Pest trapping

[bct15]

I have been being terrorized for months now by something eating polyps (including five blue agaves, two rainbow PE, four pink elephants, about twelve AOG, about five red PE, a galxy pe and a super cool unnamed people eater just to name a few). Now in the last couple weeks I have had a royal gramma basslet and a neon dottyback come up missing (I had attributed the basslet to the dottyback until it turned up missing too!). I have been up late (and up early) several nights with a red flashlight with no luck, but the fish missing is the last draw. Currently I have two red cups on each end of the tank face up with a silverside ziptied to the bottom and a small rock to hold them into place. There is easy access into the cup but im hoping whatever it is can't get out. The dottyback was not a small fish by far, and I think it might be a crab as the dottyback was accustomed to stealing food from my emerald crabs at feed time.

Whatever this is has cost me hundreds of dollars, and I am wondering what methods other people use to catch stuff like this. I have been trying to spot and catch it forever now and it is very secretive. Never shows itself when I am looking (sometimes for hours) or it is invisible.

I am in the process of buying a house and if I haven't found it by the time I close I will thoroughly inspect every piece of live rock. I generally am against killing anything but when I find it ....

Thanks,
Brandon

 

[jledon4]

find it, and when you do drop it in the toilet sit down and take a good shot at it... this happened to me with a mantis a wile ago, i had to remove and nuke all my rock and sand to find this guy. i found him when the rock was sitting in a bleach solution were he died and came to float. he killed a pistol shrimp, two yasha gobies and a mystery wrasse! good luck killing it

 

[Oceanslayer18]

Its not very common but it could be a large bristle worm hiding in your rock. Whatever you do.. Don't touch it. I don't recall tge names but there are reef safe fish that may way these guys if not put the riverside inside of a bottle. That's how I caught my peppermint shrimp

 

[zoous]

You might have more then one pest. As for the palythoas you might have some type of nudibranch eating them. Have you put anything new in the tank recently?

 

[bct15]

Nothing new has been added, an I am positive it's not a nudi...occasionally the frag will be moved or the way the polyps are ripped up is not the work if a nudi

 

[zoous]

Good luck in catching whatever is messing up your tank. Let us know when you find it.

 

[bct15]

I'll post a pic of it when I catch it and probably a video if it's demise. I've literally been after this thing for months now.

 

[jledon4]

do you have any starfish?? i've seen them go at them like if they were candy... they rip them just like you say. we have a some zoa's in a tank were there are also some starfish being kept to feed a pair of harlequin shrimps, the **** thing is always on the rack were the zoa's are at!

 

[btkrausen]

Had a hitch hiker crab that killed three fire fish that just happened to sleep in his rock. Always wondered why theybwere disappearing one by one, then I found the crab. Needless to say, he got skewered with a bbq skewer.

 

[gflat65]

I had a large mitrax crab eating zoas and a few other things once. A Mason jar with some krill in the bottom (propped up against the rockwork) got him the first night.

Other things to look for are Eunicid worms. They can be pretty big and go unnoticed for years sometimes. I had a friend in college that kept losing small fish. We tore his tank down for a move and found two that were 18" long (in a 30 gallon). Those are little guys, but explained the missing fish and dead coral. Not easy to remove, though. You'll usually see them more at night. If they see you, they are gone.

Whatever it is, you may find someone like me that likes oddities and can put it in a home. My wife gets on to me for taking in other people's hitchikers:D.


Just noticed the Starkville location... Sorry to hear that:D. Go Rebs;).

 

[bct15]

I caught three of my mythrax crabs last night in the cups, I have four. One is pretty big, maybe has something to do with the polyps. I'm gonna reset the cups again tonight as the concept is working, just a matter of time before I figure out what it is. I put them back, but maybe I should put them in the sump?

 

[gflat65]

That's not a bad place for them. That leaves them still somewhat available for duty in a more confined area. They might predate some pods, etc., but unless you have a small sump, I wouldn't expect issues with decimating the populations or anything. I made the mistake of ordering a bunch of mitrax one time thinking they'd clear the algae. They did, but also took a liking for some coral. I got a mixed bag of sizes and colors-some were massive (they should have gotten their own tank from the start). Luckily, they are easy to get back out of the tank and relocate, as you've discovered with the cup trick.