Invasive SPS “barnacle”?

[Biologic]

Hey guys,

i actually have never seen anyone ever talk about these, however, this is a new pest I’ve never seen before. They don’t necessarily kill the coral, but make them look very un attractive. long term, I think they are a net negative on the coral health and do not provide any commensial relationship.. For reference, this is an encrusting yellow Montipora which has been shaded out, but as you can see living within it, is these tiny little animals. I’ve seen these on an Acropora as well.

Description - living as a colony or as an individual, they are embedded into the SPS skeleton, they build a light colored coat around themselves, like a tube worm, then presumably filter feed with these two whiteish antennae like short hair structures from the water column.

they can multiply from one to five in a couple months. They seem to need the skeleton to expand so they can continue yo multiply.

any advice? Any type of red bug treatment or other thoughts?

 

[Chrisv.]

Gah I can't remember the details, but I believe there was thread about these a while back. Apparently if you block off their hole, they can make a new one near the original.

 

[Biologic]

Gah I can't remember the details, but I believe there was thread about these a while back. Apparently if you block off their hole, they can make a new one near the original.

Nice to know! I would have searched for an existing thread, but I have no where to begin to describe it in a common pest name like “AEFW” or “MEN” or Vermented snail

 

[Chrisv.]

Nice to know! I would have searched for an existing thread, but I have no where to begin to describe it in a common pest name like “AEFW” or “MEN” or Vermented snail

I have no idea what they are called, but I thought they were so cool the first time I saw them, lol.

 

[Chrisv.]

Cantellius cardenae, perhaps.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Spinoid worms

 

[Tired]

Definitely not barnacles. A barnacle is actually a highly modified, sessile crustacean!

Do they seem to spread from coral to coral within a reef tank? They look rather interesting. An isolated colony might be neat to have.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Spinoid worms

+1 to this - Coral Boring Spionid Worms (there’s actually a few other threads here on R2R about these guys from a few years back). I suppose you could call them CBSW if you want an acronym for them in the future. If they were barnacles, their “tubes” would be squat and mound like, and they would have 12 little tentacles sticking out in a cone/circle. These guys have long tubes and two tentacles sticking out. They seem to prefer SPS corals, but they will inhabit LPS too. They’re filter feeders that seem to spread more easily to certain corals in high nitrogen concentrations*, so reducing your NO2 and/or NO3 levels and decreasing or stopping any small sized (i.e. coral/filter feeder) food feedings may help, though, ideally, you’d be able to feed the corals while starving these guys out somehow. One thread** that I’ve found accomplished that with these guys by covering all of their holes with super glue. That was apparently effective for them, but I suspect this method may have mixed results. Other suggestions include biological controls with wrasses (such as a sixline) and with Coral Banded Shrimp.

* http://wp.auburn.edu/chadlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Weilgus-et-al-2006.pdf
** https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/id-help-on-frag-boring-spionid-worms.775589/

 

[Biologic]

+1 to this - Coral Boring Spionid Worms (there’s actually a few other threads here on R2R about these guys from a few years back). I suppose you could call them CBSW if you want an acronym for them in the future. If they were barnacles, their “tubes” would be squat and mound like, and they would have 12 little tentacles sticking out in a cone/circle. These guys have long tubes and two tentacles sticking out. They seem to prefer SPS corals, but they will inhabit LPS too. They’re filter feeders that seem to spread more easily to certain corals in high nitrogen concentrations*, so reducing your NO2 and/or NO3 levels and decreasing or stopping any small sized (i.e. coral/filter feeder) food feedings may help, though, ideally, you’d be able to feed the corals while starving these guys out somehow. One thread** that I’ve found accomplished that with these guys by covering all of their holes with super glue. That was apparently effective for them, but I suspect this method may have mixed results. Other suggestions include biological controls with wrasses (such as a sixline) and with Coral Banded Shrimp.

* http://wp.auburn.edu/chadlab/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Weilgus-et-al-2006.pdf
** https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/id-help-on-frag-boring-spionid-worms.775589/

I think I will try a Potassium Chloride dip. Not much really survives that. Totally disrupts osmotic pressure of flatworms.