ID help please!

[SarasotaDiver]

Hey gang! I need some help to ID this guy. I just found it in my reef tank on my zoanthids. He is about a size of peas. Is it bad or good? Thanks in advance!

 

[Reefman79]

Bad.

 

[SarasotaDiver]

Thx!

 

[Reefman79]

You can go to Zoaid for more nuddi pics.

 

[cuncator]

Grrr, I hate those pycnogonids! Some zoanthids were doing poorly a while back and I couldn't figure out why until I found a few "sea spiders" sucking them dry. Freshwater dip & tweezers, problem solved.

 

[Agu]

Hard to identify from the pic but closed up zoas that aren't doing well is a symptom of zoanthid eating nudibranchs.

I had them as well. I used a freshwater/iodine dip as recommended in the Zoa forum. Because there were zoas on virtually every rock everything in the tank was dipped and moved to a holding tub. Because removing all the rock disturbed the DSB I felt that had to be replaced too.

After the sandbed was replaced and seeded with some live sand the whole process was reversed.

If you only have a few zoas dipping and quarantining the zoas in a seperate tank could work. Because the zoa eating nudibranchs are obligate feeders on zoas having none in the tank will starve them out. However I don't know how long that would take.

 

[SarasotaDiver]

I found that guy a while ago and since then I havn't see any. My Zoas arefine and grow crazy. Thanks for all of you!

 

[SarasotaDiver]

Is there any natural predators for the zoanthid eating nudibranchs??? I just found another one in one of my tank. But the zoas looking good there.

 

[Agu]

Having just one or two zoa eating nudibranchs is just a precurser to major problems. Just like aiptasia and flatworms, once introduced into a tank they will multiply to plague proportions.

AFAIK there are no known predators but there may be new info on the zoa forum. The freshwater dip with Iodine worked for me but it was a hassle.

 

[SarasotaDiver]

I want to delete this thread. How can I do that?