ID - Possible "white bugs"? Pic of bug under magnification :-0

[jessezm]

Long story short, some - maybe 10% of my colonies have been suffering long term - usually my older ones. For the longest time I could not find anything on the corals, and though maybe I had a bacterial infection. Finally, finally was able to get a clean cut of a coral that was affected and after looking under light for a LONG time, saw tiny white bugs moving around. Dipped the coral and after tons of tries, got this sucker on a slide under magnification. I think I'm dealing with white bugs. Plan to do 3 rounds of Interceptor a week apart each. Other thoughts welcome.

Can you all ID this bug, and do you think Interceptor is the way to go?

 

[jessezm]

For the most part, what I've observed is first a colony will stop extending its polyps all the way, and some will disappear completely. Coral will slowly fade due to what looks like starvation. The color gets less vibrant. Eventually STN will occur - usually at the base or underside but also in the center sometimes. Some colonies are totally unaffected. I have ruled out chemical/water problems with ICP testing. And sometimes a clone of the same colony a few inches away is unaffected. Sometimes, however, a colony - especially a Tenuis, will RTN fairly rapidly. It seems that the smoother skinned coral are more often impacted but die slower.

The bugs are extremely small and very hard to see with the naked eye. only under the microscope does it look like more than a white spec.

 

[ScottB]

I was having similar experience and difficulty getting an ID on anything. Based on my symptoms alone, I was advised to dose Interceptor by @SawCJack00 even though my photos were inconclusive. IIRC, you are about to dose Interceptor.

I chose to test Interceptor in a QT system first. Next day, I have a bunch of dead aefw which I thought I had solved for back in August. So I am going to solve for that first, and then come back later for Interceptor.

Your image is better so perhaps he can chime in on your ID. Bill?

 

[jessezm]

I did start the Interceptor regimen last night, and will take a close up look and a new sample from my Pink Lemonade that was infested later on today. Leaving it in for a full 24 hrs before carbon, skimmer, and WC I think.

 

[ScottB]

I did start the Interceptor regimen last night, and will take a close up look and a new sample from my Pink Lemonade that was infested later on today. Leaving it in for a full 24 hrs before carbon, skimmer, and WC I think.

Hoping it goes well for you. Keep us posted. Do you have a plan to restock pods?

 

[jessezm]

Thanks! I don't, but given that I'll be doing two more treatments, I have some time to make that plan ;-/

Unfortunately I'll also be restocking my fire shrimp (RIP), which i could not catch in my vast rockwork

 

[ScottB]

Thanks! I don't, but given that I'll be doing two more treatments, I have some time to make that plan ;-/

Unfortunately I'll also be restocking my fire shrimp (RIP), which i could not catch in my vast rockwork

Yeah, that is another part that is holding me up. Fire, coral banded, cleaners and pods. It is a fair amount of certain mortality for an unknown benefit.

 

[jessezm]

Update:
So I let the Interceptor treatment go for a full 36 hours before performing a 20% water change and running new GAC and turning the skimmer back on. For a total water volume of about 300 gallons, I did 2 large (23mg) chewable pills, thoroughly dissolved in a jar of warm RO/DI water (about 2.5x the recommended dosage).

I was not able to catch my two Fire shrimp, and they both succumbed to the "medicine, as did a peppermint shrimp I didn't know was still alive, and most likely my Harlequin shrimp as well, but those I haven't seen since the day they were introduced... However, my Coral Banded shrimp is doing fine, apparently. I was also very surprised to find a live amphipod when cleaning out my filter socks.

As far as tank observations, I have started noticing some polyps peaking out of a few colonies that I suspected were impacted. Hope to see that increasing over the weekend as evidence that the treatment has had an impact.

Other than that, no signs of stress whatsoever, and all else seems normal. I tested the NO3/PO4 levels and have a normal 2ppm nitrate, 0.09 ppm phosphate (a tad high for my liking but not too bad - going to cut out the mid-day flake feeding and see if that makes a difference).

Here are few gratuitous pics as of now:

 

[peopleschoice]

following along...

 

[ScottB]

Update:
So I let the Interceptor treatment go for a full 36 hours before performing a 20% water change and running new GAC and turning the skimmer back on. For a total water volume of about 300 gallons, I did 2 large (23mg) chewable pills, thoroughly dissolved in a jar of warm RO/DI water (about 2.5x the recommended dosage).

I was not able to catch my two Fire shrimp, and they both succumbed to the "medicine, as did a peppermint shrimp I didn't know was still alive, and most likely my Harlequin shrimp as well, but those I haven't seen since the day they were introduced... However, my Coral Banded shrimp is doing fine, apparently. I was also very surprised to find a live amphipod when cleaning out my filter socks.

As far as tank observations, I have started noticing some polyps peaking out of a few colonies that I suspected were impacted. Hope to see that increasing over the weekend as evidence that the treatment has had an impact.

