What is the WORST pest in the hobby?

Big C

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Well I had Asterina Starfish. Hundreds.



Got a Harlequin Shrimp few weeks ago.



The Asterina's are almost all gone (few dozen left). Now I'm worried about the Harlequin Shrimp starving when he get the last one. Do Asterina Starfish do damage? No idea. I just had to many. Will the tank now stuffer some symptom without them? (like algae grown on rock). We'll see.



I do have Aptasia and I need them (wish I had more growin). They grow in my Sump and make their way to my DT where a eager copperband butterfly hunts down the Aptasia sprouts all day and night. It's a double edge sword in some ways. A year ago the prevous copperband died (probably starved). Soon and he was gone, the Aptasia outbreak took off. Till the next copperband went in.

Bristle worms are in all my Tanks. Never out of control.

But you missed a couple of pests I hate. VERMITID Snails. I've had them a few time and I'll hunt their webs to their location till I get every one. I've see their web to damage to SPS expectially when their are small frags and don't have the height, thus get stung but the Vermitid web.

The 2nd Pest I have in one of my tanks I can't eliminate. COLONIAL HYDRIODS. Nasty small pests that spout up all over the rocks. Looks awful when the take over a rockscape. I tried treatments like Fenbendazole, but it really doesn't kill them completly. I got them under control by no longer SPRAY FEEDING the Corals. Never saw them for over a year+ and forget they were there. Few weeks ago I started Aminos/Coral food. They showed up instantly.


I second the dreaded vermitid snails. Oh how I hate those things. Found a nice set of dentistry tools to crush their little tubes..... ;Rage;Rage;Rage
 

ZoWhat

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LFS staff who are only there to collect a paycheck are by far the worst pests in this hobby

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KingTideCorals

KingTideCorals

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LFS staff who are only there to collect a paycheck are by far the worst pests in this hobby

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Uh oh Dwight making an appearance! LOL

This can be an issue for sure and something I see being a real issue for new hobbyists.. I sometimes have corrected some of the LFS workers when talking to customers..

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Gtinnel

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For me personally I would says dinos. I have luckily avoided any of the pests the eat corals.

I was at a fish store with my wife one day and there were a bunch of asterina starfish in one of the tanks, and my wife suggested that we buy some of them to put in our tank. This is why she isn't allowed near my tank.
 

dtruitt

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Monti eating nudibranches have given me the most headaches. A few rounds of dips and some good pest hunting fish seem to contain them for months on end, but they flare back up whenever anything gets out of whack. No casualties, but it's a nuisance to move frags that are getting out of control when I have to disclose that they may or may not have nudis, despite every effort to inspect + dip prior to transport.
 

lba4590

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Definitely myself. But also red bugs. Infested my frag tank but I barely managed to destroy them. I’ve been so meticulous I really haven’t had many pests in my DT. In my coral QT/frag tank however I have seen some crazy things. I murder them all.. at least I hope.. my DT is much bigger so I can’t really be sure but I’ve definitely had some alk swings and high nitrates caused by none other than myself that have caused way more damage than any pest.
 

X-37B

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Monti eating Nudi's.
I will never put a monti in another sps dominant tank again.
I have 7 montis in my 120.
3 are large colonies.
I had monti's about a year ago and nothing since.
I outbreaks on 2 different monti's that I can see.
My tank is too grown in to take anything out.
My working upgrade will be 95% sps zero monti's, as much as I like them.
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Pete_the_Puma

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Having battled Bryopsis, Cyanobacteria, red bugs, Acro eating flatworms, Regular “planaria” flatworms, aptaisia and Dinos over the last 15 years of reefing I can tell you without a hint of doubt:

Dinos are by far the worse!
 

Shooter6

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I vote majano anemone. They multiply way faster then aptasia, and no reef safe predator of them.
 
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