Help! Are these some sort of pest?

goody · Feb 3, 2011

A few weeks ago I put in some marco rock and did some reaquascaping to my display tank. This also gave me a chance to epoxy/glue some of my frags to my rockwork.

I started to notice within days that some of my coral weren't looking too good. I thought maybe I stressed a few colonies/frags off from touching and moving them around. Possibly even causing some tissue loss due to epoxy residue on fingers when handling the coral.

Now I am starting see a few more of my sps (miami orchid, red planets, strawberry shortcake, tricolors) looking pretty bad, complete tissue loss in areas. What is really weird is on my Miami orchid and a few other frags the tissue loss is completely on the underside of the branches.

I've noticed some bright, white spots on each of these damaged coral and wanted to know if these are a pest and the cause of my problems.

I have not dipped yet, thinking I had stressed them out and it was the epoxy residue, but I do have Coral rx, Revive and Iodine.

Water parameters:
Ca 420
Alk 9dkh
Mg 1350
P04 .06
N03 0
ph 8.08
temp. 79.2
Salinity 1.026

soccerbag · Feb 3, 2011

It sounds like it could be AEFW. Have you tried taking a turkey baster and blasting the SPS with the baster? If they are infact AEFW, you will notice a few fly off of the coral. It could be some stress from the move but anytime I hear white "spots" on SPS, it is typically AEFW. Let's figure that out first and then we can move on from there. If you do see some flatworms fly off, do not panic. It's not the end of the world. But I say try basting the corals and see what we're dealing with first.

secretreefer · Feb 3, 2011

are those some sort of hard shelled snail or something? could be babies of some sort of acro eating snail. i had a hitchiker snail once and it did eat a fourth off one of my sps bases. either that or aefw. do what ^ says for sure. but i would frag the "live" branches (make sure no dead tissue).

swannyson7 · Feb 3, 2011

Maybe AEFW? I thought they were more of a tan color than white though. I'm sure someone can chime in to confirm

btkrausen · Feb 3, 2011

That almost looks like calcium deposits, but hard to tell. I've honestly never seen AEFW before.

soccerbag · Feb 3, 2011

I think those white spots are calcium deposits growing on the dead tissue. Flatworms can be a whitish to a brown color. And they are translucent when on a coral. They are very good at blending in. Most folks don't know they have them until they have caused significant damage.

HiroPro · Feb 3, 2011

Doesn't look like AEFW to me. They look like small snails or something on the already dead parts of your SPS.

Here are some pics of AEFW and eggs:
AEFWs staring down the barrel of an expert’s microscope

btkrausen · Feb 3, 2011

I think I'd count on them being calcium deposits. Put one off and take a look at it, maybe smash it to see if it turns to a power. If it does, then its probably calcium.

jonzee2006 · Feb 3, 2011

sounds like maybe you have acro eating flatworms. I would dip ALL of your colonies in revive

aalvarado87 · Feb 3, 2011

is this the only colony you are having problems with? I know a guy in our local club had acro eating flatworms he fought like crazy with different dips and some other solution i believe ill see if i can dig it up. But he did beat them so not all hope is lost.

dougers31 · Feb 3, 2011

The white things are(to the best of my knowledge) tiny tubeworms. I used to have them in my old 20 gal nano. They usually were on the back glass of the tank. If you look really close with the lights out and using a flashlight you can usually see the small feathers.

btkrausen · Feb 3, 2011

Nah, look at the deposits on his back wall compared to the same looking things on the coral. I'm pretty sure they are just harmless calcium deposits.

If they are AEFW, they would be moving around. Keep a close eye on them to see if they are moving. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.

Reef lvr · Feb 3, 2011

dougers31 said:
The white things are(to the best of my knowledge) tiny tubeworms. I used to have them in my old 20 gal nano. They usually were on the back glass of the tank. If you look really close with the lights out and using a flashlight you can usually see the small feathers.

+1 That's excactly what they are.. Just had a big explosion of them myself!! I think they are just taking up residents on dead spot of acro.

soccerbag · Feb 3, 2011

Whatever the white deposits are is secondary in my opinion. The tissue is dead for another reason. It's VERY difficult to see AEFW move around without the aid of a microscope. I would baste the affected corals and see if you see anything fly off. Something is causing the tissue damage and it's not the white deposits / tubeworms in the pics. Let us know what you find goody.

goody · Feb 3, 2011

soccerbag said:
It sounds like it could be AEFW. Have you tried taking a turkey baster and, blasting the SPS with the baster? If they are infact AEFW, you will notice a few fly off of the coral. It could be some stress from the move but anytime I hear white "spots" on SPS, it is typically AEFW. Let's figure that out first and then we can move on from there. If you do see some flatworms fly off, do not panic. It's not the end of the world. But I say try basting the corals and see what we're dealing with first.

I am almost positive the "white spots" are not AEFW, which I have dealt with in the past. The spots I am talking about look nothing like the bite marks of AEFW, nor the flatworm. Plus don't AEFW love millis, which I have several and they are all doing great. I will give a blast with the turkey baster just to be sure.

That almost looks like calcium deposits, but hard to tell. I've honestly never seen AEFW before.

I am leaning towards this, but want to make sure they are not pests. If you look on the walls in the first picture, you can see calcium deposits, I think. And these corals are in different areas of the tank, so would calcium deposits attach to dead tissue? Is this bad if it is calcium deposits? I did test with Salifert kit 420.

btkrausen · Feb 3, 2011

If its calcium deposits, its not a bad thing. Just a good sign that you are keeping your calcium at a high level. I personally scrape the deposits off the back wall, mostly cause I like a clean look though.

goody · Feb 3, 2011

dougers31 said:
The white things are(to the best of my knowledge) tiny tubeworms. I used to have them in my old 20 gal nano. They usually were on the back glass of the tank. If you look really close with the lights out and using a flashlight you can usually see the small feathers.

This was another thought, like mini coco worms/tubeworms, but would these cause the tissue loss? Maybe I should take a coral out and see if it scrapes off or is brittle, etc...

soccerbag · Feb 3, 2011

goody said:
I am almost positive the "white spots" are not AEFW, which I have dealt with in the past. The spots I am talking about look nothing like the bite marks of AEFW, nor the flatworm. Plus don't AEFW love millis, which I have several and they are all doing great. I will give a blast with the turkey baster just to be sure.

Hopefully you are correct here. But they not only love millies. They love Red Planets and tri-colors too. But hopefully there is another reason that's easily fixable here.

m and m · Feb 3, 2011

I would take a colony out in something where you can hold it close to the water with a magnifying glass and see what you can see my vote is AEFW.

btkrausen · Feb 3, 2011

m and m said:
I would take a colony out in something where you can hold it close to the water with a magnifying glass and see what you can see my vote is AEFW.

You are wrong yet again sir. These spots are white are chunks, where AEFW are flat, and are brownish/tank color. Here is a good pic for reference: