Pycnogonids

[gashunk]

so i guess since i know what it is im kinda in the wrong thread but i do need help on how to deal with them so tonight i was feeding my coral and i took one of my zoa colonies out cause its been looking bad and regressing for id say over a couple months now i couldnt figure out why until further investigation i found these little legs and instantly it looked like a spider so im of course freaking out cause i dont particularly care for spiders in the first place with that being side i took it out and dipped it in revive dip " i know everyone swears by bayer" and i take my baster and start going at this colony and 20 mins later id say i pulled off roughly 10 sea spiders from the colony granted my zoa might be dead but well see i couldnt see anymore with the naked eye so i put it back in the tank so now my question is how do i deal with them what do i need to do to get rid of them

 

[reef lover]

The problem with ZOA eating spiders is they lay their eggs in the polyps and grow and develops on the inside of the polyp . there's no way to know if they're still in there . you'll ha e to quarantine the ZOA . then frequent inspections and repeated dips.I'm not sure on the length of time it takes for the spiders to develop. Or how long to quarantine to be safe. Hope this helps.

 

[gashunk]

ok so now my question is how often should i dip and should i do all of them or what?

 

[reef lover]

I would Google some info on them to find their life stages then you'll know how long to qt them for. And I would dip weekly until your sure there's no more inside of them.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I'll help look for info their life cycle

 

[Lionfish Lair]

There are way too many different types to know exactly what you have and many seem to vary greatly.

 

[gashunk]

Oh great lol okay so what's the min and max of the life cycles?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Months..... one set mates continuously for 5 weeks!!! Then he carried the eggs for several. I haven't yet found a timeline that would be useful. Still reading though....

 

[gashunk]

Holy f....udge sounds like I'm in for the long run
Honestly the zoas they infected aren't even like "pretty" so to say so if you didn't hit me up I was gunna just get rid of them but now I'm in it for the experiment

 

[Lionfish Lair]

They are the cockroaches of the sea. They can adapt to eating anything. I don't know if this diagram was "good" to see.

Soler-Membrives, A., Rossi, S., & Munilla, T. (2011). Feeding ecology of Ammothella longipes (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) in the Mediterranean Sea: A fatty acid biomarker approach. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 92(4), 588-597.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I know we call them Zoa spiders, but the are not obligate zoa predators. I did not, however, know they also ate detritus and bacteria depending on season. Ai yi yi.

They specialize in certain pray items, but they are obligate on none.

 

[gashunk]

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Oh, you're going to love this reference.... 9 years....... NINE YEARS!!!

Tomaschko, K., Wilhelm, E., & Bückmann, D. (1997). Growth and reproduction of Pycnogonum litorale (Pycnogonida) under laboratory conditions. Marine Biology, 129(4), 595-600.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

They eat everything. They live forever. They are hard to kill. Suckage.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Here's the article's abstract.