Ricordea Predators, Irritaters, & Diseases

[Azurel]

Here is a topic we don't have yet really for ricordea and we can branch it out to Corallimorphs in total as well......

The last week I have noticed that about 5-6 of my rics have had partial tearing of the pedal disk and a few have been torn to the point of complete falling off the rock. I watched last night cause I had the night off and didn't notice anything that was picking at them or eating them. I do have a very large cleaner shrimp that doesn't clean a thing and at night seems to be going all over the rock work picking. Now the rics on the rock work and a inch or so off the sane are not being messed up only ones on the sand that are on pebbles of rock. What do you guys/gals think it could be? Personally I am thinking it is the shrimp but I have no proof. I would say they are splitting but a few of them only had one mouth and the very edge maybe a 1/8 of an inch of the pedal is torn to where there is a whole in the ric. I had a purple one that was doing really well and split over the last 2 months into 5 well I have one left and the other 3 I had are all torn up and came off the rock.....I haven't done any water test either as it is only 5-6 of the rics out of a 100 or so.......What do you guys think?

 

[J. Montgomery]

5-6 rics out of ~100 . . . they may just be on the move. I've only got a few rics, and they're fairly new (just a few months). I've had mushrooms since day one in my tank, and nothing has ever bothered them (except my pavona coral that wacked a few); instead that do a nasty number on SPS corals that get too close. My mushrooms move around all the time, I'll see one floating in the water every other week or so.

 

[surfn]

josh, how is that little baby ric doin?

 

[J. Montgomery]

So far so good. The color is bangin'.

I got a green and blue ric from Jim at the grand opening of Atlantis, and it's begining to split. Those are my only rics currently, and they're doing great so far.

Craig and Olga have quite a few sweet looking ricordeas, including some real pretty blues.

 

[Azurel]

I wish they were just moving, Looks like something is getting at them no more have had issues but makes me nervous.....

 

[J. Montgomery]

What does the damage look like?

Keep us updated.

 

[Azurel]

I will try and get a pic......

 

[THE BEAUT]

check for a eunicid(sp) worm. I have seen one take big bites out of my rics before. when i finally caught the sucker everything recovered. It like zoas to, by the way.

 

[TyreeUM]

james please post a pic if you can

 

[Azurel]

I will Matt......I thought the same thing Marcel....

 

[Azurel]

I will try and get a pic of the injury today, but last night I was looking after the lights went out and this is what I saw on some that were injured.

The base of the ric had a jelly like material that when closed the edge of the polyp would touch. In this "stuff" there were tiny and I mean tiny copapod like things moving around in it. The only ric that are effected are the ones that are on the sand and have rubble under them. I have some rics that are on the sand with larger rocks and they are not being effected. When I started to pull some of the bad rics out to look under better light this morning there were no "pods" in the stuff but under more looking they had moved to the very back of the jelly like mass to stay out of the light. One I pulled it kinda opened up and I could see some swim away and move onto the glass.

So I did some freshwater dips on a few that I think I can save, I lost all of my Grape koolaid rics a couple of orange/pinks and one that Currentking sent me that was a mix of pink and bright orange. I lost one as well that I had for the last 3 years that was the only one that I could keep alive and was doing great up till 1-2 weeks ago.....All in all I have found that if I move the rics after a good washing they start to re-open and show no more signs of the problem I also move them up into the rock work and being mind full not to put them close to any others that were not having this issue. As I don't want to potentially spread it to others that were fine...No pink Florida ricordea are involved in this as well(just to let you know)......Still not sure what to think of it but I have no more rics on the sand to see if I can stop this from continuing. I don't care to lose my collection, so I to me does not seem that there is a large predator but these small tiny pod like things that are going after them as the set up a jelly house and eat as they see fit.......I will try and get a pic of the damage, I cannot get a pic of the things as they are about the size of a pinhead.......

 

[korndogg091]

do you have fish?

 

[Kigs!]

When I went away for about a week and came back, I noticed that the peppermints developed a taste for some of my yumas. Maybe an invert is picking on it?

 

[J. Montgomery]

I noticed that the peppermints developed a taste for some of my yumas.

My peppermint can be quite the SOB, he's totally wiped out my population of stomatella snails (easily a few hundred) and eaten most of my feather dusters.

 

[Azurel]

Well I fond out as posted in the last few of my post that it isn't the skunk shrimp that is causing the issue but these dark black/red copapods. I have saved most of the rics but have lost about 10 in total. I have freshwater dipped the ones that were showing issues and the left over water was full of these little black/red specks of critters. I have never heard or seen this before and cannot find any information on any predators of this type for ricordea. They do seem to not like light and hid under the rocks and rubble of the rics they are eating up. SO I dipped them as well, I am going to do another water change and another round of dips on the rocks that the rics sit on. I that thought about trying an interceptor treatment but don't A) Know where to get it as I don't have a dog, B0 if it would be more trouble then it's worth since the dips of the rics seem to be working but they(ric pods) are still in the tank......Not really sure of what to do at this point, I know all the ones I have moved away from the sand have returned to their happy state but don't really like them being in the rocks the way they are......I might try a mandarin as I have had stellar success over the years with these fish and have trained quite a few to eat frozen mysis and cyclop-eeze.

 

[cbreefer]

hey Jim,
Did you try some more waterflow or a busy fish ( like a melanarus sp?wrasse). It sounds weired but if they are arrobic you may be able to upset them and have them bury into the anarobic area of your sand , starve them of o2 and die. I've had it work for flatworms in the past.

 

[Azurel]

Hey Chris,

The area of the tank that the rics are in is one of the highest flow area of the tank......It's kinda weird cause at night they come out during the day I cannot see any of them. Not sure if something came in a ric and hatched out or what but I think I am getting a heads up on it as I haven't seen the continuation of the problem in that last 48+ hrs. There is one that I dipped last night that was showing some signs but I dipped it and I don't see any of the pods in the water. I think it might be splitting now anyway, it was being bothered by them but doesn't seem to be now......I have saved most of the rics. I think I am going to try and get a mandarin as I know they are much better at probing through the small areas of the rock then my 6line is. He don't due to much any more but beg for food...LOL.....I did lose about maybe 6-10 rics only one type I am really po'ed about and that is the Grape purples I traded Justin.....I might have to get one back from him in time.

 

[Azurel]

OK here is an update, I lost one more ricordea but that seems to be the last one that was having any issues. None now seem to be having any issues and all have moved away from the area that was under attack. I think I might be out of the woods on this but keeping my fingers crossed.....Still could not find anything on the net about a ricordea predator so I will have to keep guessing I guess...LOL.

If anybody elsse has seen or found predators of rics etc...PLease post and share with us.....My situation as far as I can tell is rare as there is no infor out there what so ever about small micro pods eating rics...

 

[Azurel]

IF you come across any issues with predators or irritators for Florida ricordea and Yumas please post here. This way we can document these issues and have a some what of a log to place and find them.

Thanks
James

 

[Biertrinker]

Lost a few rics last weekend, and others appear torn up. All my sps are fine, but I noticed today even a mushroom is all folded up and irritated. After watching a while, I saw a peppermint shrimp picking at the base of the mushroom. The rics are torn from the inside near the mouths, looks like something has been pecking at them a while. I've trapped both my peppermint shrimp and will hold them for a week. I'll update later- hopefully after my rics have all recovered.

Btw Josh- I feel your pain- I had beautiful huge colonies of three different kinds of feather dusters in my Carib biotope. Shrimp cleaned them all out.