Potential LPS & Acan Pests unveiled. BIG JAWS. Must See!!!

[reefsmokinFOOL]

I had 2 large bristle worms in my fuge tank. I found them after i noticed hundreds of Baby ones. I tried everything that i could think of but i never got 100% results. So i tore it all down threw away everything and started over. They never made it into my main tank, and still to this day i havent seen any. That is to bad that they are in your main system you have an incredible tank set up.

 

[revhtree]

Nice write up man!

 

[Breakin Newz]

I eat those for breakfest everyday...

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

There are some bacterial infections that can transfer from fish to corals I forget what's it's called as well as some bacterial infections can come from Live rock as well! Also infections can lay dormant in your rock then bloom again in the future it may not hurt to install a quality ozone reactor that would also help if it's bacterial

I def think bacteria is all throughout most aquariums and can lay dormant in almost every aspect of a captive ecosystem. I feed a lot and uneaten food lays around my tank. Sometimes for days at a time if I don't get to cleaning it up right away. I'm sure this is a breeding ground for bacteria. On the other hand I have read that bacteria is a food source for invertebrates. Thats why some people stir their sand beds to transfer bacteria to the water column. The thing is imo their needs to be an open wound or stressor for an infection to set in. Are things like these worms causing open wounds or stressing the acans out?

I had 2 large bristle worms in my fuge tank. I found them after i noticed hundreds of Baby ones. I tried everything that i could think of but i never got 100% results. So i tore it all down threw away everything and started over. They never made it into my main tank, and still to this day i havent seen any. That is to bad that they are in your main system you have an incredible tank set up.

Did your fuge tank have fish? Many wrasses and other fish gobble up bristle worms. I would bet that nearly every single reef aquarium out there has bristleworms. Maybe even yours. The thing is most reefers keep fish and many other bristleworm eaters like shrimp. Bristleworms and other worms know that there are predators in the water and therefore rarely leave their homes deep inside live rock structures. The reason why you don't see your bristleworms in your display might be because if you did your fish would also be able to see them and they would get eaten. The bristleworm that stays alive is the one that remains hidden from ALL eyes. They would be controlled by fish and not be able to reproduce to plague proportions. That is the real benefit of fish/shrimps imo, not to look pretty but to complete the ecosystem and be the top predator.

My current style of reefkeeping is to keep nothing but corals in a tank. It means I can feed them a ton and nothing is there to steal the food. I would rather not make this thread a conversation about my reefing style but more about what might be killing acans/lps. I know I can keep a myriad of fish and shrimps that would kill these worms. I want to find another way... optimally quarantine and sterile cultures of corals. This is very very hard to truly accomplish. I am glad that I have chosen this path because it has allowed me to witness these worms and share them with you guys. If something is eating my acans at least it will not get scared into hiding by predators so I can see them and analyze the situation better. In my tank I am the top predator and these worms are my responsibility.

Thank you for the kind words about my tank set up. I appreciate your input into our conversation :xd:

Nice write up man!

Thank you very much sir! I hope more people will be able to give intelligent insights into these still clouded topics.

I eat those for breakfest everyday...

Gotta be tough eatin with all those bristle's :tongue:

 

[Gazog]

Great Article, I will be following this one because I have had Acans do exactly whats being described, Drove me nut because I couldn't figure it out.

Thank you it was a pain CZ the first time I typed it up I accidentally deleted it.

Been there, Done that soooo many times... With long posts like this I have 5 words for you and those are "Word Processor" and "Cut and Paste"

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Great Article, I will be following this one because I have had Acans do exactly whats being described, Drove me nut because I couldn't figure it out.

Thank you it was a pain CZ the first time I typed it up I accidentally deleted it.

Been there, Done that soooo many times... With long posts like this I have 5 words for you and those are "Word Processor" and "Cut and Paste"

Thank you. What happened to your acans? It seems that almost every acan keeper has had die off and some mass die offs. We need to figure this out, acans are too beautiful for this to be happening. Feel free to add pictures if you have them. Many people are unwilling to talk about how their acans died. Learning from our mistakes as a community is the way to solve this thing.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

This acan died in a way that reminds me of the way yumas have died on me in the past. It seems an infection ate away at it from the inside until the polyp came off the skeleton. This is different imo from the disease that attacks as a 'mold' looking white slime as seen in my other photos. I've only seen this once and the acan didn't make it. It was amongst other acans that were happy and had been growing for many months. This acan died within two weeks of recieving it. The difference was that during its unhealthy spell the polyps were always inflated maybe 40-60% so I though it was going to make it. No signs of infection until the face fell off. It only ate once maybe twice. After that it declined food for 5-6 feedings until it died.

This 'face off' infection is a different type of infection than this one imo

 

[MAKcorals]

good write up! Thanks for all the information. Those things are freaky looking.

 

[jerl77]

what can i dip them in for bacerial and protozoan infections

I'm thinking interceptor but I will experiment. Melting is probably a bacterial infection. But what caused it?




