Critters on frogspawn

[digitaldego77]

So, anyone ever find a multitude of little white critters running about on their frogspawn? Well, I have - and I'm a little bit concerned about their intentions. Anyone have any ideas what the deal is? It doesn't look like they are doing any damage, but then again I haven't really noticed them until recently.

 

[porky]

Sure they're not copepods?

 

[TacoKing]

white huh? What do the look like? I've noticed the red planaria (flatworm) is really attracted to the tenticles of LPS corals such as frogspawns and torches.

 

[digitaldego77]

I know they are not planaria (unfortunately I have a small case of those too.)

I thought they were copepodes or something relative at first, but why would they be isolated to that specimen? All I know is that they move pretty quickly and they are in pretty good numbers.

 

[benraines]

Do they look similar to small ants...

Are they amphipods... (sp)

How big is your frogspawn...

When you say pretty big numbers... Are they covering the whole frog spawn....

Any damage to the FrogSpawn that you can see....

 

[digitaldego77]

To answer your questions Benraines...

Can't really tell if they look like ants - they are really small. Maybe a white mite would be a better descriptor.

Frogspawn is about 3 heads, each the size of a silver dollar.

They are not covering the frogspawn, but it does not take much effort to spot one - perhaps a good estimate would be 20 per head.

I can't say if there is any damage to the frogspawn related to these. There are some tips that have a splotchy thing going on, but I thought that was just random genetic imperfections.

I have amphpods in my system, but they are big buggers - so unless these are babies or another variety, then i would have to say no.

 

[hollback]

Unless you see irritation I would assume they are just living within the coral for protection from that nasty fish. I think the only real way to find out if they're a problem would be to get a photo and have someone like Greanbeans or Dr. Ron ID it for you.

 

[digitaldego77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6839029#post6839029 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hollback
I think the only real way to find out if they're a problem would be to get a photo and have someone like Greanbeans or Dr. Ron ID it for you.

Well, my camera isn't the best at shots of that detail. Hmmm... who do I know that has a really nice camera that I can coerce into coming over? I wonder....

 

[jakano]

hey digital i had some very large white flatworms that were all over my hammer once. now i know you said they were not flatworms but to get rid of my troublemakers i did a freshwater dip on the hammer for about 5 minutes and they all fell off. i know it seems extreme but i was convinced they were doing the coral harm since it would have these super long straggly tenticles coming off of it that did not look healthy at all. once i got rid of the worms i never saw those weird tenticles again. the point to my rambling is if you are worried they will hurt the coral and the critters seem to only be on that coral you could dip it to remove them.

 

[szwab]

mysis shrimp? those buggers are white, small and fast

 

[geo]

I have seen these, they are like a very small pod like critter and they seem to be very specific to certain euphyllia. I do think they might irritate the colony but do not have first hand experience to know if they are something worth worrying about. Did you post his in the LPS forum?

 

[digitaldego77]

I have been planning a dip, since this thing already had the marroon flatworms - I just want to know what these things are. I know they are not mysis shrimp - I have those too.

I haven't posted into the LPS forum yet. I like to get local input before I go and post in big-boy forum world. I'll see what i can find out. All I can tell you is that they are super small, and they move like those small red mites you might see outside.

 

[geo]

be sure to report back anything you find out about these little guys.

 

[digitaldego77]

So far all I have found out about them is that they can survive a minute in fresh water. Turns out they didn't fall right off like the flatworms did.

Someone had replied to my post in the LPS forum, but really all they had to say is that they had seen them before and they erradicated them with a fresh water dip. I will report any further findings.