Club Soda

[maxalmon]

On a prior post, I wrote about something in my tank eating a mushroom and was seeking advice on what the problem might be, general concensus was a type of bristle worm, Spent two days and nights looking for the culprit. He also ate another shroom. Today I went ot my LFS that is incredible (SW fish only no equipment, tanks or anything) I told her what was going on and she kinda shrugged and said it sounded more like a mantis shrimp problem. Then she told me to go get some club soda (no joke) dip all my LR in it, the foaming and fiz will drive everything out of the rocks according to her, said she does it all the time with her LR when ever she has a bristle or mantis problem. Dip the LR once or twice in club soda, wait a minute or two, let the creatures crawl out and then dip them into tank water a couple of times and then put back into your tank. She said the best time to do this is when you do a water change, that way you have a bucket of tank water to rinse the LR in. This lady is well respected and knows what she doing, but I just want to hear if anyone else has ever done this.....She gave me frag of pink zoos at N/C maybe 12 polyps on it, I asked her how much it was and she just goes, take it, bring ME something the next time you come in, how cool.

 

[mudplayerx]

Club soda will pretty much get rid of all your worms on the rock that you dip, even the beneficial ones. It's better than losing all your corals though. I don't see how it can be a mantis shrimp though; I don't think they even eat coral.

 

[maxalmon]

I'm still trying to figure out if it was eaten or simply torn to shreds. Very strange problem, it was almost like chunks of the shroom were torn off, no melting or slime...So the club soda thing will work, I figured that it killed everything and will only do this as a last resort.

 

[sato]

A Mantis doesnt seem at all plausable. There is a good chance you would hear clicking noises form the mantis, unless its a stabbing kind. And even then I dont think I've never heard of a mantis attacking coral let alone eating it. I cant offer any other suggestions though sorry

 

[maxalmon]

Her explanation was that my tank is only a few weeks old, and she thought that it would take a rather huge worm to cause that much damage in such a short period of time (overnight).....

 

[mudplayerx]

I know this sounds silly, but were any of these shrooms close to a powerhead intake or something? The shroom could have expanded and got sucked in.

 

[maxalmon]

no, bottom of the tank in a quiet area with minimal flow... Other tank co-habs were 10 turbos, 10 blueleg hermits, yellow chromis a few feather dusters and whatever hitchhiked in.....Even a few of the locals in our area reef club have no idea what caused this, everything from "Kujo" the blue leg hermit to bristle or mantis, all readings are at 0, calcium 420, salinity 35

 

[sharkbait9]

I have heard of this before, it’s an old school way of getting rid of hitchers. The problems that I have seen and heard, is if you have say peanut worms and other dug into the rock they have tendency of working their way out and or dying. So along with the bad the good also take hit as well. I kind of like the idea of dry dripping live rock. I.E take a bucket place a piece of egg crate in the middle of the bucket and drip tank water on it at a fast pace to help keep the "rock" alive. Most hitchers will crawl/fall out cause they are not completely submerged. In about an hour I take the LR and place it in a bucket of premix and shake it and scrub it and place it into the tank with no ill effects, but a bucket full of critter for me to sort thru and pull the good guys and toss the bad, or trade at a LFS.

 

[maxalmon]

Sharkbait,...what an awesome idea, thanks for sharing your experience, guess I could use the 15g I syphon off for water changes to do the drip thing.

 

[sharkbait9]

Exactly I forgot to right that part in when I was typing you know Easter, kids running around sisters house driving me and my fiancé up the wall. I hate that bunny , gets off to easy. He brings chocolate and sugar rich candy, gets the kids all cracked up and leaves for us to deal with

. I’ll shot that SOB when I have kids. But yeah .I take any new piece of rock and I do a fast drip on the rock sitting on piece of egg crate and for an hour. Periodically after about a half hour check the buck for any hikers that have fallen off and that will justify my drip time not to many, I go the hour or hour and a half. If a lot are in the bucket then I may drip for a little bit longer and pull out each critter and research it, good guy in a plastic bag with bucket water and finish off his drip. Bad gay stay in the bucket unless I can trade him in at the LFS. I have gotten two mantis shrimp that way and a few little crabs that I have never seen before and can not locate in any of my book. All I know is that they had small pointed claws and that automatic ejection from my tanks. Oh and when you done with the rock and the critters flush the water thru a micro sock, I just about made a stinky in my pant when I saw the tiny pods that fell/jumped off the rock. I have flush god only knows how many pods and stuff down the toilet. I’m glad you like my idea and your welcome, that’s what this board all about. I have been doing it for a while, just up graded to egg crate, was using two flat pieces of wood to hold the rock above the bucket.

