Weird Zoanthid pest?

[Snilram]

So I noticed a couple of weeks ago some of the zoas at the LFS started to close up and not look as good. Some of them had splotches of lost color and some seemed to not react to being touched or dipped. After a couple of days, we noticed these tiny little neon critters that were the same color of the zoas.

We dipped the corals in CoralRX and the pests came right off. After dipping every few days a lot of the affected zoas started to look better and became more reactive, while new zoas started to close. The store owner said that they’re some kind of unknown new pest, however I’m looking for another opinion and help on how to beat them if anyone knows. The pictures are of one of the pests on the frag and the second is it in the dip. They never get bigger than this one and when it gets dipped, it starts to wiggle around and move.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

There's no video, but maybe an ostracod?

 

[E.R.A.]

Hard to see from the photos but looks like flatworms or nudis.

 

[Snilram]

There's no video, but maybe an ostracod?

I tried to post the video, but it had the play button with a cross through it so I took it off the post. I’ll update the main post and thank you for the fast reply.

The only posts and pictures of ostracod I can find are grey/tan/black. Is there some that you know of that are the same color of the coral they’re eating or bothering?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I tried to post the video, but it had the play button with a cross through it so I took it off the post. I’ll update the main post and thank you for the fast reply.

The only posts and pictures of ostracod I can find are grey/tan/black. Is there some that you know of that are the same color of the coral they’re eating or bothering?

Most people seem to upload to YouTube then link the video here.

I know they come in more than just those colors (there are over reportedly over 33,000 species of ostracod, so some color variation is to be expected).

What color are they?

Any chance of pics/microscope pics under white light?

 

[Snilram]

Most people seem to upload to YouTube then link the video here.

I know they come in more than just those colors (there are over reportedly over 33,000 species of ostracod, so some color variation is to be expected).

What color are they?

Any chance of pics/microscope pics under white light?

They are always the same color of the Zoanthids or Palythoa we find them on and that’s the only place we’ve seen them. We’ve found them on armor of gods and they were neon pink. The ones in the picture were on Lemonheads and they were a yellowish to peach color.

As for the microscope pictures, my boss said that he’ll take it home and put it under the scope and get some good pictures for me to post once we find another one. I tossed the ones that came off in the dip today.


I hope this link works for the video, it’s pretty shaky, but you can see him moving around. To me, it seems to have a little tail that you can see as it moves around.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

They are always the same color of the Zoanthids or Palythoa we find them on and that’s the only place we’ve seen them. We’ve found them on armor of gods and they were neon pink. The ones in the picture were on Lemonheads and they were a yellowish to peach color.

As for the microscope pictures, my boss said that he’ll take it home and put it under the scope and get some good pictures for me to post once we find another one. I tossed the ones that came off in the dip today.


I hope this link works for the video, it’s pretty shaky, but you can see him moving around. To me, it seems to have a little tail that you can see as it moves around.

I see what you mean about the tail. That could indicate that it's an isopod or amphipod of some kind, but I'd definitely need microscope pics to have a chance at ID'ing this correctly.

 

[Snilram]

I see what you mean about the tail. That could indicate that it's an isopod or amphipod of some kind, but I'd definitely need microscope pics to have a chance at ID'ing this correctly.

I just got some updated pictures and videos of the pest and will be posting them under this. There should be 2 pictures and another video. We found this one on some pink Zoanthids. The Zoa was about half closed and looked like it had “chew marks” on it.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I just got some updated pictures and videos of the pest and will be posting them under this. There should be 2 pictures and another video. We found this one on some pink Zoanthids. The Zoa was about half closed and looked like it had “chew marks” on it.

That's fascinating actually. The way it moves is like a nudibranch or flatworm, but I'm not familiar with any that look like this or any (other than Aeolid nudibranchs, which this is not) that would feed on zoas at the moment.

If you look closely, you can see it has what looks like two eye spots on one side, and when it balls up in the video, you can see it slowly rotate in place until it has redirected those "eyes" toward where it wants to go.

 

[MAH]

It looks like a flatworm to me, under the light it retracts its two "legs," but you can see them extend out when it moves.