Help pest eating my birdnest

[Jfannin]

OK JUST FOUND ALOT OF LITTLE BUGS ON MY BIRDNEST CORAL. I HAVE NOTICED THE SOME OF THE FLESH WAS LOOKING EAT BAD A FEW DAYS BACK BUT DIDNT SEE ANY THING ON IT, BUT KNOW I DO.

THEY ARE VERY SMALL SO MY IPHONE DOESNT ZOOM IN CLEAR ENOUGH TO CAPTURE THEM SO I SKETCHED ONE OUT KINDA.

TAN IN COLOR AND WHAT LOOKS TO RESEMBLE A SPINDLE CORD, POTABLE ANTENNAS AND MAYBE A TAIL. THEY MOVE KINDA FAST.

KINDA REMIND ME OF AN ANT BUT SMALLER AND TAN COLOR

CLICK PHOTOS TO SEE THEM BIGGER IF NEEDED

SKETCH


ACTUAL PHOTOS




THANKS FOR ANY AND ALL HELP

 

[Jfannin]

running to walmart to get a magnifying glass so maybe a better photo in a few

 

[James404]

sounds like they are just copepods, if so they are harmless to your SPS. Perhaps something else is causing your issues, what are your Alk, Cal, Mag, Salinity?

 

[Jfannin]

sALT 1.026
cA 140
dKh 9
ph 8.14
TEMP 77-79

ALSO THE HAVE LEGS

DEFIANTLY NOT A WARM

FAST LITTLE GUYS.

UNDER MAGNIFYING GLASS THEY LOOK TO HAVE TENTACLES AND TWO TENTACLES OFF THEIR BUT AS WELL.

 

[Jfannin]

FOUND A LITTLE BIGGER ONE AND 2 Tentacles FOR SURE ON THE FRONT AND 2 ON ITS BUTT

 

[jarrett shark]

looks like AEFW to me in pic one

 

[Jfannin]

I can see that they have Legs under the magnifying glass

Defiantly Not A Warm

Fast Little Guys.

Under Magnifying Glass i can see 2 Tentacles on the head of it And Two Tentacles Off Their Butt As Well.

 

[Jfannin]

im wondering if it just isnt pods that just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a coral that happens the have tissue that looks to be dieing, and know im freaking out thanking PEST PEST PEST

 

[NatureNerd]

I had a similar concern a few months back. I had bare spots, mid-branch on two corals. Both were BN's. I saw amphipods at the site so, even though I have been in this hobby for decades I jumped to the rookie conclusion. THEY ARE EATING MY BIRDNEST! It is possible you do have a pest. Most likely what you witnessed is the cleanup of dead/dieing tissue by amphipods. It is definitely not AEFW's. All that said, I wish I had advice on what to do about the damage to your corals. Good luck, let us know what you discover.

 

[NatureNerd]

Does it look like this?

These are what was cleaning up my damaged birdnest. By the way, I never did figure out what caused the damage to mine. I did, however, catch a teddy bear crab a week or so later. That is my prime suspect.

 

[potterjon]

Is you calcium really 140 or did you mean to type 410?

 

[Jfannin]

Ca is 420 no clue why i put that LOL

i took and bought some revive and dipped the birdsnest in that as directed on the bottle. i also dipped the frags as well. other then that no really sure what to do.

 

[somethingphishy]

anything come off the frags when dipped?

 

[Gangous]

Do u have other across/ sps in there it seems like acro eating flatt worms

 

[NatureNerd]

Do u have other across/ sps in there it seems like acro eating flatt worms

He might have AEFW's, but what he observed is definitely not an AEFW. He would not be able to see them that easily and he saw what looked like antennas. I am not sure that AEFW's attack birdnest's anyway.

I am following this thread closely because I never really solved an issue I had that is exactly as described by the OP. In my case it was just two BN's and none of my acro's or monti's.

 

[Jfannin]

well havent noticed any change after the dip, and didnt notice anything come off of the coral. it is still looking pretty bad and is the only coral being effected. polyps in the non effected areas of the coral are open and have good color but the dieing areas look like crap. all the flesh is gone from the effected areas of the coral and that area is all white.

btw i have several other types of birdsnest in the tank and all of them look great. so no clue

its getting to the point that if i dont start to notice an improvement in the coral im just going to pull if from the tank. im going to give it some time though to see.

 

[Jfannin]

well my birdsnest took a flight a few days ago. it flew straight into my trashcan.

i lost the hole coral, and i still dont have a clue as to why. i didnt decide to frag any of the last few tips just because i wanted to reduce the chance of any other coral being effected by the unknown cause. figured if it was a pest by removing the hole colony the more likely the pest would still be on it. not sure it was a pest though.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

well havent noticed any change after the dip, and didnt notice anything come off of the coral. it is still looking pretty bad and is the only coral being effected. polyps in the non effected areas of the coral are open and have good color but the dieing areas look like crap. all the flesh is gone from the effected areas of the coral and that area is all white.

My guess would be that you had an STN event and those were copepods eating the decaying flesh of the coral, which would look like they were attacking it. I had something like that happen to me last year.

I think birdsnests are more difficult than I sometimes think.