Something bothering my frogspawn

[Colin_1122]

Hey guys, my frogspawn used to be super extended and seemed to be doing great but for the past few weeks it has completely retracted and barely extends anymore. I noticed there is a little black worm or something on it but I have no idea what it is. It’s like a little black thing surrounded by a red circle, I have tried to pull it out with tweezers but it quickly retracts into its hole. My other corals are fine except for my Duncan who has also been retracted for the past few weeks. Any idea on what this is? Sorry for the bad pics

 

[andrewey]

It's hard to see, but my guess is that it's a vermetid snail. If so, they can irritate the coral and might explain what's going on. There's two main ways to take them off, one with a razor and the other is to use locking forceps and pry/smash the casing. Be very careful not to put too much force and damage the underlying coral skeleton, but you have to remove the entire shell/worm, otherwise they'll regrow. You can tell it's a vermetid as after you feed the tank heavily or turky baste detritus, you might notice some strings/webs coming from the circle. They're pretty common pests and can quickly overrun a tank in time, but thankfully they're not awful to deal with if you can remove the coral.

 

[Colin_1122]

It's hard to see, but my guess is that it's a vermetid snail. If so, they can irritate the coral and might explain what's going on. There's two main ways to take them off, one with a razor and the other is to use locking forceps and pry/smash the casing. Be very careful not to put too much force and damage the underlying coral skeleton, but you have to remove the entire shell/worm, otherwise they'll regrow. You can tell it's a vermetid as after you feed the tank heavily or turky baste detritus, you might notice some strings/webs coming from the circle. They're pretty common pests and can quickly overrun a tank in time, but thankfully they're not awful to deal with if you can remove the coral.

Ok thank you for your help! Would a dip in Coral RX possibly kill it?

 

[andrewey]

I don't think Coral Rx would work. I've had them survive both Coral Rx, Bayer, revive, etc. without any ill effects. If you don't want to break them apart, you can always try smothering them in a dab of superglue.