 

[granny]

HMM, I like the drip techinique and will try it in the future. I have to say that I resorted to using Ginger Ale last week-had no club soda!!
The GA worked well. I took out the rock which was encrusted with tons of good stuff, held it over a bucket and poured ginger ale through the holes, The crab I had been trying to catch for weeks, popped right out-I rinsed the rock off in a bucket of tank water (this was done during a water change) and put it right back in-no ill effects to anything else on the rock.
I now have some big fat pinkish looking worm on, or rather in, another large piece of rock. I saw it for the first time tonight, waving its tail end, or perhaps head end, out the hold next to some colonial polyps. That hole is constantly full of 'rock dust' and I kept wondering what was making it. I guess this wormy thing has been responsible. When I shined the flashlight on him, he quickly withdrew back into the hole, but what I saw wasnt pretty. It was tany, pinkish in color with white things that I assume are bristles all over him. I have seen bristle worms in the dealers tanks, but never in my own and this thing was fatter than any I have seen at the store. What do you think?
What is a peanut worm and what does it look like?

 

[sharkbait9]

Hmmmm, GA I would only wonder what the sugar may do to the chemistry of the water, let alone the acceptance of inhabitants of the tank? Keep us informed of any negative or positive outcomes of this. You could have stumbled across something using ginger ale, who knows for sure. Peanut worms come in the soft calcium live rock, well at least that where I find mine hanging out. The peanut or sipunculid worms is a “hitcher” but a good one. The Peanut Worm feed on detritus, microscopic organisms and organics they extract from the sand. A lot of times you will see its head and with little tentacle looking things hanging out of the rock and when you touch or disturb it, it will retract back into the rock. I have broken a few rocks to aquascape and have come across the worm. It leaves little grooves in the rocks as it works its way around. I have to take a few pics of the rocks that I can get to that has the grooves in them.

 

[sharkbait9]

The jury is still out on bristle worms. IMO a mass quantity is not good, but a few or ok. I have a few. Every once in a blue moon I’ll see one at night, During the day they don’t last long in my tank. They have not gone after any of my clams yet, but for the most part, the bristle worm that I do see is under the sand eating.

 

[mudplayerx]

Peanut worms are incredible additions to your cleaning crew. As far as the bristleworms, getting rid of them is a bad idea unless you specifically see a bearded one over 6 inches long, or see one eating your corals.
First of all, the bearded ones are very rare in the aquarium. Secondly, even if you find that you have a bearded one it probably isn't going to eat your corals unless it grows about a foot+ long and runs out of detritus.

 

[sharkbait9]

ok so an over abundant amount of bristle worms are ok in your tank? that's cool, if I see a bunch I’ll mail them to you. And yeah i explained that the peanut worm is a good hitcher

 

[mudplayerx]

Originally Posted by sharkbait9
ok so an over abundant amount of bristle worms are ok in your tank? that's cool, if I see a bunch I’ll mail them to you. And yeah i explained that the peanut worm is a good hitcher
Nothing in overabundance is good. However, the majority of times that a hobbyist becomes alarmed at an "overabundance of bristleworms" is just an overreation to a healthy population of worms.
As far as peanut worms go, yes they are a great addition to any tank. Having more than one opinion on any matter in this hobby is a good idea. The fact that we share similar views in this matter just bears testimony that the peanut worm is indeed a good critter to have.

 

[reefiness]

i dont think that it is a mantis, Id say youve got yourself one of these... but id think much smaller.

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

 

[maxalmon]

I only whish I had a worm that big, it would be much easier to spot and it would also mean that my tank would be much larger...LOL