Torch coral hitchhiker

[macksy]

I just saw these tiny little nodes on my torches body and I noticed that they’re like little fans popping in and out should i try to scrape them off or are they fine?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Probably barnacles, possibly of the coral-boring variety, but I can't tell if those are grown into the skeleton at all or just on it:

If it fans out then rakes in like fingers closing into a fist, then it's a barnacle. If it just sends out the little crown of feathery appendages and basically sits with them fanned out in a circle, it's a feather duster worm. Either way, it's a harmless filter feeder.

Assuming it sends out a little clump of feathery appendages that fan out like a rake, then close in like fingers closing into a fist, I'd guess that's a coral-boring barnacle.

They're usually not a problem, but they do generally cause a little, dead/deformed patch around where they're burrowed in (and that patch tends to grow as the barnacle does). It being that close to the mouth is a bit concerning to me, but I haven't seen it on enough LPS like this to know if it's an issue.

If you want to get rid of it, I'd imagine you would need to either crush it in its burrow or carefully inject something into it that would kill it - either way, you'd really want to be careful with it being in the coral.

 

[macksy]

Okay yeah it’s fanning out and closing up. If it’s the barnacle just leave it?

Probably barnacles, possibly of the coral-boring variety, but I can't tell if those are grown into the skeleton at all or just on it:

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Okay yeah it’s fanning out and closing up. If it’s the barnacle just leave it?

With how small they are and where they're located, I would personally leave them, yeah.