New polyp pest found!

[Piper27]

So we found a very odd pest on some new corals. We are currently watching them in a dedicated tank to understand what they are and what damage they do. It seems to look like a flatworm but it's actually kind of oval shaped and is solid white, looks more like a small tear shaped white slug actually. It's size is the same as a pen point but what we think are adults have been slightly bigger. What we have noticed is they only irritate the polyp when on them and have not damaged the flesh. The polyp will close when the pest is on it. The pest will sit in one spot and slowly move around the polyps, it can move fairly fast when traveling. This could change and flesh could be damaged in the long run but have not seen any damage yet.
No idea if they are egg layers yet, but we are very experienced and have never seen anything suspicous. We have not seen them anywhere in the tank other than on mainly palys so far, but our guess is they will affect zoanthid as well. They are very easy to suck off the colonies with a pipette, so that's good. But we don't know much about them yet and we will update this thread with macro pictures and maybe micro pics if they take well while on the slide. We will also post any info we learn on them while watching.

If anyone has any information on what these are please let me know. If anyone has dealt with them please chime in on your experience.

We are almost positive these came from someone on one of the Facebook trading and selling sites. Although this does not matter to me, but maybe people using these sites can be more careful and maybe even catch this pest before it's to late.

Please be careful trading and selling everyone. Dip and qt your corals properly if your hobbiest seller, people expect clean corals when trading and buying from hobbiest. We have come across to many people who don't dip and or qt and are selling and trading. With the high heat coming in and tank temps going up I believe the pest posts will be more often, aefw posts are already blowing up. And with all the new people coming in the hobby every year I don't see them getting any better. More and more inexperienced people are trading and selling coral before they ever learn about pests.
Also if you are shipping corals please learn how to bag things and package them with the CORRECT heat packs. Even if your a hobbiest you need to pack things professionally or else it reflects bad on you and also can cause major stress to your shipped corals.

Pictures to come...

 

[jayball]

So we found a very odd pest on some new corals. We are currently watching them in a dedicated tank to understand what they are and what damage they do. It seems to look like a flatworm but it's actually kind of oval shaped and is solid white, looks more like a small tear shaped white slug actually. It's size is the same as a pen point but what we think are adults have been slightly bigger. What we have noticed is they only irritate the polyp when on them and have not damaged the flesh. The polyp will close when the pest is on it. The pest will sit in one spot and slowly move around the polyps, it can move fairly fast when traveling. This could change and flesh could be damaged in the long run but have not seen any damage yet.
No idea if they are egg layers yet, but we are very experienced and have never seen anything suspicous. We have not seen them anywhere in the tank other than on mainly palys so far, but our guess is they will affect zoanthid as well. They are very easy to suck off the colonies with a pipette, so that's good. But we don't know much about them yet and we will update this thread with macro pictures and maybe micro pics if they take well while on the slide. We will also post any info we learn on them while watching.

If anyone has any information on what these are please let me know. If anyone has dealt with them please chime in on your experience.

We are almost positive these came from someone on one of the Facebook trading and selling sites. Although this does not matter to me, but maybe people using these sites can be more careful and maybe even catch this pest before it's to late.

Please be careful trading and selling everyone. Dip and qt your corals properly if your hobbiest seller, people expect clean corals when trading and buying from hobbiest. We have come across to many people who don't dip and or qt and are selling and trading. With the high heat coming in and tank temps going up I believe the pest posts will be more often, aefw posts are already blowing up. And with all the new people coming in the hobby every year I don't see them getting any better. More and more inexperienced people are trading and selling coral before they ever learn about pests.
Also if you are shipping corals please learn how to bag things and package them with the CORRECT heat packs. Even if your a hobbiest you need to pack things professionally or else it reflects bad on you and also can cause major stress to your shipped corals.

Pictures to come...

So if they are just cruisin around the polyp perhaps it is feeding on the slime coat. If so they may not be obligate feeders and could feed off of other corals as well.

Looking forward to pics and any more info you collect.

 

[Piper27]

Exactly, this is why we added them with some other random corals. I am curious as to what they will do. Pics will come soon.

 

[Vteclover]

What they will do??
They will soon eat colour from some zoa colonys

They like fluo orange- red colour
Soon you will see them transform in to fluo orange so then you know that this little bugger had his meal.
Believe there are many people whit these bugs but they are so tiny to spot.

Did a experiment and cought couple of this critters manually
Coral rx dip 15 minutes doesnt hurt them,after 1 hour they start weakening,so thats going to be a problem.

If one is floating in the water ,fish pick them up but they are spitting it out right again.

 

[Piper27]

Vteclover, can you please share more on what you found? Did you get any pics? We have been in the hobby well over 10 years and never seen these exact pests.

