Coral Boring Spionid Worms -- an ugly bane to SPS

[Biologic]

Can confirm. I have a cyphastrea with it, though it grows so quickly, its least affected. I have one leptastrea but its not infected.

 

[Biologic]

https://youtube.com/shorts/2m6GTYoREO4

Updated video of them. I posted a previous video a while back. There is some regression one of the corals.

Also notice there is recruitment of algae and cyanobacteria near where they invade.

 

[Reefahholic]

Can confirm. I have a cyphastrea with it, though it grows so quickly, its least affected. I have one leptastrea but its not infected.

They seem to have minimal impact if in the encrusted base of a Acro, but once they move into the skeleton itself is when real problems start.

 

[Reefahholic]

I used the dip from reef moonshiners and it works.Dipped for 1 hour in light current lots of dead worms when finished.

I did 1 Hr with the Exodus (with good flow) and it didn’t do anything to my species.

 

[krak256]

I also recently tried Exodus dip for 2 hours with a power heads and no worms came out.

Is there a reason why the dip works for some people and not others?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Is there a reason why the dip works for some people and not others?

I'd guess it's species dependent, but I don't know for sure.

 

[OscarHaglund]

I think i have a heavily infested montipora that i just discovered

 

[drtechno]

So whats the update on the 1hr Bayer dip trial? No good i assume? I know mine survived the initial 10 min Bayer dip I routinely do.

So as far as we know, Ivermectin is the only way to go at this point? Thankfully I found mine in QT, so I can just Ivermectin the whole thing without an issue. I just have to read up on if the residual is hardto remove or can I just drain the QT, give it a good rinse, and reintroduce inverts

 

[ceaver]

The only worms that are actual known to cause major issues are the black thin coral boring worms that actually tunnel in the coral. Breaking a branch will show black dots where the worms were tunneling. And the corals show obvious signs that something is killing them.

So what kind of worms are these you refer to if they are not spionid worms? I think I have these or spionid and am trying to find a treatment

 

[ナイトコア猫]

I would suggest to do this first. It started with three, and quickly turned into 60 over a year.

Here are my results of the potassium chloride dip. They appear lifeless after the dip 1 tablespoon per gallon for 20 minutes. I had to pry off the encrusting coral off the live rock. I scraped off the rest of the surrounding coral tissue from the rock. I had a peppermint shrimp play "Safety" and went through the rubble. I sucked up the remaining coral rubble and discarded it.

I re-glued the montipora on a frag disk. I am optimistic of the results.

Here is the back side of the coral.





No this is complete dip of the entire coral flat system. 1 tablespoon per gallon. Not sprayed on. They elevated the potassium, ran the system, then exchanged out water don't quote me exactly. Totally it would certainly kill every invertebrate in the tank. It would stress the corals for sure but better than AEFW.


I also find aptasia detach and can be knocked back by KCl dips as well. I wish I discovered it sooner!

In fact, some of the "coral dips" chemicals you can buy contain KCl as an ingredient. I also use this chemical product because I can buy a lot of it without spending a lot of money.

 

[drawman]

Anyone try a partial H202 dip?

 

[Paris by Night]

To anyone with this problem on small frags, ivermectin does work. 2-4 drops per 2 cups (473ml). You can visibly see the worms tentacles shrink inside then about 10 mins later a brown sheeth comes out. Next was slimy and the little broken up dead worm. It worked well. I owe my success to Reefahholic (I believe), whose video was published on YouTube showing the product Agri-mectin which I bought online without a prescription.

Thinking about dipping, my two coral atolls outside of the tank from my 30 gallon. Each are about 9 to 11 inches long. Corals are encrusted and this would eradicate red bugs also. I would just have to have a lot of fresh water ready to dip the rocks before returning to the display. Switch carbon then perform a large water căng after they enter the tank to avoid any invertebrate casualties. Just a thought:/

 

[ZaneTer]

Anyone know if ivermectin is safe to use in tank?

 

[Dburr1014]

Anyone know if ivermectin is safe to use in tank?

No, it's not.
It's likely to kill fish, shrimp, pods, all types of worms.
It gets bound to rock and sand and release back to the water column for up to 70 days(maybe more).
I did recently read that uv may degrade it but not sure 100%. It was only one source. https://dogaware.com/health/ivomec.html

Best to use as a dip and then rinsed in a couple NSW vessels.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Have some of these in a long term encrusted piece.... maybe 5x5 on rock.

Trying to consider what to do. I snipped on tips fairly far down.

hmmm

 

[Reefahholic]

Anyone know if ivermectin is safe to use in tank?

NO!

 

[Reefahholic]

No, it's not.
It's likely to kill fish, shrimp, pods, all types of worms.
It gets bound to rock and sand and release back to the water column for up to 70 days(maybe more).
I did recently read that uv may degrade it but not sure 100%. It was only one source. https://dogaware.com/health/ivomec.html

Best to use as a dip and then rinsed in a couple NSW vessels.

I second that. Just see my in-tank ivermectin treatment thread of the disaster!

 

[Nate Chalk]

Affected colony. Is encrusted on rock to right of green slimer. You can see some tips maybe through my blurry photo.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I don’t trust any coral research before the year 2000 haha, jk. I’ve just never seen them on the original part of the frag. They’ve always been part of the encrusted/new basal growth areas. Doesn’t matter either way bc I don’t think the spray will do anything.

I used to have them everywhere at the bases of my acros but rarely see them since doing regular interceptor bombs. Hope that helps

I still don’t have any of these worms anymore.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I still don’t have any of these worms anymore.

What's a random interceptor bomb?