monti black bugs

[Eyore]

2 questions-

any advice on possible treatment?
what do people think regarding my observations? valid or not?

so the story

15 months ago I moved my sps from my holding tank after moving house into my new 1000 litre dt.
At this point I took a very small encrusting monti frag from a mate (good reefer solid qt and dip proceedure), never the less I gave it a strong lengthy dip in rx and scrubbed it with a toothbrush (had nudis before and I am not daft).
2-4 weeks later I noticed black bugs on the montipora (all of them pretty much, no worse on the new monti frag)
Did a bit of research, but ultimatly I left it, no damagd was done and after maybe a month or so- all gone! so I never thought much more about it.
tbh I doubt the frag brought anything in
At this point the tank was very new, set up with reefbones and was blathered in diatomous bacteria
growth and colour was very good, I observed no blackbugs for 6-8 months

Roll on to this march, I tried nualgi (liked the part of the diatoms producing food by the way of feeding the pod population)
after around 6 weeks I stopped as I coukd see decline on some montipora, intially I thought it was possibly too much filtration gicen I run pretty much ulns as it is
Anyway I soon enough noticed the black bugs (may time), which were on every montipora going.
My forest fire digi was the first montipora to exhibit seroiusly ill health. I had taken a dozen or so frags a couple of months earlier, which were in my frag area (part of my refugium).
These are mounted on eggcrate rack, which being white showed everything to be riddled with the black bugs! not just montipora! (stopped selling frags obviously)
Since this point I increased nutrient a smidge.
As it stands most montipora is in slightly better condition than 2 months ago, however there are still issues (tissue loss here and there (mainly underside of digi), lack of growth etc. my frag rack is cleaner in terms of free running black bugs, the frags look better but not great! so I removed and basted with rank water a purple digi, red plate, and forest fire digi frags. A lot of black bugs came off- 100 perhaps
what I noticed was essentually they do not move or appear to do anything (same as I noticed in my tank), but they make a burst for it every now and then and they swim extremely well! then they sat motionless on the base of the white bucket. (I have never seen this in the tank- easy to spot in an inch of water in a white tub)

I should mention pollen is high and has been throughoutand there is talk over here in the uk of it crippling sps tanks, I wonder if its feeding diatomous bacteria and its this that the black bugs feed upon???
in fact they are not a preditor of montipora at all? they just reside there and irritate the hell out of them?

which would imply for me to carry on and try ride this out

I have a lot of montipora, some big, I had most since I started with sps so I really dont want to loose them tbh

red plate - infested- no ill effect
green plate- infested- slight colour loss, small patches of die off to areas shaded
pink peach plate (a) - heavily infested- poorly
pink peach plate (b)- opposite end of tank- infested- no ill effect
red digi- slight infestation- slight effects
green digi- infested- slight colour loss
forest fire digi- heavy infestation- very poorly but recovering
blue digi- cant see- no ill effect
purple digi- infested- colour loss- small recession (though actually only an sps nut would be avle to tell)
purple plate- slight infestation- no ill effects
monti confusa- slight infestation- no ill effects

I do have to say generally things look improved over the last month, however its not fast progress. Black bug numbers appear to be dwindling but slowly.

my worry is that the montiporas may not survive me riding it out, if they do come next spring I may find myself back at sq 1

I know interceptor is an option, but its almost impossible to get into the uk- would mean me taking some montipora to a vet! (lock me up now!) and tbh I have seroius reservations about nuking the pod population and any resultant swings in biological stability

or do I just rip out the monti as and when they die and just replace with acro?

I cannot see value in dipping as some colonies are huge, impossible to dismount and I believe will only contain a portion of the black bug population

I have 3 halicoeris wrasse, and a jewel- no interest dispite bugs being clearly on view

 

[Eyore]

no input?

I know its a long post, but I need to tell the story of why I think as I think

do any of the (few from research) previous suffers from this see any parallels from their experience that these are not preditory? (if they were I would have no monti left their numbers are so high)
There is no doubt I will loose montipora in the next couple of weeks in myind now. They will maybe not be total losses but will look so bad it wont be worth keeping what remains

Gutted really having spent 3 years growing them and bringing them round after the odd disaster! especially with a pest as rare and tbh one that I feel would sneek unnoticed through a very vigorous dip and qt preceedure unless the reefer had prior experience of this copepod

 

[Eyore]

one last bump

 

[kevin_e]

I spotted some in my tank last night, a long with red bugs on my Acropora. I dosed Sentinel today and both the black bugs and red bugs were gone in 5 hours time. I did lose pods (saw them), but I have bare bottom, so the biological inhabitants were already low to begin with.

Many people have used Sentinel/Intercept without issue. I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I were you. I would jump on the opportunity to use it.

 

[Moser]

One of my local mates had black bugs almost from the start of the tank- almost 3 years.
He said his silver belly and 6 line wrasse kept the numbers under control.

Every so often, there would be some receding on the monti's, but they grew right back.
He had large monti plates and didn't seem to bothered by the black bugs….
He eventually was bothered by the 6 line though as is wreaked havoc in the tank!.

Mo

 

[Eyore]

that you mo from ur going by your avatar? I didn't bother on ur, a search showed little.
little anyway tbh

thanks both

well I jave melanurus, Richmondi and a yellow canary halocoeris wrasse, and a jewel, no interest
I have a kind of equilibrium of wrasse, after initually over doing it, and loosing a few to bickering. (initially I put the disapeerance of the black bugs 12 months ago down to them, tbh I wasnt even sure I had them! I just kind of forgot about this tbh), but now I am doubtful.

the sentinel/interceptor will be a pita, as mo will agree, not impossible to get, but hassle!
not that I will refuse this option, but with the wrasse being settled I would prefer not to reduce their natural food. In this way I feel both interceptor and a sixline is risky

what about dragonets, I assume with a 1000 litre I woukd struggle with multiple males, what about a single male pink scooter and a harem of females??
or am I peeing in the wind on this?

 

[Moser]

Yes, it's me!.
No harm in a single Dragon net?

My mate said he didn't see them eating black bugs often, but he was sure it was the wrasses that controlled them. He never got rid. His SPS tank was amazing.

Mo

 

[Eyore]

Yes, it's me!.
No harm in a single Dragon net?

My mate said he didn't see them eating black bugs often, but he was sure it was the wrasses that controlled them. He never got rid. His SPS tank was amazing.

Mo

would I know your mate to talk with him?

ultimately I think the wrasses are disinterested, there are plenty in open view on the undersides of plates etc, they swim past without looking.

 

[kevin_e]

Can you remove the rocks and treat them? Then add pods and chaeto immediately after to the tank.

 

[Eyore]

Can you remove the rocks and treat them? Then add pods and chaeto immediately after to the tank.

no- 3 structures made from reefplates all rodded together and held with milliput. 2 of these are also bonded together. Approx 28-35 kg for each structure, and nearer 70kg for the one thats 2 together.
Its designed not to be movable for fixing sps

it is not a foolproof design lol