Some possible questions about soft coral pests

[CDX]

 

[CDX]

Dear friends, may I ask what the white, whisker-like organisms on coral skeletons are and what methods can be used to remove them?

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Possibly some type of hydroid, but I can't be sure.

Maybe the R2R Reef Squad can help

#reefsquad

Good luck!

 

[tbrown]

To me it looks like a whole lot of Spirobid worms.

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[Rocks reef]

You can carefully scrape them off.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Possibly some type of hydroid, but I can't be sure.

Maybe the R2R Reef Squad can help

#reefsquad

Good luck!

To me it looks like a whole lot of Spirobid worms.

@ISpeakForTheSeas

The v-shaped pairs of "whisker-like" things are the palps (feeding appendages/tentacles) of Coral-boring Spionid Worms (Spirorbids are the small, spiral-tubed fan worms).

Spionids are generally not bad, but the boring/coral-boring varieties can sometimes grow into massive populations in tanks, and in big enough numbers they can kill coral colonies (at least a couple of reefers on here have had to restart their tanks altogether because of large Spionid infestations).

Unfortunately, while some treatments (like dips) are reportedly effective for some people, they're not effective in all cases, presumably due to the specific species of Spionid involved (there are a lot of species of Coral-boring Spionids, so some may be controlled by a treatment that is ineffective against others).

There are a few things you can try, but the last I recall hearing, we haven't really found an effective way to deal with these yet (and some people have legitimately crashed their tanks trying):

If they’re inside the coral, then they’re Coral-boring Spionid Worms:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-boring-spionid-worms-an-ugly-bane-to-sps.929439/https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-boring-spionid-worms-anybody-killed-them.974826/

Those are boring spionids - not a problem in small numbers, but a big problem if they start boring through corals and/or if the population gets out of hand.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/safe-interceptor-dose-coral-boring-spionid-worms.1016413/

 

[CDX]

The v-shaped pairs of "whisker-like" things are the palps (feeding appendages/tentacles) of Coral-boring Spionid Worms (Spirorbids are the small, spiral-tubed fan worms).

Spionids are generally not bad, but the boring/coral-boring varieties can sometimes grow into massive populations in tanks, and in big enough numbers they can kill coral colonies (at least a couple of reefers on here have had to restart their tanks altogether because of large Spionid infestations).

Unfortunately, while some treatments (like dips) are reportedly effective for some people, they're not effective in all cases, presumably due to the specific species of Spionid involved (there are a lot of species of Coral-boring Spionids, so some may be controlled by a treatment that is ineffective against others).

There are a few things you can try, but the last I recall hearing, we haven't really found an effective way to deal with these yet (and some people have legitimately crashed their tanks trying):

Thank you very much, I will study this.