Possible black bugs that need ID, microscopic pics attached

[steven1025xiao]

My tank has been battling with this black/brown bugs for a few months, I have tried interceptor with more than 7-8x of red bug dosage. They seem to reduce in number but still come back. I did this treatment with 100mg for my 600L tank volume and even tried 200mg one time with fishes dying but these bugs come back.

I recently tried with dipping in 10mg invermectin in 4L tank water, they detached from corals but still moving in the solution for 30min.

I have attached microscopic pictures of these bugs, they do not look like any isopods/copepods of micro-crustaceans.

Please help ID them. Thanks a lot!

 

[Peace River]

Any ideas?

#reefsquad #fishmedic

 

[steven1025xiao]

Any ideas?

#reefsquad #fishmedic

until now, I have lowered my temp to 24.3C, dipped ones that I see with bugs in ivermectin, added some wrasses and some wild peppermint shrimps. They seem to have disappeared. I’ll keep up dating this until I break the bug’s life cycle and

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My tank has been battling with this black/brown bugs for a few months, I have tried interceptor with more than 7-8x of red bug dosage. They seem to reduce in number but still come back. I did this treatment with 100mg for my 600L tank volume and even tried 200mg one time with fishes dying but these bugs come back.

I recently tried with dipping in 10mg invermectin in 4L tank water, they detached from corals but still moving in the solution for 30min.

I have attached microscopic pictures of these bugs, they do not look like any isopods/copepods of micro-crustaceans.

Please help ID them. Thanks a lot!

These are not crustaceans, they seem to be a non-segmented worm of some sort. I can't see any eye spots, can you tell if these have two, four or no eyespots? What coral species are they found on?

You mentioned "fishes dying" but also that these were on corals. I don't think those two things are related. I don't know of any fish parasite that also lives on corals.

 

[MnFish1]

These are not crustaceans, they seem to be a non-segmented worm of some sort. I can't see any eye spots, can you tell if these have two, four or no eyespots? What coral species are they found on?

You mentioned "fishes dying" but also that these were on corals. I don't think those two things are related. I don't know of any fish parasite that also lives on corals.

I think he might have meant when he used 7/8 x that some fish died - but perhaps I misunderstood. To the OP - Do you notice damage from the worms on the coral or are they just 'there'? It may be more difficult to remove worms from the tank since just dipping the corals does not kill any eggs or bugs left over - hopefully your wrasse and shrimp will help.

 

[Anna K]

It looks like the start of some type of worm

 

[steven1025xiao]

These are not crustaceans, they seem to be a non-segmented worm of some sort. I can't see any eye spots, can you tell if these have two, four or no eyespots? What coral species are they found on?

You mentioned "fishes dying" but also that these were on corals. I don't think those two things are related. I don't know of any fish parasite that also lives on corals.

Hi. Thanks for the message. I have a video of them under microscope. I also attached a snapshot of the video. As far as I can see, they seem to have two eyespots. They are only found acropora like staghorn, Mille etc..

Fishes died because I used 14x of red bug dosage of interceptor for one treatment. But it still didn’t kill all of them..

 

[steven1025xiao]

I think he might have meant when he used 7/8 x that some fish died - but perhaps I misunderstood. To the OP - Do you notice damage from the worms on the coral or are they just 'there'? It may be more difficult to remove worms from the tank since just dipping the corals does not kill any eggs or bugs left over - hopefully your wrasse and shrimp will help.

Whenever they are, the corals bleach. I don’t know if they are the cause of the damage or they are just cleaning up dead tissue.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi. Thanks for the message. I have a video of them under microscope. I also attached a snapshot of the video. As far as I can see, they seem to have two eyespots. They are only found acropora like staghorn, Mille etc..

Fishes died because I used 14x of red bug dosage of interceptor for one treatment. But it still didn’t kill all of them..

These aren't crustaceans, so Interceptor won't control them well, if at all.

I can't tell if they have two or four eyespots, but either way, these are some type of flatworm. There is an Acropora Eating Flat Worm (AEFW) but those are larger I think. Try running a search here on AEFW - since that's where you are seeing them.

Ivermectin and Praziquantel stun the worms. That causes the worms to detach, but often doesn't kill them. For obligate fish parasites, that works because the worms can't get back onto the fish. With these, they can recover and get back onto the corals.

 

[steven1025xiao]

These aren't crustaceans, so Interceptor won't control them well, if at all.

I can't tell if they have two or four eyespots, but either way, these are some type of flatworm. There is an Acropora Eating Flat Worm (AEFW) but those are larger I think. Try running a search here on AEFW - since that's where you are seeing them.

Ivermectin and Praziquantel stun the worms. That causes the worms to detach, but often doesn't kill them. For obligate fish parasites, that works because the worms can't get back onto the fish. With these, they can recover and get back onto the corals.

Yes, that’s what I thought, Ivermectin works with dip as they stunned and outside the tank. Thanks for the info, I’ll give it a search with AEFW. If I recall correctly, there’s this New AEFW that people say are harder to control..I wonder if they are those type.