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

[vetteguy53081]

melanuarus or yellow coris wrasse should.
You can also shock them with a laser or aptasia wand

 

[eamike261]

I've had them a couple of times in my 180. IMO they are much easier to treat then AEFW. I treated with interceptor, pretty strong and rigorous dosing. I did a whole tablet of the chewable for the big dog for 24 hours and did a 10% water change. Retreated 2 days after water change for another 24 hours and another 10% water change. 3rd treat 2 days after second treat for another 24 hours with another 10% water change. Remove all carbon while treating. After the second time of having these spiders I have not seen another one since the second time, hope this helps.

That does help! Thank you. Glad to see others have had success with Interceptor.

melanuarus or yellow coris wrasse should.
You can also shock them with a laser or aptasia wand

Any particular reason you recommend those two wrasse as opposed to something like a six line? Just less of a bully than a six line?

 

[John A!10]

Interesting, would it need to be Neon Dottyback? Would an Orchid Dottyback and others eat pests too?



Yes I have been a mildly concerned about adding a wrasse since I only have about 1-2cm sandbed, it's not very deep and I do have some corals placed down in the sand that I wondered if it might knock around.

I’ve heard of neon dottybacks but most likely others.

 

[Dsnakes]

I found one in my reef right before leaving for a long trip ;Nailbiting I pulled it, but I suppose there are likely more of them in there.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sea-spider.507668/

 

[VanT]

Interceptor works. 100% I had AEFW before I had these spiders. AEFW wiped out my SPS tank & I had to start over only to be infested by these spiders. I treated my 90 gallon with 1/3 pill and didn't do a water change at all until my next regularly scheduled water change two weeks later. I never run carbon or even a protein skimmer in my system. These two things will dilute the interceptor.

 

[VanT]

You'll need a flashlight to see them because they only come out at night so a wrasse won't be that effective because wrasses generally sleep at night usually buried in the sand. You might need two consecutive treatments depending on how bad your tank's infestation is.

 

[LCC]

Take a look at tidalgardens.com i remember watching on of his YouTube videos about dealing with these spiders. Unfortunately i dont remember if it was manual removal or a natural predator to deal with them.

 

[EmdeReef]

Sorry for your problems.

Interceptor is pretty safe, have to watch for bristle worm dieoff and potential ammonia spikes. IME not 100% reef safe, may kill snails and shrimp. It will also irritate corals but shouldn’t cause permanent damage.

Before shutting down, as the last step, you could try fenbendazole.

Fenbendazole is not reef safe so will have to remove snails, anemones, shrimp, worms and it is likely to irritate/damage soft and lps corals, less so acros.

Good luck!

 

[Sharkbate]

Just putting this out there as your scenario doesn’t seem to have a happy ending at this point ,and I have no experience with spiders (shudder) !!
What about a Valentini puffer, I have a small one and he’s out till dark and all over the rockwork nipping and inspecting ! he will eat live food pellets and algae ......so may take a liking to little creepy crawlies!!! Just saying ... and good luck ....sounds horrific :-/

 

[Subsea]

Interceptor does not kill ALL inverts in a healthy mature tank. Maybe in a new tank with a small population of bugs it could, but not a mature tank. I have had skunk cleaners and peppermints survive the treatment and be fine two days later, with all red bugs gone. It doesn't completely wipe out all pods or arthropods. Some survive and the population grows back to the same numbers quicker than you would imagine in a well fed tank. It does kill all red bugs if done right though. I only use one treatment as well since they give birth to live bugs and don't lay eggs there is no need unless you want to be positive two for piece of mind. Which most people do because they want to trade corals with confidence. But this thread is about the spiders. I would just try it in a gallon of water with an infected piece and document the strength you need. If it works, use it. There are a lot of people who want things to be as natural as possible.

Is the killing mechanism in Exit differrent than Inteceptor?

 

[Reefcowboy]

I would try filefish, wrasses before anything. There must be some fish who will see these spiders as a tasty meal.
Not related, but I had a budy give me a zoa frag with spiders(zoa spiders, maybe a different type of parasite?). They look exactly the same. I shook it in the bag , dropping a few from the frag. I then dipped it and the remaining died.

