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- Apr 26, 2017
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Hello everyone I am making this post in hopes that it reaches someone who is facing an infestation with BORING SPIONID WORMS that are drilled into your coral’s skeleton causing coral issues like I was. I bought my first torch coral about 3 weeks ago and she was flourishing.
Fast forward to about 1 week ago and I started to notice the torch was shriveling up and I became worried thinking about parameters but i took a closer look at my coral. Look at the picture, she was all shriveled up and had all these “hairs” coming out the skeleton side. When i would reach the hairs (worms) with tweezers they would rush into the coral’s skeleton only to appear again shortly after.
I began to do my research and found out about boring spionid worms and how disastrous they can be towards our reef tanks. I did a lot of reading and seen fellow reefers treat with Ivermectin 1% solution. I decided to give it a go very nervous about killing my invertebrates. This is the ivermectin I bought. Picked it up on person at a farmer's store called Tractor Supply Co.
TREATMENT!!!!!!
I decided to dip my coral. I DID NOT treat my tank. I dipped my coral and this is how. I grabbed an empty clear cut in half gallon of water, i took 6 cups of tank water and put them in the empty half gallon. I then used 1ml of Ivermectin solution and added straight into 6 cups of water, gave it a little whirl and i dumped my torch in there for about 50 minutes. I have to say, based on treatment protocols from others, my solution was pretty strong. I could see the little worms dying out within 5-10 minutes. After the dip, the only thing i did was i very slowly with the help of my brother had him dump one whole gallon of RODI water over the course of 10 minutes to completely try and wash off the solution from the torch. I used an old toothbrush to brush around the corals skeleton and i could see the hundreds of empty holes that the worms left on the torch’s skeleton. I did not quarantine the torch since i don’t have a coral QT. I washed it off and dumped it back into the display. I was so worried about my hermits and snails. This was the torch straight after washing it with RODI water and straight to the tank NO QT.
This is the coral today, 1 hour ago. Starting to look fuller everyday after treatment. I can still see the holes that the worms left in her skeleton but with time i’m hopeful they will close. It has been over 48 hours and all my inverts are still alive. Seems like thoroughly washing your corals should get rid of all or most of the Ivermectin. I will continue to post pics of the coral in this thread throughout the next several days so you all can see progress.
Please ask me any questions! I want to help anyone with this issue :)
Fast forward to about 1 week ago and I started to notice the torch was shriveling up and I became worried thinking about parameters but i took a closer look at my coral. Look at the picture, she was all shriveled up and had all these “hairs” coming out the skeleton side. When i would reach the hairs (worms) with tweezers they would rush into the coral’s skeleton only to appear again shortly after.
I began to do my research and found out about boring spionid worms and how disastrous they can be towards our reef tanks. I did a lot of reading and seen fellow reefers treat with Ivermectin 1% solution. I decided to give it a go very nervous about killing my invertebrates. This is the ivermectin I bought. Picked it up on person at a farmer's store called Tractor Supply Co.
TREATMENT!!!!!!
I decided to dip my coral. I DID NOT treat my tank. I dipped my coral and this is how. I grabbed an empty clear cut in half gallon of water, i took 6 cups of tank water and put them in the empty half gallon. I then used 1ml of Ivermectin solution and added straight into 6 cups of water, gave it a little whirl and i dumped my torch in there for about 50 minutes. I have to say, based on treatment protocols from others, my solution was pretty strong. I could see the little worms dying out within 5-10 minutes. After the dip, the only thing i did was i very slowly with the help of my brother had him dump one whole gallon of RODI water over the course of 10 minutes to completely try and wash off the solution from the torch. I used an old toothbrush to brush around the corals skeleton and i could see the hundreds of empty holes that the worms left on the torch’s skeleton. I did not quarantine the torch since i don’t have a coral QT. I washed it off and dumped it back into the display. I was so worried about my hermits and snails. This was the torch straight after washing it with RODI water and straight to the tank NO QT.
This is the coral today, 1 hour ago. Starting to look fuller everyday after treatment. I can still see the holes that the worms left in her skeleton but with time i’m hopeful they will close. It has been over 48 hours and all my inverts are still alive. Seems like thoroughly washing your corals should get rid of all or most of the Ivermectin. I will continue to post pics of the coral in this thread throughout the next several days so you all can see progress.
Please ask me any questions! I want to help anyone with this issue :)


) the polyps are out and so far no response in color though I would not be surprised if the color dulls a bit in the next week and the growth is stunted for a few weeks.