Help - Unidentified SPS Pest
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Elegance Coral
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Yep.... Looks like flatworms. The last pic even shows what looks like flatworm eggs.
Elegance Coral
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I've had some luck with praziquantel. It will take multiple treatments, over multiple days, with vigorous rinsing, though. Nothing that I know of kills the eggs.
This don't look like aefw they look like the kind I found on zoanthid before. The ones I found on zoanthids didn't really do much damage but would irritate the polyps if not delt with.
The damage on the flesh looks like aefw though. So do the couple of egg looking green circles except for how spread out and random they are laid. Are you sure these small grey slug things are causing all that damage? They do move incredibly fast though.
The damage on the flesh looks like aefw though. So do the couple of egg looking green circles except for how spread out and random they are laid. Are you sure these small grey slug things are causing all that damage? They do move incredibly fast though.
bubbaque
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Those are "black bugs". Do a search for sps black bugs and you will find threads with similar pest. They say an interceptor treatment at 4x the recommended strength may kill them.
You also have what looks like flatworm eggs.
You also have what looks like flatworm eggs.
Thanks for the responses. No aefw in the tank, I’ve done multiple dips and none fall off nor are there aefw eggs.
I posted on my local site and someone else had these and mentioned there was someone on here that had them too. These aren’t black bugs that we typically see in the hobby, from what I can tell they move very quickly and when threatened ball up.
The local reefer that had them tried every did and nothing works. I even tried a fw dip and after a couple days saw a bug crawling around on it. I took the pieces out and dumped them and cut anything with visible stress signs or Stn.
I agree the damage looks similar to aefw but I’m positive my tank doesn’t have them. Colors and polyp extension are great aside, even on the corals that were infected which was/is odd.
I posted on my local site and someone else had these and mentioned there was someone on here that had them too. These aren’t black bugs that we typically see in the hobby, from what I can tell they move very quickly and when threatened ball up.
The local reefer that had them tried every did and nothing works. I even tried a fw dip and after a couple days saw a bug crawling around on it. I took the pieces out and dumped them and cut anything with visible stress signs or Stn.
I agree the damage looks similar to aefw but I’m positive my tank doesn’t have them. Colors and polyp extension are great aside, even on the corals that were infected which was/is odd.
So I took a bit more of a direct approach to beating this before it gets worse. Since my corals weren’t encrusted a ton I decided to remove them all. I took each piece one by one and fragged it down to basically a nub leaving no traces of the base of the coral. Any colonies were fragged to a single branch. Even if a coral wasn’t showing signs of pests it was fragged. All glue and other traces of acros on the rocks were cut away with frag sheers.
I glued all the fresh cut pieces to a large mag float that can be easily removed from the tank and dipped weekly or more frequently. My thought process here is that the bugs need acros to eat and with no more on the rocks they’re either going o starve or make their was to the mag float which is a good way from the rock work and in front of a gyre. If they make it to the mag float they will stay there and can be picked off and dipped easily.
I know this seems a bit drastic but I don’t want to be dealing with this for the next several months only to end up losing everything. I saw bugs as I was fragging and bite marks here and there but I wouldn’t be surprised if I just eliminated the majority of them.
This tank has essentially become my qt tank
Thoughts?
I glued all the fresh cut pieces to a large mag float that can be easily removed from the tank and dipped weekly or more frequently. My thought process here is that the bugs need acros to eat and with no more on the rocks they’re either going o starve or make their was to the mag float which is a good way from the rock work and in front of a gyre. If they make it to the mag float they will stay there and can be picked off and dipped easily.
I know this seems a bit drastic but I don’t want to be dealing with this for the next several months only to end up losing everything. I saw bugs as I was fragging and bite marks here and there but I wouldn’t be surprised if I just eliminated the majority of them.
This tank has essentially become my qt tank
Thoughts?
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Immediate thought:
"You have the best looking mag float I've ever seen."
That aside,
I hope you get rid of the reef bugs with your method! Godspeed.
"You have the best looking mag float I've ever seen."
That aside,
I hope you get rid of the reef bugs with your method! Godspeed.
Jesus I was wondering what the image I was seeing was!!! That's actually a pretty good idea you had to keep all your corals alive and clean and just having to regrow them. Hopefully the get what the need light wise on the magfloat though.
Thanks all! I had to be realistic with myself and I know dipping 40 frags individually a couple times a week isn’t feasible with my schedule. This makes it a 15 minute process twice a week.
Revive and Melafix marine are on the way. Plan to be a bit more aggressive with the dip. Based on what I’ve read so far 30 seconds in melafix, rinse, then 8 mins in a stronger solution of revive should knock off any pests that are alive.
Revive and Melafix marine are on the way. Plan to be a bit more aggressive with the dip. Based on what I’ve read so far 30 seconds in melafix, rinse, then 8 mins in a stronger solution of revive should knock off any pests that are alive.
8 min in strong revive is asking for problems, especially going any longer than that. Melafix is better and easier to dip for longer periods of time with no bad issues.
I would take it show and see how your corals respond since each coral is different.
I would take it show and see how your corals respond since each coral is different.
Quick update while I wait for the dips to get here. Corals are looking okay. Colors are bad from bugs and fragging I’m sure didn’t help.
Hoping this process can be copied by other reefers if it works. It’s tough to make the call the chop off all that new growth and watch colonies go back to tiny nubs but it’s worth it if I can save a piece of them all.
Hoping this process can be copied by other reefers if it works. It’s tough to make the call the chop off all that new growth and watch colonies go back to tiny nubs but it’s worth it if I can save a piece of them all.
Nice pic, they look good for what they have been through. Cool colors!
Alright so day 1 of dipping is over and I saw what I believe to be those bugs fall off the corals. I counted less than a dozen when I finished the melafix marine dip and then another 3 when I finished the revive dip.
I did normal strength for both dips at 5 minutes each. Shaking and swirling the bucket every minute. I placed the mag float flat on the bottom of the bucket and attached the magnet to the outside so it wouldn’t move. Worked like a charm. Spent 15 minutes total dipping. Next dip will be Saturday, just melafix. Follow in 4 days by revive. Then in another 4 days by melafix and revive. I’m going to keep dipping until I see no pests for 3 weeks straight.
I did normal strength for both dips at 5 minutes each. Shaking and swirling the bucket every minute. I placed the mag float flat on the bottom of the bucket and attached the magnet to the outside so it wouldn’t move. Worked like a charm. Spent 15 minutes total dipping. Next dip will be Saturday, just melafix. Follow in 4 days by revive. Then in another 4 days by melafix and revive. I’m going to keep dipping until I see no pests for 3 weeks straight.
Great! Progress then. Glad to hear they are falling off. I switched between revive and Melafix years ago when I had aefw. Wanted to make sure nothing was getting aclimated to the dip since I had to restart the dipping process halfway through.
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