Harlequin shrimp?

[turbois300]

Also, I have another tank already (38gal or even a 10 gal) and most of my good zoas are removable. Should I get that tank up and transfer / dip the zoa/palys into it to try and save them while the wrass does its thing if that is even the way to go?????

 

[Hypertek99]

I don't think it's the stars but if you have too many and don't like them i would just pluck them out. Now that you guys mention nudis from UA i did have 1 Nudi that was in the colony i bought from UA i got rid of it when i dipped. I always inspect and dip before i put it in my display. No problems so far.

 

[turbois300]

I don't really mind the stars and as long as they aren't eating the zoas then they are alright??? I still think I'll be pulling them out as I can. I'll holla at you this weekend Hyper.

 

[turbois300]

Do the nudis go down into the rock or are they always on the zoas. I can pull out almost all of my zoas rocks and I'll go over them with a magnifying glass and pluck every last one of them out.

 

[J. Montgomery]

If you've confirmed that you have zoa eating nudis in the tank, then I'm 99.99% sure that the stars are not a problem. They just clean the outside of zoa polyps.

 

[Hypertek99]

Oh if you decide to get a Harlequin shrimp PAW in Lynchburg usually have them in when i go there.

 

[turbois300]

Yeah that is a definate on the nudi's after seeing the link to the pix of the eggs and the nudi itself then I'm sure that is what is taking out the colonies. Should I remove what I can to save them? should I do a FW dip or something? I don't have any lugols or anything like that at the moment.

I think that I'll wait on the H. shrimp. I think that the nudi's are the problem and the stars just got blamed due to me not knowing any better and them being wrapped around the zoas.

 

[Hypertek99]

You can do a FW dip but don't do it for too long. Most i would do is 5-10min as it stresses out the zoa's. UA has TMPCC that's what i use to dip my stuff. Works great. I use it with tank water and dip for like 15-20mins. You will see all kinds of pods, bristle worms and other critters fall out.

 

[turbois300]

Yeah I need to get some salt sometime too so I'll pick some up the next time I am there. Check you PM on that monti.

 

[surfn]

yeah.....osmosis will blister and sometimes kills zoas if left in for too long. make sure to bring the water temp up to the same as the aquarium to lesson the shock.

add 3-5 drops of lugols iodine and you are good to go....(or whatever it says on the TMPCC bottle)

 

[turbois300]

Will do. Thanks my brutha's for all the advise!!! Gonna head home and try to kill some nudis. Hyper give me a shout if you can

 

[J. Montgomery]

Don't you need to adjust the pH of the water for a freshwater dip, in addition to the temperature?

 

[surfn]

Don't you need to adjust the pH of the water for a freshwater dip, in addition to the temperature?

yeah.......thats what they recomend.....but IME....its a REAL PITA to do.

back when i had a pH meter, i tried doing this....and it just took forever. and once i got the pH up high enough, it would drop back down over the matter of an hour while i had it stiring and heating up.

so i just gave up adjusting the pH and everything has done fine......except for some blisters here and there. figured that was more of an osmosis thing than pH influenced.

 

[J. Montgomery]

figured that was more of an osmosis thing than pH influenced.

I think that in this case, osmosis and pH would be intertwined.

 

[surfn]

well, i'm all ears if anyone knows a good way to increase pH w/out adding salt mix. although i wonder also about matching KH.

i guess you could use one of those 8.3 water buffers.....but i'm not sure if that will actually increase it all the way from 7 to 8.3

 

[J. Montgomery]

IIRC, can't you use baking soda?

 

[surfn]

IIRC, can't you use baking soda?

for some reason, that doesn't work like you'd think it would....i can't remember why though off the top of my head.

i think it may increase the hardness to extreme levels before you even reach the pH you want.

 

[turbois300]

Well I'm in for an update. I pulled 3 fairly small Nudis off of that zoa colony that was being ***** and another 20 or so stars. I think that did the trick. I pulled out all of my zoa colonies except the few individuals that have spread onto the main rock foundation. I've got my wife on patrol during the day while I'm at work. I think I'm going to get to go to UA this weekend and buy some supplied....and maybe a coral or something (fingers crossed).

I have a question about the dip. Would it be less stress on the coral to use tank water then put the srops into that? In a separate container of course, but instead of using FW, should I use SW?

On a more graphic note..... those nudis don't do so well in FW. We dropped them still moving into the toilet and that felt rewarding!!!! Lil' jerks!! I've been putting the stars into the fuge incase I do decide to get a Harlequin. I like them and if I do decide to do a more fish only tank then it would be a cool addition.

 

[Deepwater]

Don't fool yourself . The star do and can and will harm zoas . I witness one of them eat a zoas in front of my face. and i don't have nudis in my tank. ITs almost like havng a fish that MIGHT eat corals , 50/50 chance

A harly shrimp will eat them in a matter of no time. so getting 2 would be starving them. You would also have to get some CC star fish to feed the harly after as it will eat those little star in a few days.

this is from experience , andi believe the star was not all white had some red in it as well. they also produce in #s which could become a nuisance later on , JMO

 

[J. Montgomery]

Has anyone here had nudis, and sucessfully gotten rid of them by the addition of a 6-line wrasse (or another wrasse)? I'm contemplating adding a wrasse, but my tank is pretty full already and detritus build up is a constant problem (and I don't really want a wrasse to eat all my mandarin's food).