Acro pest? Small black spots on acro

[nivram]

A buddy has been treating some corals in a QT setup for AEFW. They are no longer believed to be present due to Bayer dips. However he noticed these black spots were showing up where ever there was skeleton exposed on the acros. Anyone run across this before or have an ID?

They do not appear to move. And as seen in the pic above, they are embedded in the coral skeleton. Initially I was thinking it could be algae. But in looking at other macro pics I've taken. It looks like it is in a tube.

 

[wangspeed]

Whoah, crazy looking. Is it on different types of acros?

 

[nivram]

Whoah, crazy looking. Is it on different types of acros?

Yes on the areas where there is no tissue.

 

[K_red_raider]

Could it be damage spots from the AEFW? Just a guess on my part...

 

[Velodog2]

I have been fighting stn for several months and have seen the same things show up on denuded areas. Can't help with ID tho. I haven't believed they were a cause of the stn as they haven't typically shown up until some time after the skeleton was exposed. I don't have AEFW but I did find red bugs. I don't think the bugs were the primary cause of the stn or the black spots but I did treat for them.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

If you read the last few posts on this thread by Laser he has ran across the same pests I believe
HTH

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...acropora-acro-eating-flatworms-treatment.html

 

[nivram]

If you read the last few posts on this thread by Laser he has ran across the same pests I believe
HTH

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...acropora-acro-eating-flatworms-treatment.html

Yes, i've seen his post, but if I recall he actually had little black bugs that moved around. These don't move around. I dont think its the same.

 

[-Logzor]

Whatever is growing on that coral is not caused by any type of bug that I'm aware of, nor is it a result of STN/RTN. With STN/RTN the coral tissue dies and bare skeleton is left behind.

That's something really strange! Have you looked up coral diseases? Looks cancerous.

 

[Eckolancer]

Just what we all need another bug/worm to worry about on sps. Good luck with ID I'm following along to see what they are.

 

[biocube14g]

Following along. After having a bad Dino outbreak followed by a bad algae outbreak, I was on the verge of losing most all of my acros. Luckily all of them are coloring back up and the tissue is regrowing. However I just looked at a skeleton and saw the same thing. It's only on one skeleton though. It's the only coral in my tank that I neglected to dip before I put it in my tank... it looks like little black hairs growing from the skeleton.... here's a pic from right now.... I would really like to know what they are as well!

 

[nivram]

I have updated pics I need to post. Found someone with a microscope. It almost looks like a tunicate or something.

 

[Chameleon]

I've had that on my coral after an STN event maybe 3 years ago. I think it was cleaning up dead tissue rather than promoting STN but I'll never know. Still very interesting.

 

[Acro76]

 

[guzzlo]

I picked these up at our main state coral swap in Lansing this year. All smooth skin and deep water acros were effected first. Showing the same symptoms as what's in the op pictures. I treated my 130 gallon tank with interceptor like you would if you had black bugs or red bugs. I thought I had black bugs but now not sure what it was after reading these posts

I have a bunch more better pics as I documented the whole process but here's a frag that showed symptoms

 

[luke33]

Halofolliculina corallasia

That's what it looks like to me..........nice call!

 

[fragit]

Any updates on this thread? I know it's old. I recently had an alk spike in my tank, followed by some lack of nutrients. My tank is new only since August I had 5 sps. First to go was my birds nest, then an acro and a stylo. I still have two stag type acros clinging to life. One has started to show this type of growth at the base. No bite marks, I was afraid I got black bugs. I've been watching closely every night, the spots never seem to move and are always in the same orientation. No tissue loss. Any results or is this a dead thread.

 

[Chriscrna]

Bump!

I'd love to hear any updates about this.

 

[Nohate]

Bump

 

[Chriscrna]

I had a PC Rainbow that looked nearly identical to biocube14g's. I removed it from my system a couple weeks ago and did a heavy Bayer dip. I strained the contents of the dip and didn't see a single thing. Though the dip was negative, I trashed the coral rather than putting it back in the system.....it's a mystery and simply not worth the risk IMO.

 

[KJ]

I had a PC Rainbow that looked nearly identical to biocube14g's. I removed it from my system a couple weeks ago and did a heavy Bayer dip. I strained the contents of the dip and didn't see a single thing. Though the dip was negative, I trashed the coral rather than putting it back in the system.....it's a mystery and simply not worth the risk IMO.

You trashed my PC Rainbow bad boy