When I placed the frag in the tank, a dead spider got carried by the pump current and my pylie wrasse came from underneath a rock frivolously to eat it before the others saw it. I grabbed another dead spider from the dip contained with a net and put it in the tank, the pylie rushed and chomped it quickly again.

 

[mannyhernz]

Since youre already infested..i think the suggestion of experimenting with them using different products to try and kill them is a good idea. A wrasse (if it eats them) to keep them at bay, and experimenting on them like a mad scientist.

 

[reeffreak911]

How about trying that stuff that kills red bug

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Interceptor is safe to use, I prefer to dose Dr. G’s coral dip, it has same ingredient as interceptor but is more readily available.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Is the killing mechanism in Exit differrent than Inteceptor?

Flatworm exit? Yea two totally different things.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I got a haliochearus biocellatus wrasse, similar to melanurus, and i no longer see copepods, snails, amphipods, worms or anything else in my DT... worth a shot and a great fat fish. Only thing it doesnt eat is mini seastars and vermatid while in shell (he follows my bone cutter and eats them when I break em open.)

 

[gig 'em]

Here’s a thread I made on how I eradicated them from my old tank a few years ago.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/34702-sea-spiders/

Essentially Lugol’s did the trick for me.

 

[KenO]

Sorry for your problems.

Interceptor is pretty safe, have to watch for bristle worm dieoff and potential ammonia spikes. IME not 100% reef safe, may kill snails and shrimp. It will also irritate corals but shouldn’t cause permanent damage.

Before shutting down, as the last step, you could try fenbendazole.

Fenbendazole is not reef safe so will have to remove snails, anemones, shrimp, worms and it is likely to irritate/damage soft and lps corals, less so acros.

Good luck!

Fendbendazole will also kill clove polyps, GSP and Xenia. It will also get absorbed into your rocks. I used it to kill blue clove polyps that were taking over my tanks. It took months for me to remove the Fendbendazole from my system. I did large water changes and used carbon. It killed the blue cloves so I had to deal with the after effects. It did wipe out my pods and bristle worms. I would use a Xenia kinda like a carnary in coal mine. If I put a piece of Xenia in the tanks and it died, typically within 24 hours I new the med was still in there. Like I said it took months to rid the tanks of the meds. I can now see pods again, I haven’t tried adding any bristle worms.

 

[eamike261]

Sorry for the silence, been mostly offline for the holidays. I have not tried Interceptor or a predatorial fish yet, but I've been checking every night and morning and pulling roughly 1 out per day with tweezers. Unfortunately the turkey baster just won't pull them off. And sometimes with a tweezer all I get is a leg and they escape. I haven't fully lost any coral yet but my PC Rainbow is suffering from STN and looks like it will be gone in a couple weeks. Some other coral randomly look bothered for a few days, which could be nothing or it could be the spiders... However, I did catch one RED HANDED sucking down a purple people eater zoanthid that was closed for a few days afterwards.

So now I've witnessed them on acros, birdsnest, digidata, acans, favia, and zoas thus far. But I have not caught them eating euphyllia (I have torch, hammer, and alveopora).

I've seen some super tiny babies in the last few days so I need to pull the trigger on a solution soon. I have reservations about both options:

With the predatorial fish, wrasse or dottyback, I am concerned that it will take some patience to determine if the fish is even eating them. I'll need to give it 3-4 weeks to determine if it's being effective. And I already have 2 large clowns in my JBJ30 so I'm pretty limited on fish options. I don't want them to be aggressive with each other. Most types of wrasse would have to be moved out of my tank due to size after a while.

With Interecptor I worry about decimating my massive pod population and other life (feather dusters, bristle worms, urchins, etc.). I'm not sure what to do with my hermit crab while I dose it. Despite people using it I still feel a little afraid of possible unintended consequences.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I've dosed interceptor and I don't think my hermits died. My emeralds did not die either, but I can't say if it shortened their life or not. snails we fine, pods came back in time. I think having to repopulate pods is not a big deal if it means saving your coral. If it were me, I would go for a wrasse like a yellow coris or melanarus or same genus wrasse. They will make short work of it. I had a little snail problem, the good kind of tiny snail, but they kept getting into my vortech. My Christmas Wrasse took care of the problem in no time. I have little doubt that a wrasse will solve your problem.