My zoas will all be suffocated soon. SOS

[yellowtang]

Aftermath of the battle. All those in White are goners. Still hope some can recover.

Cheers,

Mike.

[Eniram]

My tank is infested w those worms that uses silk thread to get food. Have to use super glue to seal it's mouth. But some how they get more and more

[yellowtang]

My tank is infested w those worms that uses silk thread to get food. Have to use super glue to seal it's mouth. But some how they get more and more

Yo Eniram, firstly about the spider web spinning worm. I tolerated one. But as you mentioned, the web got wider and seemed to be coming from more than one source. Worst was zoas around it were affected, not opening and some were like being trampled.

I decided to act. I watched and then i saw the worm in one of the openings. The openings are always higher than the surrounding areas. I took a pincer and went for it. What i got was actually a hard shell. I smashed it and continued along the tube. Finaally i managed to pull a hardened tube out, and a stripped worm with it. Actuaaly there was only 1 worm, but it had an intricate network of tunnels, It spinned its web from each opening.

So Reefer Eniram, its no point sealing the openimgs because the worm will build another one. Smashed its housing and cxapture the culprit. Do it right !

Secondly, your recommendation on using a torch to fry the stars underwater was i thought a joke. Not until I read the same proposal for the same problem on another forum. Pardon me for treating your method as a joke.

cheers

mike

[Eniram]

Lol no worries, actually that torch method can't be used in a reef tank.

First it'll increase your tank temp by 10 folds

2nd the heavy metals released from the torch will kill and pollute your tank. So this method is just a theory and not applicable.

Any chance you have feeling peachy palys?

[sherman]

Thanks Sherman. Let me check my NO3. How long did you keep NO3 to zero before it became deadly for the pesty stars? Were there other unintended casualties ?

Was told that other LPS would be affected too.

thanks,

mike

Hi Bro,

So far when the NO3 went down to almost zero the star just disappear over one to 2 weeks.

But once your NO3 go above 0.1 ppm you can start seeing stars all over the place.

[lawchan77]

Yo Eniram, firstly about the spider web spinning worm. I tolerated one. But as you mentioned, the web got wider and seemed to be coming from more than one source. Worst was zoas around it were affected, not opening and some were like being trampled.

I decided to act. I watched and then i saw the worm in one of the openings. The openings are always higher than the surrounding areas. I took a pincer and went for it. What i got was actually a hard shell. I smashed it and continued along the tube. Finaally i managed to pull a hardened tube out, and a stripped worm with it. Actuaaly there was only 1 worm, but it had an intricate network of tunnels, It spinned its web from each opening.

So Reefer Eniram, its no point sealing the openimgs because the worm will build another one. Smashed its housing and cxapture the culprit. Do it right !

Secondly, your recommendation on using a torch to fry the stars underwater was i thought a joke. Not until I read the same proposal for the same problem on another forum. Pardon me for treating your method as a joke.

cheers

mike

this is interesting... i always see a silver string in the right side of the tank. i thought it was one of the coral stress will go away. its been a couple of weeks. i'll try looking for that worm.

did you perform the search and destroy worm operation in water or out of water?

[cool guy]

Best to do out of water bro...

[puppet]

Careful on palytoxin.

You shall not Pass!

[yellowtang]

Hi Bro, So far when the NO3 went down to almost zero the star just disappear over one to 2 weeks. But once your NO3 go above 0.1 ppm you can start seeing stars all over the place.

Thanks Sherman, my NO3 reading is 0.2ppm. Phos O. Its not easy to maintain Zero for NO3. Maybe every day change water.

this is interesting... i always see a silver string in the right side of the tank. i thought it was one of the coral stress will go away. its been a couple of weeks. i'll try looking for that worm. did you perform the search and destroy worm operation in water or out of water?

Mr Chan77, your situation doesnt look like a spider worm. The real one really spins cobweb like around it. yellow wrasse is a good fish to take care of it.

I took the worm from the water, with Kimberly's ( my daughter ) help.

Best to do out of water bro...

If the situation allows it.

Careful on palytoxin. You shall not Pass!

Not unless it hits you in the eyes. Everything will come to pass.

cheers.

[yellowtang]

Any chance you have feeling peachy palys?

This one too chim for me. Care to elaborate it ?

mike

[lawchan77]

it is a worm! thank you for this enlightening thread.

for a couple of weeks now, i always see a silver string at the back of the candy cane coral towards the back of the tank. i thought it was a stressed coral giving out slime.

after reading your thread, i turned the coral the other way so that i could see the back side of the coral so that it is facing me in front.

true enough, a 'cobweb' of strings formed within half an hour. these were probably formed at the back where i couldnt see in its original position.

the source seem to come out of a single stalk that seem to be a dead head.upon closer look, its not a dead head but a hard tunnel like the one you described.

i took the candy cane out of the water and started chopping the hard tunnel till i reached the end of the stalk. then with a pincer, i pulled out this........

the worm is smaller than a fingernail and i worry that the worm might have broken in half, so i gave the stalk of the candy cane a FW dip just to make sure.

