You think AEFW is bad? Pycnogonid infestation!! Is my tank doomed?

[eamike261]

Sorry if this isn't the right forum section, but these Pycnogonids (AKA Sea Spiders) seem to eat any type of coral that looks delicious.

If anyone has dealt with these, please chime in!

After 1+ month thinking I had AEFW (because the acro bites from these Sea Spiders look just like AEFW bites) and treating the tank with Purge, I finally caught these reef terrorists in the act on my PC Rainbow and Red Planet.

For your viewing pleasure:

The damage: (notice it looks very similar to AEFW bites)

There is very little information and discussion about these guys on reef forums. Melev believes these are SPS eaters. So at this point I hoped they would be only "acro eating sea spiders" that I might beat with consistent dips or total removal of acros.

But after 3 days of rigorous magnifying glass searching (these guys are very hard to see) their expanded diet was unveiled when I caught them sucking down my Acans. And I haven't proved it yet but I'm almost certain they'll happily munch on Zoanthids.

You can see how bothered they look (not plumped up like normal), but they're handling it much better than the SPS, as you would expect.

Despite only seeing a couple on the Acans I managed to knock off and kill 5-10 with a Coral RX dip. Which is somehow comforting and terrifying at once...

So at this point I'm very worried that my only option to be rid of them is to reboot the entire tank and start over entirely

The only other mention I can find on the forums about Sea Spiders is this guy who apparently had success with Interceptor but I'm skeptical jump on a treatment from one person's post. Plus there seems to be a lot of negativity towards Interceptor.

I'm hoping others can offer any experience they've had with Pycnogonids (Sea Spiders).

If interested here at two videos. One alive in regular salt water and one moving around finding the juiciest part of my Acan.

 

[eamike261]

You know what... I just now saw one on my Birdsnest, one on my RR Prometheus, and multiple inside the rock underneath where the Acans used to be. Is it even worth dipping or is this futile?

 

[ZaneTer]

Have you considered a wrasse? I have a few and they are ferocious devourers of anything that moves.

 

[Katrina71]

I was wondering about a wrasse too.

 

[ZaneTer]

My six line eats everything that is less than 3mm, my Spanish hogfish will just about kill anything that gets in its way of a meal so it takes care of the larger stuff and my harlequin tusk is just useless. It looks pretty but has no interest in searching the rocks.

I have always had excellent luck with halichoeres wrasses but I no longer have a sandbed to support them.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I never had an out break of them. But had one or 2 survive and iodine dip. Used a turkey baster to suck them out of. They have poor movement ability are very slow.

Try removing the stony corals and gently dislodge the spider you can see in a tupperware container with a turkey baster. I dont know their reproductive cycle to be honest. But could try qt the corals and place on a dip or clean schedule, say every 6 days dip.

 

[reefwiser]

They are tougher than AEFW's best to shut the system down.

 

[ZaneTer]

They are tougher than AEFW's best to shut the system down.

I trust reefwisers advice. He is very knowledgeable so personally I would follow it.

 

[reefwiser]

My Friend Steve Tyree had this happen on one of his systems years ago and he tried everything to kill them. Ended up shutting it down and losing corals.

 

[Subsea]

How mature is your tank?

Consider testing a peroxide dip on sea spiders. 10% solution for 10 minutes. If it works on them, then get enough 5G buckets to do all rocks.

 

[eamike261]

Have you considered a wrasse? I have a few and they are ferocious devourers of anything that moves.

I considered it but was hoping someone would be able to mention experience trying a wrasse. Do they hunt at night? These guys are pretty much 100% nocturnal.

I never had an out break of them. But had one or 2 survive and iodine dip. Used a turkey baster to suck them out of. They have poor movement ability are very slow.

Try removing the stony corals and gently dislodge the spider you can see in a tupperware container with a turkey baster. I dont know their reproductive cycle to be honest. But could try qt the corals and place on a dip or clean schedule, say every 6 days dip.

I've tried sucking a couple off with a turkey baster with medium success. They're slow but they have a surprisingly strong grip for such skinny legs and once they climb under a frag it's hard to reach in with the tip of the turkey baster. Even shaking them around violently in a tupperware container with regular saltwater doesn't knock them without a dip.

Setting up a qt for the coral doesn't appear to be a viable option to eliminate them. They live in the rockwork so it could takes many months for them to starve out (especially since they don't just feed on corals). At this point, trying to qt every coral in my tank just means setting up a whole new tank and then why even bother keeping the current one running? Might as well reboot :/

They are tougher than AEFW's best to shut the system down.

My Friend Steve Tyree had this happen on one of his systems years ago and he tried everything to kill them. Ended up shutting it down and losing corals.

Argh... based on everything that is known about them (which isn't much) and my observations I'm afraid that will be the only option feeling very hopeless about this. I spent several hours last night cutting down their population to buy myself time while I figured out what to do.

How mature is your tank?

Consider testing a peroxide dip on sea spiders. 10% solution for 10 minutes. If it works on them, then get enough 5G buckets to do all rocks.

The tank has been setup for 5 months. Will the peroxide dip cause a new cycle?

 

[ZaneTer]

I am REALLY sorry. I completely believe that it might be better to follow reefwisers advice and start over.
He is way more knowledgeable than I am.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I'm thinking 6-Line Wrasse or even a file fish. My filefish that took out all aiptaisia won't say no to even small hermits! He is going to be living in the sump at the new setup.

 

[eamike261]

I am REALLY sorry. I completely believe that it might be better to follow reefwisers advice and start over.
He is way more knowledgeable than I am.

Thanks @reefwiser do you happen to recall if Steve Tyree tried a wrasse?

 

[Elegance Coral]

Melanurus wrasse. Typically not as big a jerk as 6 line wrasses, and they're dedicated bug eaters.

 

[ca1ore]

I think you have two options …..

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Please don't shut down the tank right away. There has to be something that will work and it would be great if you would give a few things a try before you toss it all. Are they even eating the coral or just bothering them by eating the mucus or something, the damage looks like they are just irritated?
Why not try the interceptor in the tank at twice the strength? Interceptor is completely fine to use, your pod population will bounce back very quickly as well. This is way easier than shutting down the tank. Also if you experiment with a few dips, revive, coral rx, and try melafix, maybe you can find the one that works the best. Great pictures by the way, sorry you had to go through this. It would be a good one to post in the sps forum.

 

[Potatohead]

I would try a wrasse before shutting down. Really nothing to lose by trying.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Also I would imagine they are like the zoanthid spiders in that they need a male and a female to make more.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Perhaps try either https://www.uwcmn.com/purge-in-tank-aefw-treatment

Or the expel dip.

They are new perhaps might help with sea spiders no idea though.

ime i had them survive both seachem Reef Dip and bayer dips. But i only had them on frags. And i didnt add them to the system for awhile after i found them. Did something resembling ttm except using dt water for the wc. Frags were easier to control by removal as no rock work to hide in. used a lot of flow in the qt so they would be less likely to latch on(in my mind anyway lol) and each day changed 100% water. Before added to the DT looked at each frag carefully to make sure i saw no spiders left.