Black bugs on sps
- Thread starter loglan
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Hey Bill,
fortunately I have not but I do know one guy personally that has and it sounded like nightmare. He may chime in here. Ill send him a Pm
fortunately I have not but I do know one guy personally that has and it sounded like nightmare. He may chime in here. Ill send him a Pm
reefeqmover
Community Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2016
- Messages
- 67
- Reaction score
- 19
Any pics?
OP
OP
loglan
Active Member
Wanted to give an update on these bugs. To date I have over 50 skeletons now to add to the graveyard. Bayer is finally killing. The dose it has taken is 3/4 cup bayer to 1 gallon water. Dipped 3 times to date and no sign of bugs after 3rd dip. Display has been empty for the whole duration of the dipping process. Since starting this thread I've had 12 to 15 reefers pm about also having these devils. It's a work in progress!
Brad Vaughn
Active Member
I have experienced these. I tried Interceptor and it did not work. I tripled the dosage of Bayer dips that I read on several forums and that also did not kill them. I think these came in on an aquacultured coral from Bali, but I have heard from vendors that they think they come from Australia. Bayer does eventually kill them but IME it takes 30 minutes of dipping in a super-strong dose. You can easily lose your Acro that way. I have seen them get on other corals as well, a Duncan to be precise but I didn't notice the Duncan affected. They took bites out of my acros almost like AEFW. I ended up taking all frags out of my tank and through these strong dips nothing survived. I had no Acros for about 6 weeks and when I put a small frag in, after a few days I saw a black bug get on it. I don't how they survived that long. I employed a pipefish and I haven't seen them since. I am starting a copepod culture for the pipefish (he's awesome BTW). Also I corresponded with another reefer who had black bugs and his looked different than mine in some ways, maybe just more mature and larger. You can definitely see them easily. An initial Bayer dip when bringing a coral in will dislodge them so you can at least see if you have them. They swam around in the dip every time. They look basically like a dog-flea. QT everything! If you have them you will notice them quickly. Get your Acros from trusted sources because not alot of people know about these bugs and traditional treatments haven't worked.
I'm not sure if I had the same thing but I started noticing reduced polyp extension in my tank a couple months back. Then I finally looked really close and saw on about 5 colonies these gray/black looking copepods on those acros. I tried treating with Interceptor but they survived it. I then went triple the dose of Interceptor and the next morning they were all dead.
Only casualties were all my acro crabs and a blue tuxedo urchin. I had 4 other urchins survive and all my emerald crabs survived as well. It's been about two weeks and no gray/black bugs anywhere. I'll be bombing the tank again with the sams triple the dose to wipe out any stragglers that may have survived.
FWIW, I'm seeing polyp extension again and 3 colonies I couldn't color up for anything are starting to show some color. I definitely think the gray/black bugs were parasitic to my acros.
Only casualties were all my acro crabs and a blue tuxedo urchin. I had 4 other urchins survive and all my emerald crabs survived as well. It's been about two weeks and no gray/black bugs anywhere. I'll be bombing the tank again with the sams triple the dose to wipe out any stragglers that may have survived.
FWIW, I'm seeing polyp extension again and 3 colonies I couldn't color up for anything are starting to show some color. I definitely think the gray/black bugs were parasitic to my acros.
Brad Vaughn
Active Member
Fantastic result. If I see them pop up again I will do a triple-strength Interceptor treatment. Thank you for sharing your result. Would you also update this thread in a couple of months to let us know if it succeeded long-term? Thank would really help!
Definitely will Brad. I've been staring every night and every morning and haven't seen a speck anywhere yet.
I had a regal angelfish in there and he didn't batch an eyelash... and they are pretty sensitive fish by nature.
I think I'm seeing the same gray looking pods on a few of my sps....where the ones you had eating on the corals from the base up? Becouse thats what I'm witnessing. ...and only on 2 corals out of 30+
I have done searches and have not yet found a picture of the critters I'm having issues with so my course of action hasn't been decided yet. ....I'm just watching these things eat away little by little. ..only at the base. ..there not aefw they look just like small pods
I have done searches and have not yet found a picture of the critters I'm having issues with so my course of action hasn't been decided yet. ....I'm just watching these things eat away little by little. ..only at the base. ..there not aefw they look just like small pods
Mine appeared different than that. Those sound like the black bugs at eat at the base of your acros and almost look like flatworms with legs.
Mine were gray, all over the infected acros, and were highly resistent to Bayer, which makes sense how they got into my system as I Bayer the heck out of everything. They basically looked just like the little white pods you'd see on the glass except they were gray and chomping on acros. It only caused STN on one acro but caused a bunch to not polyp out.
Mine were gray, all over the infected acros, and were highly resistent to Bayer, which makes sense how they got into my system as I Bayer the heck out of everything. They basically looked just like the little white pods you'd see on the glass except they were gray and chomping on acros. It only caused STN on one acro but caused a bunch to not polyp out.
Yours look darker and less oval like the one's I encountered.
Trand1983
Community Member
Once you get these you are screwed, many people have lost all there sps and had to start there tank over from scratch to get rid of the bugs. I have had experienced with these bugs my self and lost everything and had to start over with new rock, sand, water, ect. Good luck with the battle.
OP
OP
loglan
Active Member
Best I can tell those look like what I encountered. Battled them for 6 weeks with several different kinds of treatments and wasn't successful. Ended up tearing my system down and starting over completely. Maybe someone has found a soluton for you. I started my system over and have purchased sticks from 2 vendors. Happy to say it's been 4 months and all is rocking along again. I truly hope someone can chime in and give a helping hand. GOOD LUCK!
Similar threads