Other than that, no signs of stress whatsoever, and all else seems normal. I tested the NO3/PO4 levels and have a normal 2ppm nitrate, 0.09 ppm phosphate (a tad high for my liking but not too bad - going to cut out the mid-day flake feeding and see if that makes a difference).

Here are few gratuitous pics as of now:

Nice reef! Got some fire in there.

glad to hear it is going well.

 

[jessezm]

Thanks! I wish I was a better photographer... Things are really packed in there, I can't wait to find out how they all grow out

Hopefully this treatment will put things back on the right track

 

[DDenny]

Very nice reef you have there I thought the photos were pretty good.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks! I wish I was a better photographer... Things are really packed in there, I can't wait to find out how they all grow out

Hopefully this treatment will put things back on the right track

Grow out? Brother you are on course for a bit of coral warfare in there. But it looks great.

An image taken just before my latest re-scape

 

[jessezm]

Nice!

I'm hoping of more of a "kumbaya" thing with all the corals growing together in harmony lol...

 

[ScottB]

Nice!

I'm hoping of more of a "kumbaya" thing with all the corals growing together in harmony lol...

All still good? Any notable changes from your last update?

 

[jessezm]

Sorry for the late update, busy weekend!

I would say inconclusive yet encouraging results so far:

1) I have noticed some PE on 3 of my colonies that were previously not showing. That is definitely an improvement.
2) I examined another sample from my pink lemonade colony where I originally saw the bugs, and was not able to find any, even after a Bayer dip and looking in the microscope.
3) both my Coral Banded AND my Harlequin shrimp are alive!

Tomorrow I start my second dose. Hopefully the shrimp will continue to resist the medication, as they are dang near impossible to remove.

 

[jessezm]

Update:

I'm about 12 hours into my second dose, and all looks good. In fact, I can definitely say there is better PE in some of my affected colonies. From prior posts, I was under the impression the change would come faster and more obvious, so I was fretting after the first dose when I didn't see dramatic results right away. But 1 week in and on dose #2, I am seeing obvious (positive) changes.

As with the first, I doubled the recommended dose and will leave it in for 36-48 hours, as that seemed to do no additional harm to the surviving shrimp the first time around. Hopefully that will remain the case, but so far the Coral Banded shrimp seems fine.

I am starting to feel (cautiously) very optimistic!

 

[jessezm]

Okay folks, got an update for ya! So I'm a full week past my last treatment (three weeks from the first dose) and results are positive. Below are three colonies that hadn't shown any PE in months and seemed to be slowly getting less and less happy (while resisting any actual die off). Pardon the close up fuzziness of the phone pics, but you can see good PE in all three.

Hopefully this will have done the trick. I struggled for months with the feeling that something was off but not being able to put my finger on it, since some, if not a majority of my corals looked healthy the entire time. But the pattern that I noticed seemed to indicate older colonies were more affected than newer ones. Smooth skin acros and millies seemed the most impacted, while tenuis colonies showed signs of stress by simply RTN'ing, however I don't know if that was related or not. Months previously, I treated the tank with a set of broad spectrum antibiotics thinking that I had a bacterial infection in my Indo tenuis colonies. They have all since stabilized and started encrusting again, so one or the other of these interventions seemed to have helped them.

Anyways, here are the pics. You can see where I took all my original cutting samples from the living part of the pink lemonade colony (first pic) - after three weeks it's already putting up new shoots from the cuts. I'll update this thread if there are any further developments but for now I'm feeling good.

 

[CoralClasher]

Long story short, some - maybe 10% of my colonies have been suffering long term - usually my older ones. For the longest time I could not find anything on the corals, and though maybe I had a bacterial infection. Finally, finally was able to get a clean cut of a coral that was affected and after looking under light for a LONG time, saw tiny white bugs moving around. Dipped the coral and after tons of tries, got this sucker on a slide under magnification. I think I'm dealing with white bugs. Plan to do 3 rounds of Interceptor a week apart each. Other thoughts welcome.

Can you all ID this bug, and do you think Interceptor is the way to go?

Did you ever get an positive ID on that bug? I might have the same, what do you think?

 

[jessezm]

I think it looks very similar - there are some differences but I think it would be easier to tell at a little more magnification. I never heard from anyone in particular that looked at my slide pictures and said, "yes, for sure that's a parasitic copepod," but I can tell you that at this point, I have a very high level of confidence that what I took a picture of is the pest that has been living rent free in my corals for months now, and I would go on further to say that the Interceptor regimen has either eradicated it or knocked it back to where my corals are thriving again.

So I guess I'd put the question back to you: did you isolate this specimen from a living piece of coral (not the dying underside that may be home to plenty of perfectly harmless copepods)? And are you experiencing something similar to me, where the damage isn't sudden or obvious and the bugs are almost imperceptible to the eye? Fading color over time but most importantly, retracted polyps?

If so, I would not hesitate to go ahead and treat your system. It was so easy on everything else in my tank (except for my poor fire and peppermint shrimps) that I feel terrible for not doing this months ago. I'm telling that to all my reefing buddies locally who have gotten corals from me.