Sps pest identification

[nanoreefer22]

https://youtu.be/8yi_N0rLeus

Definitely eating at acros. Video is to show how it moves.

Everything was dipped in Bayer at double strength but somehow this made it by.

 

[reefiness]

RIP. I got over these recently. They are immune to everything I threw at them. I think i was able to trace it back to a frag pack from tck coral.

What ended up working for me was manually removing them under a stereoscope from every acro in my tank 2x per week for several months.

I found someone from r2r who had them and reached out to him. He said he got rid of them with me coral dip 4x and a scrub brush but that didnt work for me either.

I ended up losing a few colonies to that bug, definitely hit them hard.

 

[reefiness]

As far as identification, I'm not totally sure what they are. Under the microscope they seem to have a slug like appearance and ball up when threatened like an armadillo.

What I've tried on them were bayer, coral rx, revive, prazipro, me coral dip 4x, seachem reef dip, straight iodine, interceptor, and the active ingredient from flatworm rx that i got from ebay (forget the name).... but none of those had any impact.

 

[mshur]

WOw, thats crazy.How did you notice you got them...Looks like they worth then AEFW...
Do the look like black bugs?

 

[nanoreefer22]

Thanks for the response. Sorry to hear you went through that and now I?m worried what this means for the tank. Who was the person in r2r if you don?t mind me asking?

May not have been the best idea but I took the corals out that showed signs of damage and did a fw dip in rodi. Bugs dropped off immediately and corals seem battered but are alive today with polyp extension. Not sure where these came from as I haven?t anything for 4 weeks. If the corals survive the week I?m going to take everything out and do the same in a qt tank. Rather lose some than all.

 

[nanoreefer22]

WOw, thats crazy.How did you notice you got them...Looks like they worth then AEFW...
Do the look like black bugs?

I know, definitely worse in my opinion cause the Bayer dip didn?t get em. Really saddened by this, tank was finally starting to look good.

 

[lzqkeith]

May be try Six Line Wrasse , I think they eat some kind flatworms .

 

[reefiness]

Thanks for the response. Sorry to hear you went through that and now I?m worried what this means for the tank. Who was the person in r2r if you don?t mind me asking?

May not have been the best idea but I took the corals out that showed signs of damage and did a fw dip in rodi. Bugs dropped off immediately and corals seem battered but are alive today with polyp extension. Not sure where these came from as I haven?t anything for 4 weeks. If the corals survive the week I?m going to take everything out and do the same in a qt tank. Rather lose some than all.

At least they dropped off with the rodi dip. I had thought i tried a fw dip with no signs of effect on the parasite, maybe not.

the guy who had them on r2r... let me see if i can find it. may be a while

 

[nanoreefer22]

Added a wrasse yesterday. Only bright side is these guys are black and easy to spot on dead tissue. They move faster than other pests too.

Gonna add a few more wrasses temporarily until I beat them. The bugs should be easily spotted by wrasses.

 

[reefiness]

i had wrasses in my tank and they didnt want to bother with them.

the guys name on r2r is thirst

 

[reefiness]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=Zv7K1uyns5k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6AJtBGZccI

these are his videos he sent me of the bugs and him cleaning them

 

[nanoreefer22]

THANK you! Those are defintiely what I saw on my coral.

Wonder how long they can survive without a coral host.

Worth noting for the fw dip I did not ph or temp match (frustration drove the decision)

 

[reefiness]

yes, frustration is something you will need to come to love with these pests until they are gone. took me almost 10 months to finally kill them. Havent seen any even under the scope for the past 6 weeks or so, but I've still been checking all of my acros every week and refuse to sell any frags of them until im 100% certain they are gone. I wouldnt wish this pest on anyone.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I started basting everyday with a mj1200. I always do once a week with water changes but going to up it to daily to hopefully get them all out.

 

[reefiness]

the problem with basting is you may not get them out of the system, and you definitely dont get the eggs off that way. I thought I had gotten rid of them back in may or so because I hadnt seen any signs of them on visual inspection with the naked eye for a few weeks, then I was away for about 5 weeks and when I got back the infestation was back in full force. Thats what drove me to purchase the scope to eradicate them. Figured it must have been a baby or a very small one i didn't. Now I see everything!

 

[nanoreefer22]

That?s a good point. There?s going to have to be some luck involved.

I may just crack and pull everything from the tank. Move them to a qt setup and just do what you did. If that?s the only sure fire way we have to deal with whatever this is for now.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Which stereoscope did you go with?

 

[reefiness]

Which stereoscope did you go with?

I went with this scope...

https://www.amscope.com/3-5x-90x-zoom-trinocular-stereo-microscope-with-table-pillar-stand.html

And this light...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O2MAKW/?tag=reefs04-20

Then for removing the pests from the coral I used a combination of a toothbrush, dental tools, and very fine tweezers

 

[nanoreefer22]

Thank you! I hate this hobby But I can't get away.

 

[nanoreefer22]

So of the corals that I dipped in fw they were surviving, looked really crappy but definitely had polyp extension. Decided to take them out and discard them after I saw one bug crawling around on a dipped piec. If they were larger pieces I cut the tips off and reglued.

It?s defintiely going to be a battle and any corals that show signs of damage are going to be removed, clipped, dipped and returned to the tank.

Sad this happened to me but hopefully someone out there has had them and beat them.