Zoa Spiders!

[Ben Weaver]

So I have found these nasty animals eating away my eagle eye zoas.
I pulled off 6 or 7 of the buggers tonight.
Do they have any natural preditors? Or is manual removal basic the only way?
Also does anyone know if there are diferent types of spiders or is the size difference just different life stages?
Here's the big ones.

And this is 3 or 4 small ones. They also are a different color.

 

[JaimeAdams]

DUDE!!! Those are nasty!! I've seen sea spiders before and thy suck (pun). Some wrasses like Melanurus wrasses will eat them.

 

[Ben Weaver]

Wow I just Googled sea spiders...
Don't do it [emoji15]
Are you saying the wrasse will eat sea spiders or these zoa spiders?

 

[JaimeAdams]

the wrasse will or at least should eat those nasty buggers you are dealing with. Granted if I had those in my tank I would go chemical control, because I hate spiders and those count.

 

[cracker]

those things look creepy !

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

Keep and eye on your zoas as they might have laid eggs. I doubt that any coral dips work on their eggs.

 

[Bdog4u2]

Time for Raid!

 

[dodgerblew]

If possible dip all of your Zoas and I'd redip as well a second time to make sure they hadn't laid eggs and you have a new batch

 

[dodgerblew]

http://www.coralrx.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=21

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-r2r-care-spotlight-zoanthid-eating-spiders.7861/

 

[Ben Weaver]

Keep and eye on your zoas as they might have laid eggs. I doubt that any coral dips work on their eggs.

Yeah I am guessing this is what happened.
Does anyone know how long the life cycle of these are?
I manually removed all the ones I saw when I got the frag. And did a heavy iodine dip.
They looked great for close to 5 months and I didn't see the spiders or any problems with the zoas, actually the opposite they grew like crazy!
Also what do the eggs look like?
They are at the point now that I can get them out of the tank to dip them... I was more wondering about a fish/shrimp that would possibly eat them.
Thanks for the help so far guys!

 

[Tahoe61]

I know they are a pest but dang I think they are kind of cool.

 

[Ben Weaver]

I know they are a pest but dang I think they are kind of cool.

They are definitely interesting little guys but when you watch them suck the life out of your zoas... it's hard to see them as cool :D

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

Yeah I am guessing this is what happened.
Does anyone know how long the life cycle of these are?
I manually removed all the ones I saw when I got the frag. And did a heavy iodine dip.
They looked great for close to 5 months and I didn't see the spiders or any problems with the zoas, actually the opposite they grew like crazy!
Also what do the eggs look like?
They are at the point now that I can get them out of the tank to dip them... I was more wondering about a fish/shrimp that would possibly eat them.
Thanks for the help so far guys!

The spiders lay their eggs inside the zoas. Afterwards the iffspring pop out

 

[saltyhog]

A friend had zoa spiders and it took several dips to get rid of them. Watch closely because you may see more in few days (after hatching) than you have now.

 

[Ben Weaver]

Anybody know of anything other then dips and manual removal?

 

[Sistawolf]

@Lionfish Lair would know if anything else can be done

 

[Lionfish Lair]

These things suck. :-/ Basically, people seem to get rid of them through continuous dipping and eventually they see less and less. Are your corals on plugs? They often reside between the coral and the plug. If you can remove them, I would do that.

 

[Ben Weaver]

Yeah so that's the problem here :/ they were on a plug months ago but have now spread and are on 2 different rocks...
I was considering trying to frag some of it anyways. Would that be a good idea? Then I can work with them a little better?

 

[Ben Weaver]

 

[Lionfish Lair]

What do you guys think about Ben fragging? Is there any issues fragging a zoa that's under stress?