They have not left any kind of visible bitemarks yet but I have seen adults on colonies for long periods too. They could be nudibranchs with smooth skin. I am sort of colorblind so I thought they were white but my wife says they are pinkish. The babies are very small! We had luck doing extra long dips with a revive flatworm exit combo. If they start doing damage they are going to be a very bad pest for people. And surely people have them and don't realize what they are.

We got pictures and will upload this week, if anyone knows any info on these or someone who would be helpful please share.

 

[Vteclover]

They are so tiny i didnt make pictures.
On your discription i know we are talking about the same "thing"
Never seen one bigger then 1 a 1,5 mm.
Seems like they move by swimming-floating and mutch faster then snail-flatworm.
Most of them are indeed white ,when they "eat" i found some of them pinkish-redish and fluo orange.

You dont see bite marks ,anyway not fleshy bitemarkt.
The only thing i see is vanished colour in the polyp they went in (red- orange)
I have around 30 sorts of zoa but its just notable on my sunny-d colony.
They love eating the orange-red colour on the sunny-d

But the sunnys recover and even making new heads.
Have them for monts now.
Love hiding on the rock of the colony and mostly on the side of the mat (flesh)from the zoa

 

[Vteclover]

This is the result
On the right of the colony you can see one critter in the polyp thats closing,and the polyps under where te color is eaten away
Its like they love the fluorescent
Ked red and bambam is orange too but never saw one on them
Or maybe its a pallythao thing because sunny-d is pally

 

[FortyFour]

Hard to ID without clearer pictures.

 

[Piper27]

Vteclover I believe we are talking about the same thing. We found some that are more orangish pinkish. They seem to have patterns of white dots on the body when stressed. They have two black tiny eyes on the front of their face. When in a dip container they sometimes curl up into a round ball, they are maybe trying to in the form of an egg or plankton.
I will ask my wife what she found yesterday, but so far they are only really affecting larger palythoa polyps.

Good macros pictures coming today.

 

[Piper27]

Best we could get during a quick dip.

 

[Vteclover]

They are the same.
I spotted that they like attack the polyp when your light is at the max until the evening.
When i see one i suck them out with a turkey blaster.
When is missed and they are floating around the water and try to get them .it seems like the kinda grab a hold on with a sort of mucus-webby thing you cant see.
Quite a good swimmer
I think the black hole is like a kind a opening for a jet stream,sounds crazy

 

[Piper27]

I think black are their eyes. They have two and it's more visible in some of the other pics. I will try to get better ones as well as some microscope pics. It those are hard.

Are they in your display tank?

 

[Vteclover]

I have them in my display tank.
Never ordened directly from usa or uk or whatever.
Just local guys and lfs store here in europe.
Dont have u clue from where i got them.
Have them from months.
Discovered them in september 2015 when i thought i whas going nuts when i saw moving fluo orange dots in the royal blue
Always had troubles with zoa ,but since i placed 2x80w t5 with the ai sol blue led things were going good.
Or maybe its these bugs ,who knows ;-)
The zoa they are on dont seem to melt and are multiplying.
Just from time to time color is off but after a while color seems to come back

If only we could find a natural predator.
Every fish i saw eat a flowing bug like this spits it right out like they arz irritated by them

 

[Piper27]

Have you ever seen eggs? Or an explosion of them at one time like eggs bad hatched previously?

 

[Vteclover]

About eggs or how they reproduce i haven't got a clue.
If it would be eggs,you know how tiny these critters are so can you imagine even find eggs???

I went the route for the juvenile thing from something,or larve.

First i thought they where the white dots from those typical snails and round transparant eggs with white dots in it.
But after research it is clearly not that

Then i thought eggs from a zoa-eating eunice becose in the display i cought 2 off them but thats a long time ago.

Begin to believe now it is the thing as it is.
If only i could see eggs from it like nudibranch then maybe it would be easier to fight them

 

[Vteclover]

One time cought a couple and leave them in a glass.after a while they die and you can see the orange residue as a leftover.

Than another experiment whas dipping them in coral rx pro.
The 10 minutes rx subscribed did no harm.
After 1 hour they where kind a dead.
That whas about my last experiment and left things as it is now for months.
I did not see mee dipping zoacolonys for 1 hour
And some zoa i could impossible get out of the display without breaking my scape

 

[Vteclover]

A note about they like eating orange-red-yellow color.
They like the orange-yellow from my sunny d where you can find them the most.
Armageddon-devils armour sometimes.

Bambam and ked red and true red people eaters are untouched,very strange.
Thats why i begin to believe its just a pally or protopallythoa thing

 

[Piper27]

Same experience here, they love palys. We are still trying to find a dip that kills them So far you are the only one who has even participated in the thread on either forum... very disappointing. We have more pics to upload today. If there are eggs we should see them, especially with the 100mm.

 

[Vteclover]

Accidently found a picture when it looks like you see them suck color out of a miami vice
Cant turn the picture becose postimage has changed :-(