Zoa eating culprit?
- Thread starter Dolphin2409
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CMMorgan
Counting my blessings...
I would lose my flipping mind. Where did it come from? Did you ever source it? Live rock? Hitchhiker? I got hebbie jeebies from a hitchhiking baby bristle worm in my QT. If I found that thing in my tank, I would literally be checking in to a hotel.
I found that it was living under this huge Hollywood stunner chalice for about the 4 years it took the coral to grow to that size. Otherwise tank had huge rocks covered with zoa that would just disappear. I’d buy another rock 100 polyps and 2-3 months later zoa all gone. For years I thought my zoa was just melting away. Till one day seen half his body sticking out cause all zoa was gone. He must have ate 3-400 orange bambam Zoas smh. So in the beginning of my saltwater journey over 10 years ago I bought 250lbs of live rock straight from ocean. In this came 2 large mantis and this Eunice and many very large flat worms aswell took many years to get I think them all out.
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CMMorgan
Counting my blessings...
Yeah.. ok then... Giving me lots of reasons to reconsider that whole live rock idea. Have I mentioned that I once pointed a shotgun at a nonvenomous snake?
Lol
I have r been wanting more rock lately but after what I went thru I’m sure I never will again now I watch local forums and buy from other hobbyist tanks but first ask them what pest they have
Karen00
2500 Club Member
O...M...G!!!!! I would never have been able to sleep at night until these were out of my house!!! They look like things the aliens from Alpha Centauri would drop off during a fly by of earth! Every scary nightmare I can think of was living in your tank!
I end up giving him his own 20 gallon that he would aqua scape himself daily and I fed him pellets everyday that he eventually after a month would fully come out and eat then every time.
Karen00
2500 Club Member
All I can say.... You are a brave soul!! I can deal with a lot of slithery creatures (I love snakes, etc) but those guys are beyond my ability to cope. Haha!! I still can't get over the length of that worm!!
OP
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Dolphin2409
Active Member
Ah seriously, how the f**Kidd you find a snake, venomous or not, in your fish tank?
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Dolphin2409
Active Member
Ok, I’ve slept on it. Well what I actually mean is that I barely slept at all! When you have the house in absolute darkness except for the tiny red light and it suddenly appears for the first time it’s a little unnerving. The red glow definitely adds to the ‘atmosphere’
I went down 3 times during the night to check on it and on each occasion it was poking from a different hole in the same rock - not sure if it wanted to play whack-a-mole!!! In any case I’m hoping that this rock is where it’s lair is (home doesn’t seem an appropriate word) so my current thinking is...
1. I’ll remove any corals frags that are on the rock
2. I’ll remove rock and give it about 5 minutes of fresh air to see if it slithers out on it own. Maybe I should the hold the rock over some salt water to entice it or actually place the rock in some saltwater and gradually take the rock out to encourage it to move as it realises that the water level is dropping
3. If above fails I think next step is to dip rock in fresh water and see if that works better
4. I’ll buy a vibranium arm (like Bucky Barnes has) and go after him myself
Open to other suggestions also. Trying to avoid having to use my hand to pull it out if possible but might buy some gloves just in case I need to resort to hand-to-worm combat
if I do prove victorious (I feel braver during the daytime) I’ll take photo / video and post it - don’t think the wife would let me mount it over the fireplace.
Wish me luck!
I went down 3 times during the night to check on it and on each occasion it was poking from a different hole in the same rock - not sure if it wanted to play whack-a-mole!!! In any case I’m hoping that this rock is where it’s lair is (home doesn’t seem an appropriate word) so my current thinking is...
1. I’ll remove any corals frags that are on the rock
2. I’ll remove rock and give it about 5 minutes of fresh air to see if it slithers out on it own. Maybe I should the hold the rock over some salt water to entice it or actually place the rock in some saltwater and gradually take the rock out to encourage it to move as it realises that the water level is dropping
3. If above fails I think next step is to dip rock in fresh water and see if that works better
4. I’ll buy a vibranium arm (like Bucky Barnes has) and go after him myself
Open to other suggestions also. Trying to avoid having to use my hand to pull it out if possible but might buy some gloves just in case I need to resort to hand-to-worm combat
if I do prove victorious (I feel braver during the daytime) I’ll take photo / video and post it - don’t think the wife would let me mount it over the fireplace.
Wish me luck!
You could try a bottle trap if you wanted. I gave up on that after gluing three two liter bottles together and still having the bait disappear with no worm inside. You could also try the pantyhose that was suggested to me, I tried that too with no luck.
If you can remove the corals, you could try a freshwater dip. It might kill everything on the rock, but it's only one rock. Make sure that you get all of him, they can regrow from the segments. You could just replace the rock too and let the other sit in the sun for awhile. I went ahead and replaced half of my rock with Real Reef and Life Rock. It was nice to re-scape the tank and make it more accessible. My tank (120 gallon) could probably only support one without total destruction, but being paranoid, I had to be sure. I started with all dry rock 5 years ago, so he must have come in on a coral as an egg or very small. I have been dipping the corals for a few years now, I figure that he was in there for probably the 5 years when I didn't know any better.
I wanted to shoot a video of him, but no one wanted to step foot inside my house to give a helping hand
!
If you can remove the corals, you could try a freshwater dip. It might kill everything on the rock, but it's only one rock. Make sure that you get all of him, they can regrow from the segments. You could just replace the rock too and let the other sit in the sun for awhile. I went ahead and replaced half of my rock with Real Reef and Life Rock. It was nice to re-scape the tank and make it more accessible. My tank (120 gallon) could probably only support one without total destruction, but being paranoid, I had to be sure. I started with all dry rock 5 years ago, so he must have come in on a coral as an egg or very small. I have been dipping the corals for a few years now, I figure that he was in there for probably the 5 years when I didn't know any better.
I wanted to shoot a video of him, but no one wanted to step foot inside my house to give a helping hand
!
OP
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Dolphin2409
Active Member
I have the rock out about 20 minutes hanging just above a bucket of saltwater but nothing happening yetYou could try a bottle trap if you wanted. I gave up on that after gluing three two liter bottles together and still having the bait disappear with no worm inside. You could also try the pantyhose that was suggested to me, I tried that too with no luck.
If you can remove the corals, you could try a freshwater dip. It might kill everything on the rock, but it's only one rock. Make sure that you get all of him, they can regrow from the segments. You could just replace the rock too and let the other sit in the sun for awhile. I went ahead and replaced half of my rock with Real Reef and Life Rock. It was nice to re-scape the tank and make it more accessible. My tank (120 gallon) could probably only support one without total destruction, but being paranoid, I had to be sure. I started with all dry rock 5 years ago, so he must have come in on a coral as an egg or very small. I have been dipping the corals for a few years now, I figure that he was in there for probably the 5 years when I didn't know any better.
I wanted to shoot a video of him, but no one wanted to step foot inside my house to give a helping hand
Nervous on the freshwater dip as the rock must be 10kg+ so concerned about the due-off effect.
How long could I keep rock out in air before I start getting due-off any way?
OP
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Dolphin2409
Active Member
I’ve filled the bucket with salt water and thrown in a heater and a frozen lance fish. I’m hoping to at least confirm if he’s in that big rock, either by activity in the bucket or by lack of activity in the fish tank later
How big do you think he is? You can look in the rock with a flashlight and see if there is any sign of him. You may want to throw a circulation pump in the bucket if you are leaving it for awhile.
CMMorgan
Counting my blessings...
The snake was in the yard, not my tank.... but great visual! ;Joyful
The die pretty quickly when out of the water, otherwise, I would not go out in my yard
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