Need advice on bugs!

[Tonycass12]

Another picture of something different.... underneath this fast growing healthy monti...does not show signs of getting eaten....

Do those blow off? They just look like little nodule growths on the coral, I get these on the underside of my monti caps.

 

[CHSUB]

Do those blow off? They just look like little nodule growths on the coral, I get these on the underside of my monti caps.

Yes, not the “nodule” that I have noticed too. These come and go and are very hard to blow off. They appear different than pumpkin flatworms that I remove manually occasionally but could be?. Last week I removed about 200 off an elegance coral. I have both a 6 line wrasse and a scooter Blenny in qt and plan on attacking all bugs in various ways soon: including removal dips!

Flatworm removal picture, over 200 removed…

 

[CHSUB]

Cut some suffering branching Monti today….some of the damage is a large torch coral but don’t believe all damage is coral warfare.

In freshwater some kind of worms emerge…
Any thoughts?

 

[Seven Year Nap]

I'm sure there are many more knowledgeable people than myself who can chime in with better info, but I took a look at your first pictures and reminds me of something I had seen in my tank before.

The side view of some of the bugs reminds me of black ostracods. I believe they are harmless but will hang around SPS. A cheap microscope could help with ID.

Are you sure they are eating the monti, or could they just be cleaning up already dying tissue/algae?

As for the worms in your last picture, no idea. Maybe the monti branches are doing poorly for other reasons and these guys are just cleaning up?

 

[MikeReefs]

I'm sure there are many more knowledgeable people than myself who can chime in with better info, but I took a look at your first pictures and reminds me of something I had seen in my tank before.

The side view of some of the bugs reminds me of black ostracods. I believe they are harmless but will hang around SPS. A cheap microscope could help with ID.

Are you sure they are eating the monti, or could they just be cleaning up already dying tissue/algae?

As for the worms in your last picture, no idea. Maybe the monti branches are doing poorly for other reasons and these guys are just cleaning up?

Get these under a microscope. I myself randomly found a marine mite (Halacaridae) under a microscope slide of GHA. There isn’t much information about the black bug, but I have not seen any damage to my SOFT/LPS and I wonder if they mainly eat algae. Yours look different than mine. I never did anything about mine. But I do believe inceptor is the only option and some do not have success even overdosing it. If it is worms I suggest a natural predators to keep numbers down

 

[CHSUB]

yes, hopefully it was the torch coral that did damage and “bugs” are just cleaning up? Added a 6 line wrasse but nothing else being done yet. Coral today looks great after piece was removed.
You can see coral interaction…

 

[MikeReefs]

All my research suggests that black bugs/marine mites are just part of the biome of our tanks. Most who have it probably don’t even know it. They are usually found on algae either consuming algae, cyanobacteria, decaying plants or praying on worms/nematodes. They have a wide diet but I found nothing of them directly eating corals. Here’s a pic of one I found on some GHA on the substrate no where near a coral. I would bet If they are consuming a coral it might already have been decaying. Red bugs and flatworms on the other hand I’ve seen forum posts of them decimating SPS