Merkury - O.briareus

skywindsurfer;163067 said:
I don't know if it is much help, but my Briareus eats best just before I shut off the lights. Might be worth a try.

Works here too. She is trained now to come out when the light comes on (keep it on for two hours at night) and eats, then I turn the light off.
 
You may already know that FWE also kills brittle stars (or I suppose it could be the dead FW juice that does this). Treatment is best done 3x, at 5 - 7 day intervals as FWE doesn't appear to have any effect on eggs, or possibly ones that are deep within pores of rock.
With just a single treatment, they always seem to return.
 
snowmaker;163153 said:
With just a single treatment, they always seem to return.

It's been two weeks and so far no flat worms in the tank, but I also used the entire bottle (more than 3x the recommended strength) at one time because I knew that some of them could be resistant to a single dose. And FWIW, flat worms are photosynthetic, so they don't spend much time burrowing into dark places even to lay eggs. At least that's what I have found.

Here's hoping I don't get any more back, because I'll just break the entire tank down if I do... :frown:
 
I thought I was rid of them before starting to transfer items over to a new built (Jan '10) 120g display. They are back, but unseen in the display, maybe due to the Sixline wrasse. I noticed them in the sump while harvesting chaeto. I do not see them in the attached 30b frag tank though.
I had them in a 40b display for maybe 3 years. They never got very dense and seemed to come and go (wax and wain) on their own.
I've long since stopped worrying about FW's. I may be fussy, but not that fussy. :mrgreen:
I can see where they may become unsightly in a relatively low-flow system w/ out predation. Once in a LFS I saw a small - 20g'ish set up with millions of FW's and it was ugly.
 
snowmaker;163301 said:
I noticed them in the sump while harvesting chaeto.

Is the sump lit? Maybe this is why you don't see them in the display. Mine were out of hand--sort of like you describe in the LFS tank.
 
Well. one thing is that when they die, they emit toxins. So if you have too many, when they die naturally, they kill fish. I was losing every fish I had just from natural die off. Just having one SLW doesn't seem like enough predation in a 120. You may have other factors at work there and not know it. I would keep an eye on them.
 
Yay! I stuff the krill in the empty shell. Merkury comes out and grabs it out and takes it back to her lair! Good system. :thumbsup:
 
Sounds cool! Any chance of capturing that on video? Would like to see that.

Don't want to stray off topic :nofeet: so let's not discuss here but FYI I hope to devise a better system for sharing videos on TONMO - in the meantime :feet: if you have vids to share let me know and I'll work to get them online.
 
Day 55
Merkury is eating frozen krill, frozen shrimp (grocery store), and frozen squid--all from the crab's shell that I put it in for her feeding pleasure. She is pretty much trained now. The light comes on, I put the food in the shell, she comes out and gets it. The whole process takes about a minute. I have several videos, but have been too busy to upload off the camera. I will post a link as soon as I get them up, or will upload directly to TONMO if applicable.
 
She's markedly bigger than when I got her, but still not very big. I haven 't measured her, but I would say her mantle is easily 1.75 inches long, and a total armspan of probably a foot if not more when she stretches out.
 

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