Are these black bugs on my Monti's; Death sentence or manageable?

[KGV]

I noticed that my purple and green Monti's color looked a little faded. Closer inspection with magnifying glasses showed small copepod-like creatures darting around on the Monti's surface. These also move in the same jerky ways that copepods move (when free floating). I attached a picture taken with 100x magnification. They are impossible to see with the naked eye.

These creatures look very much like black/red bugs that some describe on the forum. So, far, they seems to be restricted to my Monti's (I have a ton of acropora mini colonies, like 50 of them). What is your experience? Will these move onto my acropora as well? What's the treatment, if any?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[phillybean]

When I had black bugs, they only affected Montipora's, but both caps and Digitata. I pulled them out and did various dips, which had temporary success, but they always came back. I ended up losing the Digitata, but the cap just had poor polyp extension and growth, but survived. I gave up trying to kill them and they ended up going away on their own. No idea if I added something that ate them or I just got lucky.

 

[KGV]

When I had black bugs, they only affected Montipora's, but both caps and Digitata. I pulled them out and did various dips, which had temporary success, but they always came back. I ended up losing the Digitata, but the cap just had poor polyp extension and growth, but survived. I gave up trying to kill them and they ended up going away on their own. No idea if I added something that ate them or I just got lucky.

Thanks for the quick reply.
Did you have acros as well at the time? They stayed clean?

 

[phillybean]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Did you have acros as well at the time? They stayed clean?

Had mostly Acro's, only one Red Cap and a Forest Fire Digitata. Acro's were fine, did not see a single spec on them. My Monti was pretty large at the time (and even bigger now) and barely fit inside a 5 gallon pail for dips. Depending on how many you have, and the size, I'd pull them all out and aggressively treat with Interceptor and leave them out of the tank. If what I had was the same as yours, the Acro's should be safe, I took a risk and just dipped and re-added them, and got lucky doing so, but in hindsight was probably not the best approach.

 

[KGV]

Had mostly Acro's, only one Red Cap and a Forest Fire Digitata. Acro's were fine, did not see a single spec on them. My Monti was pretty large at the time (and even bigger now) and barely fit inside a 5 gallon pail for dips. Depending on how many you have, and the size, I'd pull them all out and aggressively treat with Interceptor and leave them out of the tank. If what I had was the same as yours, the Acro's should be safe, I took a risk and just dipped and re-added them, and got lucky doing so, but in hindsight was probably not the best approach.

Yeh, apparently these bugs can be very coral specific. This is was useful comprehensive description https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium...measures-and-a-review-of-treatment-protocols/

Cheers!

 

[KGV]

Today, I took a frag from a monti cap and dipped it in coral rx under a stereo microscope to see what happens. After only a minute, the bugs get irritated and start moving a lot. Then they detach and it was easy to blow them off the frag (something which is very hard when they're happily stuck on the coral with their claws). After 5 minutes, they lay uncoordinatedly crawling on the bottom. They kept moving for as long as the 20 mins that I followed them.

I am planning to take my Montis and digis out, frag them to a smaller size, dip them in coral rx and carefully check them under the microscope before putting them back in the tank. As far as I can tell from some quick searches, these bugs tend to carry their eggs until they hatch. This way, I should be able to get rid of most, if not all. We shall see.