Strangest hitchhiker I've seen yet, marine spider?

[cschumaker]

I received some live rock from Gulfview today, and found this very odd creature. It is about an inch from legtip to legtip when all are fully extended, and it pulls them in like a spider when annoyed. I'd like to keep it, but I need to know if it is safe to do so. It's living in a fish breeder net in my frag tank atm. LOL It seems to move and act like a walking stick, and all of its legs and its torso all are less than a mm thick. Thanks for any help anyone can provide. The first and third images are from above, and the middle is from the side. If I can get a better image I'll add to this thread.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/562/88048hitchhiker1.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/562/88048hitchhiker2.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/562/88048hitchhiker3.jpg

[ClamIAm]

That looks like a sea spider (not related to land spiders). Try doing a search on them as I have no idea if they're reef safe or not.

[cschumaker]

Cool, that gives me something to search for on google. =) I've gotten a couple more images that are a little better. It only sits still when the camera is not around.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/562/88048hitch_above_2.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/562/88048hitchhiker_above.jpg

[greenbean36191]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/rs/index.htm
No, it isn't reef safe.

[cschumaker]

I wanted to thank you guys for the information. I'll have to figure out what to do with it now. I imagine it follows the trend many of these small marine predators follow, and mimics what it preys upon. Maybe I will set up a small tank with a piece of the rock so that I can observe what it feeds upon. I've been reading more articles on Pycnogonids and they seem to vary widely in diet by species. Not a ton of information on them though. LOL I noticed that you are a marine biology student, so if you or anyone you know are interested in examining it I could ship it to you. I'm located in Jackson, TN so it would be quite easy to do.

[greenbean36191]

[welcome]
Sorry for the late welcome; I just noticed your post count.

Thanks for the offer. They are interesting creatures and I would love to try to keep it, but I don't have anywhere to keep it at the moment. Maybe someone else will be interested though.

[bean3178]

I just got some new corals in and have seen about 10 of these. I think they came in on a specific frag. They seem to be attracted to a (A. secale) frag in my tank. They can "home in" on it. I've just been pulling the frag out of water and scraping the spiders off with a sharp knife peridocially. I tried sucking them off with a syringe, but they run away. Bastards...

Another check in the + column for quarantine tanks.

[bean3178]

Well, another update:

I kept seeing more and more of the sea spiders on my A. secale frag. I took some water out of the aquarium and put it in a bowl. I put about 15 drops of Lugol's solution in the water and submerged the frag for about 5 minutes. I started seeing a ton of spiders! After 5 minutes, I shook the rock vigorously and dipped it up and down to knock the dead spiders loose. There were about 30-40 dead sea spiders floating around (along with some pods).

Now, I need to wait and see if the A. secale frag will live. It bleached out by me doing this. It's now back in the tank and it's sliming. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.

I'll keep this thread updated since it seems that no one has had any success killing these things from what I have read.

[clkwrk]

Tropic Marin Pro coral Cure kills them . I found 6 of them when I dipped a coral for AEFW's

Closeup
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/o2manytnks/sea-spider-1.jpg

and a zoomed out shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/o2manytnks/sea-spider-2.jpg

[bean3178]

Continue to keep a close eye out for these things. Ultimately, they were eliminated by removing all of the SPS corals from the tank. I had a few colonies that died because I was not able to keep my tank params stable enough.

[DensityMan]

cschumaker: If you're willing to ship him a bit North. I have a mantis tank (Tim's) that is setup as a marine pest sanctuary of sorts. ;)

I've had expernce twice now with zoanthid predating Pycnogonids. Interesting creatures, though I haven't met one yet that I'd like to keep in a display reeef.

[Sk8r]

In nature you find predators near what they prey on. In commercial farm tanks, there's no telling. They were obviously eating well enough to be numerous, but they could have been eating whatever they fed the corals. I'd certainly complain to the seller.

[bean3178]

These types of pycnogonids were found at the base of my SPS corals. They didn't seem to bother my zoanthids. Honestly, if I ever see a new coral with them again I'm QT it for a long while and/or throw it out like Randall Holmes Farley recommends. He says that the spider reproduce by laying eggs in the SPS coral. It's not worth the time and trouble.

[DensityMan]

The pyconids I encountered were a different species (genus even) and were found underneath and on top of a colony of zoanthids. They are a great number of them with a great number of specialized diets no doubt...

http://www.densityman.com/images/reef_tank_new/zoa_crab_underside.jpg

http://www.densityman.com/images/reef_tank_new/zoa_crab_1.jpg

Dr. Ron Shimek also observed that these zoanthid spiders would lay their eggs and the young would develop underneath/within the tissue of the zoanthids.

Creepy critters for certain.

[bean3178]

I pulled one of those off my zoa's as well...after I pulled that one, I never had further problems. The ones at the top of this thread are the ones that were a huge pain for me.

[clkwrk]

I too have pulled a few of those ones from some zoa's over a year ago.