zoa spider?

[mrlavalamp]

Unfortunately up until last night I have never dealt with or even seen these spiders before, I was unprepared.

I have searched and several of the pics found look sort of similar but not exactly so to speak. Im sure there are hundreds of different variations (as with anything in the ocean it seems).

I have not noticed any issues with my zoas or other corals, in fact everything was looking really great yesterday, I was just wanting to rearrange some.

Picked up this zoa plug and noticed this little guy hanging on.

by the time I got my phone out and took the picture, he was dancing around and trying to get away barely got the picture before he dropped off and blew away in the flow while I juggled my zoas and my phone in a panic . Disappeared into my rock work and could not catch him.

My last addition to this tank was nearly 5 months ago now, and I dip everything before I put it in. He must have survived the dips and as others have noted they tend to.

If I have had these spiders for 5 months, I should have a well established colony by now right?

I have quite a few zoas spread out in the tank and none seem to be suffering at all or showing signs of parasite attack. I checked several times last night after lights out and early this morning when I woke up and couldn't sleep (reading others experiences got to me). I never saw a single spider, not one.

Are all spiders zoa eating? Could I have hit the proverbial lottery and got some sea spider that isn't so bad?

Observing this morning at lights on, all my zoas are opening as usual save for ONE polyp ouf of a half dozen that are on the frag plug in my hand. I relocated it to a higher light area so dont want to over react, but if this chunk of zoas is harboring the spiders I really want to just discard it, I probably will in the next hour if it doesnt open.

My zoas are established into my rockwork, and the rest of my corals are softies: LPS, mushies, bta, kenya tree etc. and my last additions were from AQUASD in late November (this zoa frag was among those).

I would think that if these were the regular zoa spiders, I would have noticed and had larger issues by now.

Not really trying to join the aquasd bashing train as of late, but wow........so many people have issues with them lately I dont think I will be patronizing them any longer. They sent me an acan with several vermitids as well as a couple aiptasia (I already had vermitids, but I happily nuked the aiptasia the moment I saw them).

Looking for some input given my somewhat unique circumstances compared to recent zoa spider threads. thank you in advance.

 

[ChiCity]

bruh, that’s a spider...
if you eradicate or not, your call.

to me, that’s a zoa eating spider
and i take no chances with parasites!

 

[mdb_talon]

If your last addition was 5 months ago and your zoas are all healthy i am inclined to believe this is not a zoanthid eating spider. There are many varieties of sea "spiders" and not all eat zoas. I have been battling them in a QT tank recently and based on this and past experience it is hard to believe that in 5 months you would not have seen a significant impact to zoas.

 

[mrlavalamp]

bruh, that’s a spider...
if you eradicate or not, your call.

to me, that’s a zoa eating spider
and i take no chances with parasites!

With so long to establish, I am affraid that "eradication" may mean breaking the tank down entirely and treating everything I can seperate in a brute can or other improvised QT. Not a light undertaking to be sure.

If your last addition was 5 months ago and your zoas are all healthy i am inclined to believe this is not a zoanthid eating spider. There are many varieties of sea "spiders" and not all eat zoas. I have been battling them in a QT tank recently and based on this and past experience it is hard to believe that in 5 months you would not have seen a significant impact to zoas.

This is my thoughts, folks in recent threads reported issues within weeks of receiving "tainted" zoas from Aquasd.

That polyp never opened while all the rest on that plug seemed to get comfy in the light. All of the other zoas in my tank still look happy and open, so I tossed that plug (after removing and trying to disect the closed up polyp, incoclusive, but atleast a flood of baby spiders didnt ooze out the second I touched it).

I am looking at adding some predators as my tank is large and I am still not at max capacity livestock wise.

Any recommendations for LPS friendly predators for these? Arrow crab and six line wrasse came up in my searches, however I cannot get either locally at the moment and online seems tapped out for the time being as well.

 

[mdb_talon]

For pests my recommendation other than 6-line is melanurus wrasse(if a larger tank) or yellow coris if smaller tank. Lots of other good pest eaters i am sure, but those always work well for me.