Reef Primer or CoralRx as a Trochus Snail Dip

[scotto]

Hi Everyone,

So after some long painful searches, I can find little to no data regarding the dipping of clean up crew members, specifically Trochus snails. For those who have encountered an unwanted flatworm invasion, I think it is useful to understand that the shells of our CUC can harbor any of the pests and diseases that would be found on rock, substrate, or glass, or potentially a coral pest straggler. What prompted our small "trial" is a Flatworm RX / FlatwormExist resistant flatworms found in my coral QT system.

The trochus snails are in this system going through the Humblefish 45 day recommended quarantine interval for cryptocaryon, and they are due to be released in the display. However, introducing these into a new system is something that is not desired. For all corals, I also saw, scrape and try to mechanically remove as much unwanted material as possible prior to the dip.

What we attempted was two dips: Polyp Lab Reef Primer and CoralRx for a 5 min dip interval, rinse, then back into tank water. All snails were disturbed enough to have their trap doors shut prior to the dip. 2 snails were attempted in Reef Primer, and 1 in CoralRX. Happily, all snails survived the dipping procedure, and are happily doing their CUC job post dip. We also believe all flatworms were successfully dislodged / killed.

I would guess that crustaceans (hermit crabs) would not enjoy this at all, but curious if anyone has trailblazed this yet. Overall, I highly do not recommend attempting anything without fully understanding the risk involved, and the proper care of our reef animals. I am also unsure of if the dip has any longterm effects, but I will post if there are any further developments. As we dip more, I will also post, as an n = 3 is a very small sample size!

 

[jsker]

Good question.

I have not ever thought about dip the clean crew.

 

[scotto]

I've just done a dip of 5 more snails and they are happily all cleaning away in the display. Snails that were dipped prior to this post being put up are also still alive and happy.

 

[ARCkeeper]

I've just done a dip of 5 more snails and they are happily all cleaning away in the display. Snails that were dipped prior to this post being put up are also still alive and happy.

I've never dared to try dips for the clean up crew. The harshest I have had the nerve to try was a 5 minute freshwater dip at the recommendation of our staff vet. All snails and crabs survived, but unfortunately on at least one occasion so did the flatworms.

 

[scotto]

I wouldn't dip any species that does not and cannot close its operculum (trapdoor). That said, maybe someone will chime in if they have tried dipping on other species.

 

[bnord]

I have dipped Trochus and Turbo with peroxide and they are alive and munching

 

[shnapper20]

hi im in the same position, possibly intoduced flatworms into my qt . After reading this I intend to dip my trochus snail before introducing them to the dt. What did you do with your qt after you emptied it of live stock? Im considering doing to treatments of flat worm exit two weeks apart followed by large water changes what do you think?

 

[scotto]

Do you have a photo or know the rough size (in millimeters)? I held all of my livestock in a rubbermaid or similar container while I filled the QT with a bath of citric acid (BRS's published concentration).

After cleaning, I dual dipped all of my livestock, and grabbed biomedia from my established display. Since it is fishless, I dosed 10 ppm nitrate straight away (some phosphates were already detectable and easily remedied with various coral foods).

The citric bath was mainly to rid the system of many Pocillopora damicornis babies. They were everywhere including on snails etc. I scoured the snails with a scouring sponge prior to dipping.

While I was, to this day, successful at ridding the system of P. damicornis, the small acoel flatworms were never eradicated. I suspect the very porous nature of LPS coral skeletal structure was due to the failure of the dip. The flatworms I have are some Australian species of detritivore, so their populations ebb and flow as time passes. I haven't observed them on any coral tissue. They are certainly not the species of "red planaria" that is observed in the hobby.

I suspect that this method would likely work better on larger species due to their inability to enter such small crevices. I certainly suspect, if a snail shell is scoured sufficiently, you will be very successful if that is the only creature treated.

My apologies for not following up for others on my eradication failure.