UV sterilizers

[nmotz]

There's a good video made by BRS about UV sterilizers and I wanted to share some thoughts here. Many of us own Peacocks that will likely be at risk of contracting shell rot at some point in their lives, and using a UV sterilizer was one of the methods that Dr. Caldwell talked about when it came to treating shell rot.

- The most important thing I got from watching the video is that UV won't guarantee 100% protection from diseases. They do help keep the water free of the breeding "little bugs" that might be responsible for all types of marine livestock illnesses. To complicate matters further, nobody really knows exactly what shell rot is and how/why certain mantis shrimp species get it and others don't. So for me it's perhaps tough to justify the cost of one given that we really don't know if a UV sterilizer will actually help a diseased animal get better. Aside from Dr. Caldwell, who I think most people would agree is an exceptional case, I don't think I've ever heard any Peacock owner who actually helped an animal recover from shell rot successfully.

- Cheap UV sterilizers, while not harmful, seem to be a waste of money at best. Now, having owned a cheap internal UV sterilizer myself, I can tell you that they will absolutely control large blooms of algae that turn the tank completely green (had one in my first mantis tank).

- Just like with everything else in this hobby, there is no "silver bullet" method to control health problems/ensure success and a UV sterilizer should be thought of as just another component of a plan to ensure excellent water quality in mantis shrimp tanks. Having said that, if Peacock's can get shell rot in the wild, it's always going to be a challenge for most people to prevent it completely in the home aquarium. I think this is one of the reasons why Dr. Caldwell posted the sticky about the virtues of smaller Odontodactylids. The problem with them, of course, is that they are pretty hard to find (with perhaps the exception of the O. Havanensis)

 

[Kharn]

I cured shell rot on my O.scyllarus

When I got it half its telson looked like a nasty pus filled scab, very significant shell rot.

However my methods of curing did not utilize a UV sterilizer on the grounds that I don't really like them and they are quite finicky, I remember speaking with Dr. Caldwell about the subject and how UV sterilizers aren't like a "Problem Eraser", they have many potential output settings and next to every problem in the aquarium requires a different setting on the UV sterilizer in order to target that problem specifically.

- Problem A might require that water be kept in the sterilizer longer for increased burn period, thus less flow through the sterilizer.

- Problem B might require that the water be forced through the sterilizer rapidly in order to turn over as much water as fast as possible through the sterilizer.

The sterilizers can target many things but normally only 1 problem at a time cause 1 setting won't target a different problem that requires a different 'approach' with the sterilizer.

What I also recall with Dr. Caldwell and the use of sterilizers was him placing the afflicted animal in smaller then recommended tanks (20gals if I recall) but only so he can put a large UV sterilizer on that tank and really pump the small water volume through the sterilizer to kill the Shell Rot in the water and on the animal because smaller water volume equates to an easier job for the sterilizer and possibly quicker recovery but not everyone has a dedicated mantis shrimp hospital tank setup that they could do this with and then you really need to know the best settings for the UV sterilizer in order to target the shell rot in the first place.

For me curing the Shell Rot was a simple method of adhering to old information that is quite prevalent now.

- No lighting/as dark as possible: This was simple for me because of 3 things, #1 there was nothing in the O.scyllarus tank with it a.k.a coral etc and to increase the darkness overall, 3 of the 4 sides of the tank were painted black and to top it off I had a large PVC burrow that stretched from one side of the tank to the other.

- Increased the animals food intake to enforce molting as soon as possible, which also required the next and final vital method.

- Twice Weekly Water Changes, due to the increased food intake it was imperative to increase the water changes to keep the water as clean as possible.

Those three techniques in unison with one another is what I credit to the recovery of my large O.scyllarus ridding the shell rot.