Yes fish would also work at them but what about reefers like me who don't want any other creature in with their corals. A coral banded shrimp would assuredly steal food from my corals as I feed.




I don't think the smaller ones are getting much bigger. They appear to be fully grown imo. You might be right tho.




I'm sure there are many different classifications of these worms... any more specific info?




Which worms did you find? We are talking about two diff types here.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

good write up! Thanks for all the information. Those things are freaky looking.

Thanks, hopefully more people will be able to add more info/pictures.

what can i dip them in for bacerial and protozoan infections

Many people use an iodine based dip like TMPCC (Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure). Other use a tea tree based dip called Malafix. I have used both and they both do the job but read above carefully. It might not do anything but slow the disease. You really have to cut out the disease. I have battled with certain acan colonies for 3-4 months dipping multiple times each week until I finally gave up and decided the best course was to give the colony to a friend with a much more stable, 8 year old tank.

 

[Azurel]

I have the small ones......I was checking my tank out the other night and noticed some moving on the glass just above the sand......

 

[RandyO]

I use Two Little Fishies "Revive" coral dip for Acans and other LPS. Seems to help, but many times it's only for a short time and they start to die again. Could be that it kills the active worms harming the Acan, but theres more waiting in the tank for a snack.

I wonder what PraziPro would do to these worms.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

I have the small ones......I was checking my tank out the other night and noticed some moving on the glass just above the sand......

I would bet that they are very common and many people have them. I have seen them many times in newly recieved coral bags. I'm not even sure they are bad. I have never witnessed them actually eating a coral. I did see the one in the picture coming out of that polyp when I was dipping in Melafix but then again I didn't stare intently at that polyp the entire time, I was focusing on cutting, swishing around in the dip and then doing that to the next frag. When I looked down into the dip I saw this and took the picture. Was the worm floating around in the stirred water before settling on the acan? I did try and pull it out after the picture and it seemed like it was attached on and not just laying on top. The title of this thread is Potential Pests. I'm not sure.

I use Two Little Fishies "Revive" coral dip for Acans and other LPS. Seems to help, but many times it's only for a short time and they start to die again. Could be that it kills the active worms harming the Acan, but theres more waiting in the tank for a snack.

I wonder what PraziPro would do to these worms.

I have not tried the Revive but I do use TMPCC and Melafix. The Melafix def messes up the worms pretty quick. I'll have to try the TMPCC soon and order some Revive. Its not that all of my acans are unhealthy, only one or two pieces out of 50 don't look great but there are other factors I could be messing up. And on top of that some of these ones didn't look great from the start so I may have inherited a few pinpoint problems. Again, the large worm is dead and the smaller ones I am unsure of. We need a worm expert here to see if that small one is just a detritavore or something.

Its funny you asked about the Prazi... I dosed 2/3 of an Interceptor Tasty Chew two days ago as a precaution I have been doing lately. They contain 23mg Milbemycin Oxime as well as 228mg Praziquantel per chew. My tank is 120g so thats a 2x standard dosage for the Milbemycin Oxime. I'm still in the process of clean up. Check out my thread about the chews.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f16/interceptor-tasty-chews-lps-contains-praziquantel-37938.html

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

It seems the dose of Interceptor chews did not kill all of these worms. It did kill my emeralds so I know it was effective. I'm going to do more doses soon and work on some dips. I would like more information about these worms.

Anyone with experience or info about these worms?

Thank You!

 

[its fry]

Ouch.
I thought I had a small black bug. Either way interceptor killed what I had.

Bobbit worms will eat your friggin fingers when there's no coral left. LOL

 

[makingbubbles]

sweet article. It kept me from having to watch boring ghost whisperer with the woman.

 

[kevinpratt823]

all of my acans were fine for a while and then after a short time they started receding i lost all of them i started fragging them trying to save them and i found those worms in them really sucks they were really deep in there i got all of them from aquatic auctions i was wondering if possibly they had got them from there because one of my other acans was great until i added those....

I also have had 2 acans from Aquatic Auction smoke in a matter of week of putting them in, this is also around the time my other 4 started closing and losing color......................
20 other acans are fine, even frags from the same colonies in the same system, that were cut a couple mos ago............
My Mag/Alk had gotten pretty low though, hopefully things will improve now that the levels are back up and the reactor is refilled and running better.

 

[inactive]

Ewwwwwwwwwww!

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Ok its been some time since I started this thread. I'm pretty confident that the small worms are not eating my acans but the Bobbit worms def were and are still. I found another Bobbit worm living in the skeleton of one of my wild acan colonies. I kept seeing acan frags stuck under this larger acan colony. After I found the Bobbit worm, I realized that the frags were being pulled under this particular colony by the Bobbit worm for it to eat. Its def a little intimidating knowing such a tenacious predator was living amongst my corals the whole time.

This Bobbit worm is still living in this acan and now I'm going to operate. The acan is going to be fragged up until the worm leaves its home. I'm about to start taking some pictures of this whole process. Will post soon!

 

[fenderguy1]

Cant wait! I had to do the same thing..