Neomeris Annulata?

[highpoint]

Zooming in you will notice at least 5-10 little green “branches” that just popped up over the last couple days.

This is ocean live rock from KP Aquatics which sat in a tank for 9 months fallow (with only window light hitting it). Recently, over the past couple of months it got moved into a new tank and been on a 8/16 light cycle and got seeded with copepods. Biota green mandarin was added a couple weeks ago.

If this is what I think it is, what is the next step? I have 6 large rocks in the tank and seems like 3 of them have the little green stems so far.

 

[highpoint]

Some better close ups…

 

[patriot dude]

I came across your post while looking for solutions for my own tank. Yes, it looks identical to my issue, my CADE 1500 formerly thriving SPS tank has been taken over and that is how it started. I was told that mine was neomeris annulata. I hope that you are able beat it. I have not been successful but I have not completely attacked it like others have.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Neomeris isn't always invasive, but I've heard that urchins may eat it.

 

[highpoint]

Yes, it looks identical to my issue, my CADE 1500 formerly thriving SPS tank has been taken over and that is how it started. I was told that mine is neomeris annulata. I hope that you are able beat it. I have not been successful.

My tank is “new” … haven’t added any coral yet. Only resident is a biota green mandarin that’s only about 1.5” and is living off the copepods that I finally just got booming in the tank.

You can see in the pic below that I don’t have a ton of rock in the tank right now. Is it worth tossing out the few rocks that have been infested? My only worry is dropping my copepod population which really just started to take off the past couple weeks.

 

[highpoint]

Neomeris isn't always invasive, but I've heard that urchins may eat it.

If it’s not invasive, does that mean it can possibly just stay in place? Or does that mean to remove it? I may give the manual removal a shot first but I hear that may make it worse

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

If it’s not invasive, does that mean it can possibly just stay in place? Or does that mean to remove it? I may give the manual removal a shot first but I hear that may make it worse

Sometimes it's invasive, sometimes it's not - it depends on individual tank conditions. If it's invasive in your tank, you would want to remove it; if it's not, it's fine to leave it.

If you want to play it safe, removal is the safest way to go - I don't know if manual removal would make it worse or not though.

 

[patriot dude]

Based on my experience, which is without success, I would remove all rocks that have any sign whatsoever. If there are spores in your tank, it could come back. I think mine came through dry rock but it started very slowly, naively , I thought it was pretty and interesting when it was just a few. Eventually I started pulling it out, the rest is history. I wish I could start over, I would use manmade rock because it is not worth the risk for me. I'm going to continue overfeeding a bit and stop dosing B-ionic and see if it starts to die off. My corals have all been covered at this point so they'll likely die off anyway but maybe the neomeris will die as well

 

[highpoint]

Based on my experience, which is without success, I would remove all rocks that have any sign whatsoever. If there are spores in your tank, it could come back. I think mine came through dry rock but it started very slowly, naively , I thought it was pretty and interesting when it was just a few. Eventually I started pulling it out, the rest is history. I wish I could start over, I would use manmade rock because it is not worth the risk for me. I'm going to continue overfeeding a bit and stop dosing B-ionic and see if it starts to die off. My corals have all been covered at this point so they'll likely die off anyway but maybe the neomeris will die as well

How long did it take for it to go from what you see in my tank to a full takeover?

For the record I tested my phosphate last night at was up to .74 on the hanna checker. I grabbed some Chemipure elite this morning and added it about 8 hours ago. I just tested again and phosphate down to .26 and I expect it will continue to drop. I will keep updating if it makes any difference.

I am closely monitoring. One rock has about 10 branches. The other rocks have possibly one each (very small, may not even be neomeris).

Other params when testing last night

Ph 8.0
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

 

[brandon429]

I consider this the hardest invasion in reefing to beat, along with some dinos strains. For this job the best way to manage is not by working the whole tank with various actions to see what works, it’s doing the actions only to test rocks and then when you find something / apply that to the rest

Remove a test rock and use a knife to literally dig out with a small pit, each branching growth. Dig out the attachment points so holdfasts are attacked, take time to detail one rock into total compliance with a knife. This represents the hardest most pointed grazing that any animal could do

it’s harsher than any chemical burn or starving mode, so if it doesn’t work then you can either keep the growths or exchange the rock

I know of no way to beat a set in neomeris invasion. It’s unbeatable so far. In a test bucket temporary 5 gallon reef, you can use test rocks + algae treatments in there to see if they work too, so you don’t wast time treating the whole tank only for something not to work.

 

[highpoint]

Thanks for chiming in - I have another fowlr 13.5 with my clowns still in it. Tank will be taken down soon so I will move the bad rock inside there. My LFS recommended trying Reef Flux as well.

 

[highpoint]

I consider this the hardest invasion in reefing to beat, along with some dinos strains. For this job the best way to manage is not by working the whole tank with various actions to see what works, it’s doing the actions only to test rocks and then when you find something / apply that to the rest

Remove a test rock and use a knife to literally dig out with a small pit, each branching growth. Dig out the attachment points so holdfasts are attacked, take time to detail one rock into total compliance with a knife. This represents the hardest most pointed grazing that any animal could do

it’s harsher than any chemical burn or starving mode, so if it doesn’t work then you can either keep the growths or exchange the rock

I know of no way to beat a set in neomeris invasion. It’s unbeatable so far. In a test bucket temporary 5 gallon reef, you can use test rocks + algae treatments in there to see if they work too, so you don’t wast time treating the whole tank only for something not to work.

