Possible New Pest

[gon08]

There has been an explosion of these in my tank in the last 2 weeks. They are very small and soft bodied. I would describe them as snails without shells. I don't see eyes or even a mouth. They can change shape quickly and today with the pumps off I noticed they can propel themselves around.
Any ideas of what they may be?

Here they are on a small P. damicornis. They seem to be causing some damage to the edge of the coral.

 

[RyanAlan]

That some crazy stuff!

New to me...

 

[BCT182]

Following along for this one. Can you get a closer pic?

 

[gon08]

Took that one with my Droid X. Gonna borrow a camera to get a good macro shot.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Had them on some zoas years ago. Odd little guys but never did get an ID. I had a thread in the old Shimek forum and even he had no idea what they were.

 

[Dre59]

If somebody with +18,000 post doesn't know what it is"¦ Not a good sign!!

You might have a Possible New Pest. So what are you calling it?

 

[gon08]

If somebody with +18,000 post doesn't know what it is"¦ Not a good sign!!

You might have a Possible New Pest. So what are you calling it?

For now I'm calling them PITA globs. I've been in the hobby over 20 years and have had many tanks and a couple green houses. This tank is a 40 gallon that's about 4 years old. I have seen things in 4 years in this tank that I haven't seen in 20 years in the 100's of other tanks I've set up or maintained.
I've had the worst outbreak of Asterina (the bad ones) stars, a huge explosion of colonista snails, free swimming anemones by the millions http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1951689,
and now this.

 

[gon08]

Had them on some zoas years ago. Odd little guys but never did get an ID. I had a thread in the old Shimek forum and even he had no idea what they were.

How much damage did they cause? How did you get rid of them?
Mine only seem to be damaging P damicornis and S pistillata.

 

[Dre59]

PITA globs.... It's cache :lol: Do you buy anything from overseas, on-line for your tank or you just buy local? Because 20 yrs is a long time and good connections with other reefers.. You might want to check the places were you get your things from. This is very crazy or just bad luck!!

I suggest catch some of these PITA globs and send them to some lab for research :idea: Your name might get some fame.. Like that one guy with zoa's that got him in the hospital for boiling his rock.

 

[gon08]

PITA globs.... It's cache :lol: Do you buy anything from overseas, on-line for your tank or you just buy local? Because 20 yrs is a long time and good connections with other reefers.. You might want to check the places were you get your things from. This is very crazy or just bad luck!!

I used to do a lot of transshipping and buying from wholesalers in the 90's but these days I'm down to just a 40 gallon tank so I do everything local. It's been about a month since I've put anything new in the tank but the last coral I bought was a wild colony which I dipped before putting in the tank.
This tank has been the most interesting tank I've ever worked on and I've built some pretty cool tanks for restaurants hotels and even a couple celebs. I wouldn't call it bad luck, even though it's frustrating at times it reminds me that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something new to learn. :rollface:

 

[BeanAnimal]

It was back in 2005 or so when I had setup my in-wall. I purchased a rock of some type of orange/red frilly edged polyps (zoas or palys or something similar) and the bugs appeared soon after. They ONLY appeared interested in the that coral and would zoom around the discs and sometimes hop off and swim around. Very interesting to watch. They appeared soft and changed shape from roundish blobs to a streamlined teardrop when they were cruising. They were almost certainly slowely but surely damaging the polyps, as the health was in decline when everyting else in the tank was thriving.

I pulled the coral and dipped it in lugol's (if I remember) and it didn't kill them. Then I dunked in lugol's and then ran it under tap water and then let it dry on the counter for hours... When I put it back. in the tank the polyps opened up and out came the little alien creatures. The coral went in the garbage and I never saw the creatues again.

I can not find the good photos, just the crappy ones attached below. I had some marco shots and looked at them under a micro... Strange things. I wish I could find the micro shots I sent to Shimek. He actually said they were not good enough photos and that he had no idea... The photos were very detailed, so he just had no idea

Now that I think about it, these may be on another set of polyps that were next to the orange ones I tossed (or the white balance is just that far off). In the end, whatever they were on or migrated to got tossed.

 

[Dre59]

even though it's frustrating at times it reminds me that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something new to learn. :rollface:

+1 Good luck on getting them out of your tank.. Wish you the best!

Don't give up and keep us posted with the progress :thumbsup:

 

[gon08]

I wish I could just toss them. They are already all over the tank. I'm going to start experimenting with possible solutions.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Looking back at my notes, I indicated that they would irritate the polyps to the point that they would quickly retract very tightly, many times capturing the critters inside. This did not appear to harm the critters and they would simply wait (or eat) until they were released.

During the fresh water (literal under the tap) cleaning and lugols dips, I physically removed the bugs from the outside of the polyps. As you can see there were only a few polyps left on the rock. Once the rock was put back in the tank and the polyps opened, the bugs would be back. I can only assume that they live, hatch or are somehow safe inside a retract polyp. I watched very closely but never saw come back to the rock from somewhere else in the tank. I am almost certain they remained inside! That is why the rock and polyps went into the trash.

I had long forgotten about them until this thread and am still very curious as to what they were.

Do these sound like the same creature?

 

[gon08]

the resemble mine in your pics. As for the polyps, my tank is mostly sps with some mushrooms and a couple of small leathers. They walk on everything including the shrooms but the are actively feeding on my Pocillopora and Stylophora. I see them on the acros and montis but no signs of damage.... yet at least.

 

[gon08]

Just took these pics. It's been 24 hours since the last pics and the damage has doubled as well as the numbers of PITA globs. They are all over the tank but the only corals being eaten are the stylophora and pocillopora.

 

[gon08]

Well there has been a huge explosion of the PITA globs in the past couple days. The tank looks like is snowing from the numbers of these things in the water. I shut the pumps off to see if they swim and I learned that not only can they move well they are also phototrophic. The began to swarm at the surface by the hundreds.

Here is the damage caused within the last 5 days. The only thing affected continue to be only the Pocilloporas and stylophora.

 

[gon08]

Here's a video showing how they swim.

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[deeznutz1]

You have to pull some out and check it out with a magnifying glass or marco pic.

-dan

 

[gon08]

You have to pull some out and check it out with a magnifying glass or marco pic.

-dan

I've tried that, but still not enough details. I can't see eyes or a mouth. They literally change shape. sometimes football shaped, other times round and when moving on the glass they look tear shaped. I can't figure when or how they were introduced. I haven't added any coral in a couple months and even then I dipped the coral.
The tank has been going through some strange changes the last few weeks. First the free swimming anemone which were in the millions began to die off which I believe in turn provoked an over growth of dinoflagellates, then all of a sudden these things showed up. Not sure if all these events are related somehow. Water params are all good and with the exception of the corals being predated on by these things all other corals continue to grow.