Help w Bug/Pest ID (on M. diditata)

[archipelago]

Purchased this coral frag today and found these while scoping as part of my pre-mont inspection. They were not found on any other specimens (Acropora sp.) from the same vendor

There were about a hundred total on the 1 inch frag. Most specimens seems to be crawling around the coral - I did not witness anything that appeared to be feeding, except for the animal in the first clip in the vid below. It seems to have buried itself (head first) into the corral polyp, then appears to lay an egg on the outside ring of the coralite (?).

The animals are translucent, appear to have a shell-like formation on their back. This 'shell' has a redish design on it.

Has anyone seen these before? I couldn't get an ID during a cursory google (andr2r) search for digitata pests, so tossed the frag.

 

[BonnieB]

Montipora eating nudibranch. Remove the coral and dip. You will have to keep an eye out bc dipping unfortunately doesn’t kill the eggs that may be there!

 

[Troylee]

Agreed! ^^^ I kinda wish I had them to eat an encrusting monti that’s taking over my tank.

 

[archipelago]

Hey @BonnieB and @Troylee - thanks for the reply. These appear to have an exoskeleton, a shell, and appendages that they are using to crawl around the coral.

Can you double check the video?

 

[BonnieB]

Still looks like a nudi to me but they don’t have shells except in the larval stage. The only thing I know of that would be eating your Monti besides the nudibranch is a pyramidellid snail and that doesn’t look anything like it. @Troylee any other ideas?

 

[archipelago]

Understood, and thanks for taking a look. I tossed the frag, so no worries on the whatevers getting into my tank, just posting for my own (and others possibly) edification - whether they are 'good' or 'bad'.

 

[Troylee]

Understood, and thanks for taking a look. I tossed the frag, so no worries on the whatevers getting into my tank, just posting for my own (and others possibly) edification - whether they are 'good' or 'bad'.

Is that a polyp it’s eating? It’s possibly a white bug I don’t know what magnification you have the scope or video on.

 

[archipelago]

Is that a polyp it’s eating? It’s possibly a white bug I don’t know what magnification you have the scope or video on.

Yes, a closed polyp on the digitata. I might still have the skeleton. Let me see if I can recreate the image with some sort of scale.

 

[archipelago]

Hey @Troylee - I could not find the frag skeleton. It went down the drain, evidently.

Because I was interested in understanding if I threw away a perfectly good coral - or if I what I found was truly a coral pest - I dug around a little yesterday.

Instead of searching for "digitata pests" or "acro pests" I did a search of "White bugs coral pest" (thank you @Troylee ) and several images and threads came up. While there are very few pics that I could use to positively identify the creatures, I found a video that was a perfect match. See below:



The video is from this thread, which I subsequently discovered. These are, without a doubt, what was infesting this digitata. A great read BTW.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Purchased this coral frag today and found these while scoping as part of my pre-mont inspection. They were not found on any other specimens (Acropora sp.) from the same vendor

There were about a hundred total on the 1 inch frag. Most specimens seems to be crawling around the coral - I did not witness anything that appeared to be feeding, except for the animal in the first clip in the vid below. It seems to have buried itself (head first) into the corral polyp, then appears to lay an egg on the outside ring of the coralite (?).

The animals are translucent, appear to have a shell-like formation on their back. This 'shell' has a redish design on it.

Has anyone seen these before? I couldn't get an ID during a cursory google (andr2r) search for digitata pests, so tossed the frag.

I'm late and sorry about your troubles with this, but that is fantastic video you've got there - super clear image of that white bug copepod!