Arrow Crab ?

[GVR-4579]

Anyone else have an arrow crab in their tank? I put him in to eat some bristle worms but think that maybe i should have gotten a 6-line wrasse instead. He seems to disturb the zooanthids, polyps and mushrooms alot. And also likes to steal the krill from my serpent star when i feed him. Any suggestions or people seeing similar behavior. Also i bought the smallest one i could find and now after a few months he is bigger than any i have seen, is that growth rate normal?

Erik

[charlesr1958]

Arrow crabs are not what I would consider to be reef safe, just about any of the free ranging crabs tend to be very destructive. Am curious though, since most bristleworms are great little scavengers, why do you wish to have them eaten?

Chuck

[dc]

Agree with Chuck. If you have too many bristleworms, you are probably overfeeding your tank.

[GVR-4579]

well i just didnt want any bristle worms. i only had a few, but some will eat corals wich i am getting into and dont want to use anything that expensive as a foodsource. I think i am going to replace him with a 6 line

[dc]

It's very rare to find the coral eating ones. Basically they are great clean up critters. Generally when you get one thing that kills another, it comes with a new set of problems. Wrasses tend to delete your pod population.

[wilvivas]

i have had countless things die when while i'm away for an extended period without any sever consequence thanks to my fortune of bristle worms and other scavengers.
if you have dragonets or fincky eaters (or thinking of keeping one later on) the six line will out compete them.

[dc]

And they cost about a dollar apiece to buy! :D

[GVR-4579]

I am just scared to go into the tank and hit one if i have to move some rocks or wile cleaning. I know that some of them are just extra cleaners but i just personally dont like them. I suppose you cant get them all anyways.

[rpeeples]

I understand that Bristle Worms will actually eat your clams.....

If this is not the case can folks share their thoughts?

I recently had two clams Bissell's's eaten and resulting in death....and it seems a third is on its way.

All other corals are doing fine.

[LeslieH]

The polychaete Oenone fulgida prefers molluscs and will happily chew away on Tridacna. Other polychaetes typically found in tanks are not big mollusc predators but some of them will be attracted to a clam if it's dying.

[rpeeples]

Thanks Leslie.....

So how can I eradicate these worms? The arrow crab?

Thanks,
Ron

[LeslieH]

Sorry..... if you check out my signature you'll understand I'm the wrong person to ask about killing worms!:lol:

[rpeeples]

lol....

Eradicate.....not kill :)

[LeslieH]

Eradicate, huh? Can you take a picture of your worms? Different worms require different strategies.

[charlesr1958]

Hey Leslie, off subject here, but tomorrow I plan to hit the water and collect some sediment / grass litter out of the grass beds and hope to go through it in the hopes of finding a variety of itty bitty critters. What is a good way to sift through the "mud" or wash out the critters from it?

I've also been remiss in my collection of critters overall, but thats all due to two months of really lousy weather. I hope to be driving you crazy with ID requests again very soon...lol

Chuck

[LeslieH]

Off topic, that's for sure! But it may be useful for people who want to get the critters out of their sand beds. The methods can be used on a smaller scale at home.

You should get tons of good critters if it's a rich area. When you collect put a plastic bag over the grass or sediment first. As you scoop/grab/shovel/name-your-method-of-choice the pods & worms will start crawling or swimming away. The plastic bag will keep at least some of them from escaping. When onshore I'd use a combination of methods. First, I'd gently break apart the roots of the grass so it's in little bits. Very SLOOOOWLY tear them apart and if there's worms you'll see their bodies stretching between the pieces. With practice you can get even the longest worms gently pulled out of the roots. I do this for the bigger stuff that's easy to see. Next comes 1 of 2 methods:
1) Put the material into a tall round container like a 5-gallon bucket or even better, a 40-gallon trash can. It needs to be narrow so a flat broad tub won't do. Fill it 2/3 or 3/4 with salt water. Wearing gloves, reach down to the bottom & swirl the water so its spinning around fast. Do this for a minute or so. The lightweight animals like worms & pods will be lifted up into the water. Quickly, lift the container (hope you're strong) & pour off the water through a sieve. Helps if you have another person to hold the sieve. Don't let the sediment at the bottom hit the sieve. Repeat this process several times and you'll get nearly all of the free animals.
2) Weak back? Get a sieve & 2 wash tubs. Sediment/grass goes into one tub with water, the other tub has only water. Some stuff will come out immediately & you can just scoop them up with a spoon or turkey baster. For the small stuff, put a handful of sediment into the sieve & wash it in the water-only tub. Submerge the sieve partway into the water; the top needs to be out of the water so the contents don't escape. Gently but rapidly shake the sieve. The silt & sand will fall into the tub leaving (hopefully) the animals behind. The smaller the mesh the smaller the animals you'll get but the mesh will clog up with silt so there's a lot of cleaning involved. The animals also end up covered with silt. Using the trash can-swirl method should result in nice clean animals in good shape.

Drive me crazy, please! I miss your id requests. There are never too many as long as there's pics to go along with them!

[charlesr1958]

Thanks Leslie as always! I am going to go with the first method, sounds easy enough..lol, The weather though is not looking too good, rained all night and its still total cloud cover. But as long as there is no lightening, a mad dash out into the grass should be doable. When I start catching pods out of my desk top tank just for something to scope, its time to hit the water...lol

Chuck

[DeadManWalking]

a way to trap bristle worms is with a piece of pvc pipe and panty hoes. put the end caps on the pvc and drill holes in the ends of the pipe. put some food and the panty hoes in there close the pipe up and put it in the tank and wait. the bristle worms go in for food and get caught in the panty hoes. just my 2 cents