Torch Coral Pests?

[SiD]

Hi Experts

I noticed these growths on the stem of my Torch. The bigger worm like structure is hard when touched. A tentacle of the Torch was attached to this growth but came off when I touched it.
When I got this Coral a month back there was no visible growth and I had dipped the coral in Coral Rx.

What are these things? Should I be worried?

Regards
Sid

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Hi sid.
Vermatid snail. Imo not that big of a deal.
D

 

[SiD]

Hi sid.
Vermatid snail. Imo not that big of a deal.
D

I heard these snails are pests that can kill the Coral. How do I remove these?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Flat head screwdriver at the base. Palm of ur hand. Lol.
Not a pest...my opinion. U will jist hurt the coral. Some ppl super glue em shut. Seal them in. Hths you.
D

 

[SiD]

Flat head screwdriver at the base. Palm of ur hand. Lol.
Not a pest...my opinion. U will jist hurt the coral. Some ppl super glue em shut. Seal them in. Hths you.
D

I scrapped it off with a scalpel. Hopefully they will not return.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Good thing you got rid of it. These things can multiply pretty quickly. I'm in a months long battle of getting rid of them (or, more honestly, I'm engaged in a never-ending management campaign). While not a terrible pest, their webs can irritate some corals, but the biggest issue for me is that I think their webs are gross looking. The one plus side to them is that encrusting corals will cover them and that adds interesting structural diversity to those corals. In any case if you see more and you can't pry them off outside of the tank, then get some superglue that comes in a metal tube and use this to seal their openings shut. The metal tube type is needed so that when you squeeze it underwater, it doesn't rebound and suck water back into the glue reservoir.

 

[SiD]

Good thing you got rid of it. These things can multiply pretty quickly. I'm in a months long battle of getting rid of them (or, more honestly, I'm engaged in a never-ending management campaign). While not a terrible pest, their webs can irritate some corals, but the biggest issue for me is that I think their webs are gross looking. The one plus side to them is that encrusting corals will cover them and that adds interesting structural diversity to those corals. In any case if you see more and you can't pry them off outside of the tank, then get some superglue that comes in a metal tube and use this to seal their openings shut. The metal tube type is needed so that when you squeeze it underwater, it doesn't rebound and suck water back into the glue reservoir.

How does the eggs look like? Can the white dots in my pic suggest anything?

 

[BostonReefer300]

I just took a closer look at the pic. I think those small, squiggly things near the big vermetid might be baby ones but I can't be sure. Also, again can't be sure, but I think I see another big one near that patch of coralline on the left. I'd try to scrape all those off carefully outside of the tank without damaging the torch. I actually don't know what vermetid eggs look like. But I have assumed they deposit eggs outside their tubes via their webs. Those webs can easily detach from the tubes so that means they can spread their eggs all over the tank. Again, uneducated assumptions on my part.

 

[Cell]

Feather duster is the bigger tube, spirorbid is the small curly dots.

 

[SiD]

I just took a closer look at the pic. I think those small, squiggly things near the big vermetid might be baby ones but I can't be sure. Also, again can't be sure, but I think I see another big one near that patch of coralline on the left. I'd try to scrape all those off carefully outside of the tank without damaging the torch. I actually don't know what vermetid eggs look like. But I have assumed they deposit eggs outside their tubes via their webs. Those webs can easily detach from the tubes so that means they can spread their eggs all over the tank. Again, uneducated assumptions on my part.

I have scrapped off that one too along with another on the Frag Plate. But could not do anything with squiggly things as they are all over the Stem. Scrapping all would surely weaken the stem. Any other idea?

 

[SiD]

Feather duster is the bigger tube, spirorbid is the small curly dot

The feather duster has fan like structures at its mouth. This one do not have any.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Thanks for the closer pic. I agree that the small ones are spirobids which are harmless, even beneficial. I don't think that other one is a feather duster, but I still can't tell from the pic. At feeding time, if the "feather duster" casts out a mucous web, it's a vermetid. If you see it cast out a pretty feather duster crown instead, it's a feather duster.

 

[Cell]

The feather duster retreats into its tube. Or it could be dead. That is not a vermetid. There may be a vermetid on the left side of the stem on the first pic, but it's hard to tell. Feather duster tubes and vermetid tubes are not all that similar.

 

[SiD]

Whatever it was I have removed. Though I would have kept the Feather Duster if I had known for sure. Will there be Feather Duster regrowth in future?

 

[Cell]

If you never saw it extended or discovered the worm when you scraped the tube off, it was probably an old tube.

 

[SiD]

If you never saw it extended or discovered the worm when you scraped the tube off, it was probably an old tube.

But it was never there when I got the frag one month back. And I do not have any other feather duster in the tank that may have spawned a new one here.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Uhg. Lol
D