Prove me wrong

Are hitchhikers and the issues they potentially cause the most overblown "problem" in the hobby?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 24.2%
  • No

    Votes: 12 36.4%
  • Not the most overblown but close

    Votes: 11 33.3%
  • Hitchikers are the devil

    Votes: 2 6.1%

  • Total voters
    33

lapin

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This is a hard question.
You have 1000 manufactures telling us we need to do stuff to our tanks for years and now many believe them
Anyone of them can be an overblown prob fixed by some potion or ........
 

Jekyl

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There are many ways to deal with every single different hitchhiker out there. However no one is selling a time machine to mature your rocks
 

Spare time

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Depends. Velvet is a hitchhiker, so is every other disease. Aiptaisia, vermatids, AEFW, parasitic isopods, etc., are all not fun. Bristleworms can cause some nasty stings and fireworms can be dangerous. Certain algae can be a pain. Bobbit worms can kill very expensive fish. Until you've had to deal with them in large numbers, you may not think that they are an issue.

Copepods and amphipods are great. So is coralline algae. They are also a hitchhiker.

The term is too broad. It's like asking is element dosing overrated in this hobby.
 

Cell

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Depends on the hitchiker.

I'd vote for presence of algae.
 

srobertb

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Depends. Velvet is a hitchhiker, so is every other disease. Aiptaisia, vermatids, AEFW, parasitic isopods, etc., are all not fun. Bristleworms can cause some nasty stings and fireworms can be dangerous. Certain algae can be a pain. Bobbit worms can kill very expensive fish. Until you've had to deal with them in large numbers, you may not think that they are an issue.

Copepods and amphipods are great. So is coralline algae. They are also a hitchhiker.

The term is too broad. It's like asking is element dosing overrated in this hobby.
Yeah. There are a lot of hitchhikers that are bad. So many things will choke out your tank or kill all your fish.

algae sucks and it’s ugly but velvet or a Eunice worm are far worse.
 
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Sump Crab

Sump Crab

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Velvet and Brook (both hitchhikers) are rampant in the fish supply supply chain.

Each can wipe a tank in days.

Done.
I must be very lucky. Been the poster child of doing everything wrong when it comes to hitchhikers for the last 15 years and have never had any catastrophic issue related to a hitchhiker or disease.
 

Lost in the Sauce

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I must be very lucky. Been the poster child of doing everything wrong when it comes to hitchhikers for the last 15 years and have never had any catastrophic issue related to a hitchhiker or disease.
I was super lucky as well, until 7 weeks ago.

1/2 of my fish were dead in a day.
 

Jekyl

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I don't think this thread was started with aim at fish disease. More of what may come in on rocks or frags. Fish disease can be easily managed with an observation period prior to tank addition.
 

Spare time

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I must be very lucky. Been the poster child of doing everything wrong when it comes to hitchhikers for the last 15 years and have never had any catastrophic issue related to a hitchhiker or disease.

You are very lucky. I work at an lfs and fish disease is the number 1 cause of someone to crash their tank or leave the hobby.
 

Montiman

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Hitch hikers are totally overblown. Particularly on Live rock.

On sick or infected livestock they are still overblown but not as much.

Sometimes I think we forget what we lost on our journey to perfection. I remember staring at my first reef tank with nothing but live rock in it for the first two months after I set it up. I was in the 8th grade and would sit on the floor of my bedroom for an hour just looking at the rock to see what I could find. I was instantly hooked on reef tanks.

Now that amazing experience is gone because everyone is going with dry rock. The only problem hitch hiker I had from my live rock was aiptasia and all I did to fix it was add a $30 file fish.
 
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Sump Crab

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I don't think this thread was started with aim at fish disease. More of what may come in on rocks or frags. Fish disease can be easily managed with an observation period prior to tank addition.

Yes, I will admit I was more so referring to the critters we generally call hitchhikers rather than disease.
 

Spare time

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I generally believe that most fish deaths due to disease (especially mass casualty events) are a symptom of poor husbandry.

That's not true (unless you mean qt as husbandry). A fish doesn't get sick from velvet or similar because of poor quality water or care. They get sick because they get in contact with it and the disease kills them. It's sorta like saying that Marburg hemorrhaging virus only happens / kills people because they aren't eating a good diet. Sure some fish may fare better than others with certain sicknesses and some sicknesses they can overcome, but diseases like velvet are not like the common cold.
 

Spare time

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I also think the degree of how bad a pest is is the type of tank, fish, corals, possible predators, etc.
 

DeniseAndy

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Seriously depends on the hitchhiker to me. Velvet, brooklynella are absolute monsters and terrible. Not overblown at all.
Flatworms, aiptasia (as long as it is a few) are not bad. Mantis shrimp can be a rough one if you have smaller fish they will eat and clean up crew. Euclid worms, yes they are horrible! Pyramid snails are a right pain and can be bad, but controllable.
Sponges and bugs and algae and stuff is great.
 
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