Black/brown bugs on euphyllia skeletons

TinkL

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Hello! Over the last couple months Ive noticed a couple of these black/brown specs crawling around like bugs and for some reason the first coral I noticed them on has been having very slow tissue recession but still has great polyp extension for now, however I noticed it receding more and decided to dip 3 euphyllia where I could see these bugs incase it was an issue, but they don't seem affected by dipping because they’re still crawling around… everyone Ive asked so far has NO IDEA what these could be or if its even a problem, could anyone ID? Thank you! All corals are thriving and good atm except the slow band recession hammer, could just be the heads splitting and redistributing flesh but idk… I managed to pull one out after dipping and got a real good microscope video of it so I need a pest guru’s help!
 

ying yang

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Will bump this for you to see if can get a good answer from someone.

Look similar to black and red bugs I seen in threads and articles that can eat sps flesh/ polpys like kind off bad copepod and most dips do nothing to them and can hide inside the polyps for safety .

But as looking at it again, kind off looks more like ostracods which I've got few different kinds which seem to cause no harm but there's 100's different kinds so law off averages probably says some are bad guys.
Way to eradicate some bad pods that eat coral is interceptor or Dr g's coral dip,research it and get advice on id off what you got before you even consider using something like this ( I'm not saying to use it,just saying what I've read from others) and can kill some other desirable inverts in your cuc so you would need to remove them before adding to tank etc.
Let's see what @vetteguy53081 thinks off the video and @WheatToast is great also .

From your title you say on the euphylia Skelton and not flesh/polyps so they could just be eating algae and the likes that's growing on the Skeleton even if you can't see no algae,it'll be there microscopoly.
As for slow tissue recession on your euphlia could be related to these or could be your parameters/lights/flow/placement in tank/whether wild caught or tank raised/how long been in tank and all varied reasons like this etc.

Good luck on id and hopefully your corals be good
 

vetteguy53081

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This is a detrivore known as ostracodes and can be found in numbers but generally harmless.
 
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TinkL

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Will bump this for you to see if can get a good answer from someone.

Look similar to black and red bugs I seen in threads and articles that can eat sps flesh/ polpys like kind off bad copepod and most dips do nothing to them and can hide inside the polyps for safety .

But as looking at it again, kind off looks more like ostracods which I've got few different kinds which seem to cause no harm but there's 100's different kinds so law off averages probably says some are bad guys.
Way to eradicate some bad pods that eat coral is interceptor or Dr g's coral dip,research it and get advice on id off what you got before you even consider using something like this ( I'm not saying to use it,just saying what I've read from others) and can kill some other desirable inverts in your cuc so you would need to remove them before adding to tank etc.
Let's see what @vetteguy53081 thinks off the video and @WheatToast is great also .

From your title you say on the euphylia Skelton and not flesh/polyps so they could just be eating algae and the likes that's growing on the Skeleton even if you can't see no algae,it'll be there microscopoly.
As for slow tissue recession on your euphlia could be related to these or could be your parameters/lights/flow/placement in tank/whether wild caught or tank raised/how long been in tank and all varied reasons like this etc.

Good luck on id and hopefully your corals be good
Thanks for the response, I've been digging all day for answers and I'm also leaning towards ostracods too.... the tissue band recession is isolated to a single coral, I've just noticed these guys crawling around on it so I'm moreso trying to rule them out.... parameters have been stupid stable the last 2 months, potentially flow could be a culprit because the spot its in is REALLY hard to get flow to. I have varying random flow on it but the lower end is definitely low flow. The tissue used to go all the way down past where 2 heads are, but it went up to form individual flesh bands so I assumed it was just them fully splitting into their own head, but I'm pretty sure its continued going up, slowly. I've got a torch and a frammer in there with big meaty flesh bands, as well as a frogspawn that's been recovering really well in there from being bleached and stung to hell in a nem tank. I really could be overthinking a coral having an isolated issue, theres always that 1% that wont make it, its just odd
 
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