworm eXit.

We picked up some new flatworms - not the typical red planaria - on a frag of acans from a local reefer. They aren't bothering anything, although I read they may feed on copepods, and they haven't responded to a test with Flatworm eXit I did. Perhaps a Velvet Blue Nudibranch is in this tank's future...

Aptasia:

I have one aptasia that came in on a piece of small live rock. It has managed to survive peppermint shrimp, kalk paste.


Aptasia

Montipora Eating Nudibranches:

These little suckers snuck in on as a hitchhiker in May 2008, possibly on a ricordia mushroom rock. They must have been eggs, because I dipped the rock and scrubbed it with a wire brush before adding it to the system. Well, they quickly went to work on our montiporas. I plucked them with tweezers whenever I saw them and for two months thought I had them under control, until I decided to break some pieces off a plating monti we had. There were HUNDREDS of eggs under the plate. Boy was I glad I checked and found that before they hatched. In an act of desperation I pulled that entire plating coral out (which was difficult, as it had encrusted over a lot of live rock and was roughly the same size as half a dinner plate). I sporadically saw one or two here or there after that, but knew it was a matter of time and I needed to do something about the situation proactively. After reading this article that suggested using potassium permanganate to kill the nudibranches, I set up a small (5 gallon) frag tank and pulled as many montiporas out of the tank as possible. I did the recommended dips, rinsed the corals in a bucket of tank water, and added them to the frag tank.

Long story short, I did something wrong because I killed every montipora coral that I dipped. On the bright side, though, I didn't manage to get every montipora out of the tank so I really only lost 3 fairly common corals.

I saw 2 nudibranches in the tank after I pulled the frags, which I pulled out with tweezers. I also followed some advice I saw online and covered the whole area I had seen the nudi with superglue, to encase any eggs it may have laid. That appears to have been effective. I haven't seen any nudibranches or damage to the corals since October 2008.


Montipora-Eating Nudibranch

Red Bugs:

One word: Interceptor.

You need a prescription from a veterinarian to obtain Interceptor, because it is a medication used to treat heartworms in dogs. That's the most difficult part of the treatment.

Algae:

We have been battling various algae for the entire time this tank has been set up. Hair algae, turf algae, and several types of caulerpa. It is a frustrating and long process. I will update soon - especially if we win the fight.

Eunicid Worms:

I think we have at least one eunicid worm in the tank.