Nightmare critters

[Hop]

Thought it might be interesting to post pictures of things you don't want in your tanks

Here are mine: Vermited snails... URG, they are killing all my corals...

So please show that I'm not alone... Anyone, pesky snails, algae, dinos, shrimp, crabs, fish????

 

[ssbreef]

 

[jwedehase]

It's not my photo, and obviously not from my tank, but this picture always freaks my wife out pretty bad.

 

[jedininja]

Wow, I would not want to be holding that thing! Is that similar to the zoanthid eating spider-things?

 

[silkione]

So Vermited snails are bad huh? cant you just break them or knock them off the rocks? I have some in my tank but not nearly as much as i see in your pics. How do you get rid of them. I am always just poking them or break them off when i see them..is that bad?

 

[divecj5]

Hey Hop...glad to see that you're sharing your pests with everyone else :lol: . Just kidding, he knows that I have them as well...just not as bad. silkione, we have actually been discussing these things on Hop's tank thread and how to go about getting rid of them (high salinity, flatworm exit) but haven't come up with any proven ideas thus far. The only thing that I've been doing is just breaking them off when I see them and I've started to slowly take out every rock in my tank and totally scrape them off. I am about 1/2 done. The problem that Hop has is that he has about 400+ pounds of rock and a LARGE tank.

BTW, if I had that spider thing in my tank, I would NEVER stick my hand in there :eek1:

 

[Hop]

Me either, that spider gives me the willies! And thanks for summing it up divecj5

 

["Umm fish?"]

My vermatid snails don't seem to bug my corals. I wonder what the story is.

 

[divecj5]

I'm not sure what the difference is...maybe it is just the overall amount that Hop has in his tank. I have heard of others having them in their tanks with no or little problems so hopefully that is the case with mine I am going to try and be proactive instead of reactive and just try and get rid of the most that I can in one area.

Do you happen to have any hermit crabs in your tank? Just curious because some people were saying that they might eat the "webs" that the snails send out.

Adam

 

["Umm fish?"]

I do have hermits. And I have seen thier mucus webs. Maybe it's just the corals they are around. **Shrug** Anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

[Random Aquarist]

Sorry, I couldn't see your snail pics; they were all red X's.

Anyway, I read an article in the last issue of TFH about using pest-eating creatures in tanks. It actually talked more about why you don't necessarily need them in many circumstances, and that it is a cycle of a sort. If you let a nuisance grow and reproduce long enough, it and its offspring will eventually use up their food source. Perhaps you guys should just let the snails reproduce until they reach their population high and then slowly all die away.
Well, that's just my suggestion.


EDIT: Oh, and here:

It's a parasitic bug that eats away a fish's tongue and lives as a tongue replacement.

 

[Hop]

Weird! and sorry, I exceeded my bandwidth for the month I'll be upgrading this weekend!

 

["Umm fish?"]

The problem is that the vermetids eat the same thing we feed the fishes and corals. So, it's not like they'll get less food....

 

["Umm fish?"]

Oh, I just realized I have a couple of pictures to share. Stoloniferous hydroids:

 

[Lpabsolute]

ssbreef - Nice Pic

 

[Random Aquarist]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8755845#post8755845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by "Umm, fish?"
The problem is that the vermetids eat the same thing we feed the fishes and corals. So, it's not like they'll get less food....

Can you keep your fish in quarantine for a week or so? I know how Hop has a big tank, but you can always just build a temporary quarantine tank.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Sure, but until they start bugging my corals I'm not terribly likely to get around to it. I'd imagine they also have more energy reserves than just a week, but you never know. They'd also likely get by for a long while on just the natural tank plankton, scarce as it is. And I'd hate to starve off my sandbed critters just to kill off a bunch of worms.

But it's a good idea.

Of course, the real question is whether I could catch my fish. I can't even catch the damn brooding pj cardinal....

 

[ssbreef]