Odd looking bugs on my Purple Tipped Monti

[cabenn]

Well, I initially thought that 1 of my colonies of PTM bleached cause I was redoing some rockwork and I left it out exposed in the air for about 45 minutes. I then put that same specimen about 8" higher in the tank. I thought the combination of having it out in the water and raising it in the tank stressed it out. But then the other night I took the flashlight and shined it on the white bleached out coral it saw all these little critters on it. One of which was fairly large and looked almost sorta like a coiled up copepod or some other type of amphipod.

Now I haven't added any new corals or fish to the tank since the last frag swap which I got a coral from Bob. That purple tip nana is doing well but aside from that I have no clue on how to ID these. So does anyone have a good website of pests and critters in the tank?


They are large enough to probably get a shot of em but when I flash a light on them they look like they are skating on ice over the bleached out coral. I want to know if these are the cause of the demise of my coral or they are just eating the algae/detritus or whatnot that is on the coral.

 

[phishcrazee]

Do you think it might just be another type of amphipod? Doesnt sound like any bug Ive heard of

 

[rc1214b]

I'm thinking the monti is suffering from being out of the water for quite a while. I don't think the move in the tank would be a big issue normally but the two together sounds like a lot of stress. Is it a bleached area or is it dead? I have a feeling the bugs are just opertunistic and feeding on the dying tissue. At night I have tons of pods crawling all over my rock and acros but they don't hang out on a particular spot of the coral. In other words I think the bugs are normal and the coral is hurting. A pic could change that though.

 

[got2lb]

Check out this page to try and identify what it might be. Lots of pics there!

http://melevsreef.com/id/

 

[phishcrazee]

I love that site!!!!