Hi all,

Problem I have an existing 4ft tank with Stomatella, sponges, feather dusters, pods that I would like to move into a 2ft.

Is their any recommended ways to move the above items (in particular the sponges and dusters) without worms, or glass anemone?


Background.
The 4ft tank I recently purchased in July second hand ($700) with chiller, livestock, Liverock, salt, filters etc etc. I had being looking at a 2ft setup for the last few years and most of the time I prefer to read then ask questions so that makes this my first post.

Now the 4ft I brought also came with some unwanted critters (bristle worms and glass anemones) yes I know the whole debate on bristle worms being good for cleanup etc etc. However, me touching a piece of liverock accidentally while doing tank maintenance has made up my mind that I do NOT want these in my tank.

Some of the old live rock that came with the tank I had pulled out in July as there was more rock then water in the tank now I have started to cycle my 2ft with that and a small amount of “clean” & Cured live rock from the display tank at the LFS.

Thanks heaps in advance

Buy something to eat your bristle worms. I have heard that people have good luck with buying damsels and not feeding them. There are traps too. Also, Berghia nudibranches do a fantastic job on aiptasia (glass anemones)

Just about any wrasse will destroy all of your bristle worms, a sixline would work great. Also just about any wrasse will destroy Berghia nudis as well, I watched a mystery wrasses gobble one last week before it hit the bottom at the LFS.

Unfortunately there aren't any easy ways to move the rock while removing every single undesirable hitch hiker that I know of. But here are a few possible suggestions.

Typically aptasia (glass anemones) are dealt with either chemically, or naturally. There are several natural predators. I had a peppermint shrimp which took care of quite a few (hundred?) in about 2-3 months.
Search the forum and you'll find all kinds of chemical concoctions to kill them as well.

As for the bristle worms... well. Once they're in your system I honestly don't think you can completely rid yourself of them. Especially in an established tank. Traps might work on a few, but your best bet would be reducing the waste to try and minimize the population. If the population is getting out of hand it might be that there is too much waste in the system. Cut back feedings and do more maintenance.

Due to their obvious defense mechanism not a lot of fish will actually eat bristleworms (some wrasses etc. will though on occasion - but not enough to put a big dent in the overall population IMO). I believe you might have luck with some shrimp and/or predatory snails though. Manual removal for the larger ones. Maybe let the rock sit in a bucket for a little while with some food to lure the worms out of the rock and then once a bunch of them are out take the rock out and dump the water ?

Good luck!

Thanks all I should have being more specific

I have a copper band butterfly on lend from the LFS who will exchange at 75% of cost eating up a large number of the Anemone's and I have cut back on the feeding and the worms are decreasing.

However, I was more taking the opportunity to try and avoid adding the undesirables in the first place. Yet I still wanted to know if it is possible to move a handful of the good guys, the sponges and feather dusters.

My rocks have huge numbers of sponges and from what I read if I can get a good number of these into the system it should go a long way to helping the system stabilise.

the eventual plan for the system is 2ft (67L) display similar size sump split 50/50 fuge and space for equipment.

I'm not so keen on running a skimmer IF I avoid it. However do like the look of Turf scrubbers and Nitrate reducers.

So that leaves back to how I should have asked it. Is it possible to transplant sponges and dusters?

Sorry if it seams I expand things out but I see so many decisions made with limited advice. (like the LFS saying "add 2 table spoons of KH up to your system and test again in the afternoon" without ever asking how big the tank is.

Bristle worms really aren't "undesirables". They are great members of your clean up crew; safer than the hermit crabs most people deliberately add to their tanks. In fact, feather dusters are bristle worms...
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/worms.html

Feather dusters don't have much problems with transporting. Hitchhiker sponges are usually okay with transport; though it is best to minimize their exposure to air. However, these methods are only for transporting the dusters and sponges on the rocks they came from. I haven't had success trying to move sponges. It's possible to remove feather dusters by breaking their tubes (and removing the worm), but that sounds stressful, and I'm not sure it would be effective with smaller species.

Okay, so are your plans to remove the sponges & such from the LR and add it to your new system then? If that's the case, it will probably work on most, but not all of the sponges. As laks mentioned, try to minimize exposure to air, and don't use any chemicals to re-attach the sponges. I was able to take some sponges and move them by using a razor blade to cut off as much as I could and then just carefully placing it in a hole in the new rock (it's important to match similar lighting and flow conditions) and it grew out, attaching permanently to the rock. You could also try using some bridal veil mesh stuff (or maybe lace) to carefully hold the sponge down to the new rocks.

Feather dusters I'm not sure about though. Bigger ones can be carefully dis-attached and moved, but you might be better off just waiting some time as I'm sure plenty of them will sprout up.

Ok thanks for the advice.

I never thought that the most primitive approach would be the best. (hacking at them with a blade) I especially like the idea if the bridal veil. However I think I had better go get some new bits else my wife might be taking to me with a blade.

I may try and chisel some of the smaller bits of rock off that have dusters on them.

I'm sure it is going to be a very stressful move for any critters I can, but that has to be better then sitting out of water for the next x amount of years.

Thanks for all the advice.