[cool guy]

Eeeeeewwwwww....

[sherman]

Thanks Sherman, my NO3 reading is 0.2ppm. Phos O. Its not easy to maintain Zero for NO3. Maybe every day change water.

Mr Chan77, your situation doesnt look like a spider worm. The real one really spins cobweb like around it. yellow wrasse is a good fish to take care of it.

I took the worm from the water, with Kimberly's ( my daughter ) help.

If the situation allows it.

Not unless it hits you in the eyes. Everything will come to pass.

cheers.

Its true especially if your bio load is high.

What you run to bring down NO3?

[yellowtang]

Reefer Law77, your worm, opps.. I mean the worm that you caught is definitely better looking than the one I caught. Yours an Aussie pedigree! Good job.

Reefer CG, not too cool with that kind of expression

Reefer Sherman, I run DSB (NNR), bio pallets, rowa phos,skimmer,5% water change weekly. Negative points : high bio load with 2X fish feeding everyday and 1 X weekly sps feeding.

cheers,

bigmike

[yellowtang]

Reefer Sherman, I run DSB (NNR), bio pallets, rowa phos,skimmer,5% water change weekly. Negative points : high bio load with 2X fish feeding everyday and 1 X weekly sps feeding. cheers, bigmike

Forgot to add, I dose bac weekly too.

cheers

[yellowtang]

Time to take stock and end this episode.

First, a tribute to my soldier zoas who died gallantly in the fight.

9 Captain Americas led the assault. Only 2 came back, badly maimed, disfigured. I gave them an honourable discharge and they are now resting in one corner of my tank, away from pu blic eyes. A squad of spiderman zoas didnt came back. I couldnt even find their remains. Have to keep it a secret from their Aunt May. Sun flowers went and came back without the sun. They are more like dried flowers now.Thje expensive Japanese Goblins were not spared. All annihilated. Sayonara. Blue Tubs came back leaking,Orang Utan came back without fur, white as sheet and Lights of Amazon blackout.

Some went as fruit soldiers and were crushed to juice. Among them were Pink Guava,Strawberry, sunkist and watermelon.

Armour units like Armour of God, air support Red Hornet didnt fare any better.

Those were the casualties. RIP.

mike

[yellowtang]

Now for some better news. Some zoas survived the holocaust.

Blow Top came back smiling. Must have a good time blowing the enemies. The beautiful Candy Apple Pink returned as sexy as ever, although some have their bras on their back. Hulk is definitely the strongest of my zoas. Its even stro nger and greener now than before.

Back to serious matter.

The correct way to handle the pest stars should be :Remove as many frags as possible from the main tank. Scrap the zoas ( as many as possible ) from the inflicted frags and transfer them to a new clean frag.Throw the bad frags away.

In this way, i think nmore zoas will be saved. I treated the the problem frag by fresh water dipping and later brushing, resulting killing zoas and pests alike.

Hope we all learn something from here.

Chow.

[Gouldian]

Thanks for sharing Mike.

[lawchan77]

ditto that.. its an heart breaking and back wrenching lesson..... or issit heart wrenching and back breaking lesson...

thanks for sharing.

[MarcoVan]

Hmmmm why didn't try epoxy?

Oh well, sorry to hear about your losses big mike. Hope you can come back stronger (:

Anyway another pest polyp to contribute is green star polyp. Don't see them nice nice and innocent. They are disgustingly ferocious ><

[cool guy]

Don be sadden by e warfare uncle mike. My zoas garden r calling u...

Hehehe...

[cedricang]

Don be sadden by e warfare uncle mike. My zoas garden r calling u...

Hehehe...

Please bro, he is now 6 star General Mike Arthur. He may be senior in age, but he is our best fighter in the reefing community.

[cool guy]

Lol...

[sherman]

Hi Bro,

Sad for the huge lost but you come back stronger.

Thank You for sharing your experience.

You are a brave fighter.

Like Bro Credic say you are now a 6 star General

[yellowtang]

Thank you all for the concern and encouraging words.

WAR does not determine who is right --- only who is left. ( Paraprosdokia ).

Before you embark on a journey of revenge ( war ), dig two graves. ( Confucius ).

So i should have tenderly and lovingly remove the stars from the zoas and not going to war.

cheers.