Would a Harlequin Tusk Eat Zuzara Venosa's?

[Anonymous]

I know you said you gave up, but I would expect a regular old six line, Pseudocheilinus hexataenia, to eat them well enough to keep them in check, and leave your snails (except for wee babies) alone. They sleep in a mucous cocoon in the rocks.

 

[Anonymous]

All of these potential fish solutions would mean I couldn't keep dragonites. I kind of wanted dragonites.

I wiped out 60 - 80 of the pills over the weekend and it didn't make any difference. No fish would have made a dent that fast. That, along with my high flow, have me thinking that the beckett skimmer just isn't going to work.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Louey,
Could you post a pict of those "pill bugs"? I'm just kinda curious as to what they look like.

 

[GSchiemer]

Get the Tuskfish. I've had one in my reef aquarium for the past few years and they're relatively gentle giants. One of my damselfish, which is 1/4 its size, regularly pushes it around. Also, somewhat to my surprise, it never showed an interest in my snails, urchins or seastars; although shrimp are another story. Some of the other fish I've seen mentioned a possible solutions may not have the appropriate dentition to handle your pill pugs.

Greg

 

[Anonymous]

Gregg Scheimer wrote:

although shrimp are another story

Hmm. Sounds like I need to put some peppermint shrimp in first to mow down the few aiptasia's that came with the rock.

Good to hear someone with a tusk in a reef tank.

I may go this route. I've always loved the tusk's. They are beautiful.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Get the Tuskfish. I've had one in my reef aquarium for the past few years and they're relatively gentle giants. One of my damselfish, which is 1/4 its size, regularly pushes it around. Also, somewhat to my surprise, it never showed an interest in my snails, urchins or seastars; although shrimp are another story. Some of the other fish I've seen mentioned a possible solutions may not have the appropriate dentition to handle your pill pugs.

Greg

Out of curiosity, which ones?

Someone asked what the bugs were...they are sphaeromatid isopods.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's the best picture I could take of the little bastards.

 

[Anonymous]

Louey, stick some of your photos in this thread! http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=60

They are looking for hitch hiker pics.

 

[Anonymous]

Done.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Those things look SCARY 8O I'd freak if I had those in my tank :lol:

 

[GSchiemer]

Get the Tuskfish. I've had one in my reef aquarium for the past few years and they're relatively gentle giants. One of my damselfish, which is 1/4 its size, regularly pushes it around. Also, somewhat to my surprise, it never showed an interest in my snails, urchins or seastars; although shrimp are another story. Some of the other fish I've seen mentioned a possible solutions may not have the appropriate dentition to handle your pill pugs.

Greg

Out of curiosity, which ones?

Someone asked what the bugs were...they are sphaeromatid isopods.

These pill bugs appear too large for Pseudocheilinus and small Halichoeres wrasses to easily handle. They have relatively small mouths compared to the Tuskfish.

 

[Anonymous]

I gotta agree with Greg here based on seeing the pill bugs in person.

The smaller wrasse's could eat the young, which eventually would have an impact on the adult population.

Louey

 

[Ben1]

Why not try interceptor, if it kills all the pods when you use it for redbugs, try a large dose like a single pill for large dogs, do a large water change, run heavy carbon for a few days and see if that gets rids of the issue.

Just an idea.

 

[Anonymous]

Get the Tuskfish. I've had one in my reef aquarium for the past few years and they're relatively gentle giants. One of my damselfish, which is 1/4 its size, regularly pushes it around. Also, somewhat to my surprise, it never showed an interest in my snails, urchins or seastars; although shrimp are another story. Some of the other fish I've seen mentioned a possible solutions may not have the appropriate dentition to handle your pill pugs.

Greg

Out of curiosity, which ones?

Someone asked what the bugs were...they are sphaeromatid isopods.

These pill bugs appear too large for Pseudocheilinus and small Halichoeres wrasses to easily handle. They have relatively small mouths compared to the Tuskfish.

Huh? Are we sure we're talking about the same bugs here? I have these in my tank and they're about 1/2" long, at most. If a Pseudocheilinus can take out a peppermint shrimp why would it have any trouble with these?

 

[GSchiemer]

1/2" bug versus a 1" fish. While it MAY attack the bugs, it's not taking them out in one bite. Get the tusk!

Even if it doesn't solve your bug problem, and I think it will, it's great fish for a large reef tank, and you want one!

 

[Anonymous]

I always wanted a Tusk, Greg. I will almost definitely get one.

On another note, I have suspected that my tank has too much flow, and that contributed largely to my bugs in the skimmer problem. Last night I removed the penductors from my return lines and that cut the flow in the tank considerably. I cleaned the skimmer and this morning it was still skimming. That is the first time in weeks that the skimmer has made it through the night without clogging.

I am going to drill out the orifice in the penductors now to make their increase in flow be about half of what it was with the original sized orifice. I'll find a happy medium of the right amount of flow.

One of the peppermint shrimp got sucked into the skimmer too. That is a good sign that the flow in the tank was way too much. But that's okay. I'd rather have too much flow and have to figure out how to dial it back than vice versa.

Looks like Euroreef wont be getting me as a new customer quite yet.

Louey

 

[GSchiemer]

BTW Louey, if you're serious about getting a tuskfish, I'd suggest looking for an Australian import around 3-4 inches in length. In addition to having better coloration (more intense red), the Australian tusks are much hardier than the Phillipine/Indo versions. The Australian tusks cost a bit more but it's money well spent because you'll only be buying the fish once!

Greg

 

[Anonymous]

Definitely looking for an Australian tusk.

The local LFS had one the other day. It was at least 4" long.

Are smaller juveniles less hardy or something?

I was thinking of holding out for a smaller one. That is just the way I usually prefer to buy fish. Younger fish means longer remaining life and sometimes a fish that turns out more well adjusted than an adult.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

1/2" bug versus a 1" fish. While it MAY attack the bugs, it's not taking them out in one bite. Get the tusk!

Even if it doesn't solve your bug problem, and I think it will, it's great fish for a large reef tank, and you want one!

All right. Moot point, because he's getting the tusk anyway.

But I meant a full grown radiant, candy hog, or mystery wrasse. Of course a 1" fish wouldn't eat these!

 

[GSchiemer]

1/2" bug versus a 1" fish. While it MAY attack the bugs, it's not taking them out in one bite. Get the tusk!

Even if it doesn't solve your bug problem, and I think it will, it's great fish for a large reef tank, and you want one!

All right. Moot point, because he's getting the tusk anyway.

But I meant a full grown radiant, candy hog, or mystery wrasse. Of course a 1" fish wouldn't eat these!

A full grown radiant wrasse, candy hog or mystery wrasse would make a dent in the bug population, but adults of these species are rare in the aquarium trade. The typical six-lined wrasse wouldn't help much.