Pest Free Ocean Live Rock?

[heyItzCathan]

Probably the silliest question you’ll see today but are there any companies out there that sell ocean live rock without the “bad” pests?

 

[painter1982]

I got mine from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I’ve only had to catch some gorilla crabs and a couple unidentified snails. I haven’t noticed any other pests. Which are you worried about?

 

[heyItzCathan]

I got mine from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I’ve only had to catch some gorilla crabs and a couple unidentified snails. I haven’t noticed any other pests. Which are you worried about?

Bristle worms have been my fear (story posted a couple months ago lol) if you look at one of my posts. I’ll probably be ordering from them since they’ve had some great reviews here

 

[painter1982]

I got mine from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I’ve only had to catch some gorilla crabs and a couple unidentified snails. I haven’t noticed any other pests. Which are you worried about?

Bristle worms have been my fear (story posted a couple months ago lol) if you look at one of my posts. I’ll probably be ordering from them since they’ve had some great reviews here

I haven’t noticed any bristle worms. I chose the option to have them remove all visible pests. I still ended up with pistol shrimp and gorilla crabs. They hide in the smallest of holes in the rock. I estimate about one crab per pound of rock so far.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Bristle worms have been my fear (story posted a couple months ago lol) if you look at one of my posts. I’ll probably be ordering from them since they’ve had some great reviews here

I think that if you have a reef tank with live rock, then you have bristleworms.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Bristle works are pretty much unavoidable in any system. With regard to ocean rock and pests, that too is always a gamble. TBS does what they can to remove what they can, but given the source and the nature of some animals, there is always a high chance that you will end up having to remove some yourself. It is just part of the tradeoff of starting with ocean rock.

 

[PoetaCorvi]

There will always be a tradeoff. Live rock with a high diversity tends to correlate with a higher chance for pests; live rock with less pests will generally have less diversity overall, and less surprises. You can often find LFS that sell live rock that is tank cultured, meaning dry rock that they place into a system for some time. It’s less likely to have the more feared pests (mantis shrimp, bobbit worms, predatory crabs, etc.), but holds just as much if not more of a chance of introducing typical tank infestations (aiptasia, asterina, etc), and the rock won’t be as biodiverse. It will likely have less die-off though.

I won’t assert there’s a better option, I prefer (sustainably) ocean harvested live rock but tank cultured rock likely works just fine for typical use. I like surprise pests and unconventional inverts, so for me it’s a win win lol

 

[ScottF]

No such thing. If it came out of the ocean and was kept wet, it could have pests. No way to guarantee the rock to be pest free without killing all of the life on it.