Used a small knife and dug out a good chunk under every branch I could find. Moved into 13.5 fowlr and will monitor closely. If it returns I will try Reef Flux (fluconazole) as suggested by LFS.

 

[Paris by Night]

My reef 2 months ago. I had kp live rock in a fallow tub for about 6 months then lit them up. Within a month, I had them everywhere. I had pretty bad GHA and decided to use flucanozole. After 3 weeks they just seemed to disappear. Now I have some weird macros that survived. However, I did enjoy them in moderation.

 

[brandon429]

Fluc wasn't part of the trade back in the day that's great to know it might help, it sure does help on green target/neo sure is/ makes sense. Can't wait to see the outcome

 

[highpoint]

My reef 2 months ago. I had kp live rock in a fallow tub for about 6 months then lit them up. Within a month, I had them everywhere. I had pretty bad GHA and decided to use flucanozole. After 3 weeks they just seemed to disappear. Now I have some weird macros that survived. However, I did enjoy them in moderation.

Nice! My rock is from KP Aquatics as well. Definitely neomeris. Did it survive the flucanozole to this day? If so, is it showing up in new areas over time?

Your story is almost exactly mine. Had them fallow for 9 months with no light. Lit them up a couple months ago and neo just popped up last week (first I noticed anyway)

 

[highpoint]

Based on my experience, which is without success, I would remove all rocks that have any sign whatsoever. If there are spores in your tank, it could come back. I think mine came through dry rock but it started very slowly, naively , I thought it was pretty and interesting when it was just a few. Eventually I started pulling it out, the rest is history. I wish I could start over, I would use manmade rock because it is not worth the risk for me. I'm going to continue overfeeding a bit and stop dosing B-ionic and see if it starts to die off. My corals have all been covered at this point so they'll likely die off anyway but maybe the neomeris will die as well

Try the Reef Flux/flucanozole Let us know!

 

[Paris by Night]

Nice! My rock is from KP Aquatics as well. Definitely neomeris. Did it survive the flucanozole to this day? If so, is it showing up in new areas over time?

Your story is almost exactly mine. Had them fallow for 9 months with no light. Lit them up a couple months ago and neo just popped up last week (first I noticed anyway)

They’re gone without a trace. There’s a couple other odd algae’s that have withstood it. But the neomeris died within 3 weeks. I saw no effect until about a day ago. I noticed they were all gone, kindve odd

 

[sub-surface]

They’re gone without a trace. There’s a couple other odd algae’s that have withstood it. But the neomeris died within 3 weeks. I saw no effect until about a day ago. I noticed they were all gone, kindve odd

Any change on this? Has the fluconazole done the job. I’ve battled with this for over 10yrs. Came in on live rock. NA loves sps conditions. It’s wasn’t as bad under metal halides as it is under LEDs. It does drop off with less light and lower cal but so do the corals. I’ve been unable to eradicate it and just have my set up minimal and I’m able to remove corals/rocks etc to manually remove but it’s time consuming. It won’t grow in the shade. It needs full exposure to light. You can keep levels of it lower with coral growth or less light but if you keep high light loving corals you’re up against it.

 

[highpoint]

Any change on this? Has the fluconazole done the job. I’ve battled with this for over 10yrs. Came in on live rock. NA loves sps conditions. It’s wasn’t as bad under metal halides as it is under LEDs. It does drop off with less light and lower cal but so do the corals. I’ve been unable to eradicate it and just have my set up minimal and I’m able to remove corals/rocks etc to manually remove but it’s time consuming. It won’t grow in the shade. It needs full exposure to light. You can keep levels of it lower with coral growth or less light but if you keep high light loving corals you’re up against it.

I dug it out with a pocket knife as I only had about 10 spots. I moved it into a smaller tank and it didn't come back. I did take the tank down last week and toss the rock just in case (it was a small one).

Either way, my LFS recommended Reef Flux and I have heard of a couple others that may have been successful with it.

 

[Paris by Night]

Any change on this? Has the fluconazole done the job. I’ve battled with this for over 10yrs. Came in on live rock. NA loves sps conditions. It’s wasn’t as bad under metal halides as it is under LEDs. It does drop off with less light and lower cal but so do the corals. I’ve been unable to eradicate it and just have my set up minimal and I’m able to remove corals/rocks etc to manually remove but it’s time consuming. It won’t grow in the shade. It needs full exposure to light. You can keep levels of it lower with coral growth or less light but if you keep high light loving corals you’re up against it.

Yes. It kills almost all of them. Slowly but surely. The reason I say almost is today I found a small one, about the size of an eye lash, trying to grow. However, out of my 100 gallon with high light, ONLY 1.

Small anecdote, I had a baby flame angel for couple days before high salinity killed it. I had evaporated calibration liquid and my tank got to 38ppt… lesson learned. Anyway, I noticed she would swim around and continuously bite the heads off of each little stem. Those that were bitten were slower to grow and had to regrow the hat. Over time this could help battle stragglers that make it through reef flux