Friend or Foe?

[Crestline]

Crawling around on Neon Green Cabbage Leather.

For scale, frag is about 1.5".

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Wow! I have no idea. you need either @vetteguy53081 , or @Jay Hemdal , or @ISpeakForTheSeas . I have personally never seen anything like that.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

IDK. They seem too large to be protozoans, but based on their size and frenetic activity, I'd say that is most likely what they are....

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Any chance you could get microscope pics of one?

 

[OrionN]

IDK. They seem too large to be protozoans, but based on their size and frenetic activity, I'd say that is most likely what they are....

...Mandarin's food.
I bet a mandarin or six line wrasse will make short work of these.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Flamethrower food

 

[vetteguy53081]

Crawling around on Neon Green Cabbage Leather.

For scale, frag is about 1.5".

Oh no - the freaded black bugs. Unusual for them to be on a leather coral but best is to treat the entire tank .
They feed on the tissue of smooth skinned acro corals and while most dont kill coral, its their growth and reproduction rate thats an issue. They are a type of copepod bug and yes interceptor pill crushed is often a solution to knocking them down.
Do realize interceptor can and will likely kill inverts, crabs-shrimps-pods and I therefore recommend removing all inverts OR treat the coral in a separate tank without inverts and will also reduce amount of the interceptor needed.
Treat 3 times a week for 3 weeks at 25mg per 20 gallons of water. Each pill needs to be ground up with a hammer and should treat about 400 gal. Do application initially. About 8 hours later, add another. Then blow the coral GENTLY with a turkey baster and 8 hours later add another dosage. DO NOT repeat until day 7 doing another 3 treaments every 8 hours.
REMOVE CARBON AND TURN OFF ANY UV STERILIZERS AND SKIMMER UNITS.
Each 7 day periods, do a water change and siphon surfaces.

1. You need the 51-100lb (23mg) plain interceptor (not plus)
2. 1 pill per 100g at a minimum
3. Treat every week for 3 weeks

 

[Crestline]

Oh no - the freaded black bugs. Unusual for them to be on a leather coral but best is to treat the entire tank .
They feed on the tissue of smooth skinned acro corals and while most dont kill coral, its their growth and reproduction rate thats an issue. They are a type of copepod bug and yes interceptor pill crushed is often a solution to knocking them down.
Do realize interceptor can and will likely kill inverts, crabs-shrimps-pods and I therefore recommend removing all inverts OR treat the coral in a separate tank without inverts and will also reduce amount of the interceptor needed.
Treat 3 times a week for 3 weeks at 25mg per 20 gallons of water. Each pill needs to be ground up with a hammer and should treat about 400 gal. Do application initially. About 8 hours later, add another. Then blow the coral GENTLY with a turkey baster and 8 hours later add another dosage. DO NOT repeat until day 7 doing another 3 treaments every 8 hours.
REMOVE CARBON AND TURN OFF ANY UV STERILIZERS AND SKIMMER UNITS.
Each 7 day periods, do a water change and siphon surfaces.

1. You need the 51-100lb (23mg) plain interceptor (not plus)
2. 1 pill per 100g at a minimum
3. Treat every week for 3 weeks

Wow, thank you for this incredibly detailed response.

I have a Mandarin on the way and would REALLY like to not kill off my pod population.

Can they be managed with any natural predators?

 

[Bacon and Eggs]

Crawling around on Neon Green Cabbage Leather.

For scale, frag is about 1.5".

Your “bugs” are a bit more active than this video below. I am not familiar with these. Just an observation. They are also so small that it’s hard to compare an anatomic detail bw the videos.

Black Bugs - An Acro keepers worst nightmare?

This is going to be a difficult post for me to write, bear with me. Last night after 3 days of research, discussion with other reefers, testing treatments under a microscope, and bringing myself to actually do it; I tore down my Acro tank. Not a hurt acro tank, but a beautiful growing acro tank...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wow, thank you for this incredibly detailed response.

I have a Mandarin on the way and would REALLY like to not kill off my pod population.

Can they be managed with any natural predators?

In some cases yes but at times, they multiply faster than they can be consumed