So, I've run across something I hadn't heard about before. I did search various combinations of pest and such in this forum before posting.
I've got a medium sized maricultured piece I picked up 2 1/2 months ago. It went through dips, although I haven't found a source for Levimisole lately, as all the online sites seem to be out of stock. With that said, on the day I put it in the tank, it looked like a small clam or mussel shell had fallen down into one of the branches. I didn't think anything of it, as there's often detrious like that embedded in the oddest places.
I always spend some time and closely re-inspect my coral a few days after it's been in the QT tank.
This time, I noticed that there were actually 4-5 more of those shell-like structures here and there, and in most places, the coral seemed to be actively receeding around them, not growing over them like you'd expect with a dead shell. A bit of digging with a tool tip, and sure enough, they're alive, and can be broken up and chipped out.
I'd describe the shell structure as being most like a very small, flat, silvery oyster, turning darker as they get bigger. I worked the entire coral over, and picked out maybe 2-3 large, and another 3-4 small ones. I just looked again a month later, and found where there's new ones growing in new places, mostly near the base (easily found by looking for the tissue recession) While the coral has mostly re-grown over where the old ones were.
I was even more careful this time, and rather then just picking off the visible ones, I poked at *anything* that wasn't coral tissue, and found a few more that were embedded in the frag plug farther down. I think this is where my re-infestation came from. I also was more dentist like, being willing to trade off a touch of destruction for cleaning the bad stuff out, and found a couple of very small ones tucked up under the edge of the base growth, that hadn't cause recession yet, and thus weren't very visible.
Is this just a common thing, small shelled things that burrow into and cause tissue recession as they grow? (quite significantly) or is it an actual pest that needs to be carefully watched for? Sorry I don't have any pics, I was so busy getting them off, I didn't think to stop and try and capture things visually. But they literally just look like a very small, flat, silver (when small) oyster. When I found the first ones, the largest were at least 3/8". This last round, they were all 1/8" to 1/4". They were spreading in clusters, and caused up to 1/2" of damage in some places.
Any input on these? I'm assuming manual removal is the best eradication method.
Thanks!
I've got a medium sized maricultured piece I picked up 2 1/2 months ago. It went through dips, although I haven't found a source for Levimisole lately, as all the online sites seem to be out of stock. With that said, on the day I put it in the tank, it looked like a small clam or mussel shell had fallen down into one of the branches. I didn't think anything of it, as there's often detrious like that embedded in the oddest places.
I always spend some time and closely re-inspect my coral a few days after it's been in the QT tank.
This time, I noticed that there were actually 4-5 more of those shell-like structures here and there, and in most places, the coral seemed to be actively receeding around them, not growing over them like you'd expect with a dead shell. A bit of digging with a tool tip, and sure enough, they're alive, and can be broken up and chipped out.
I'd describe the shell structure as being most like a very small, flat, silvery oyster, turning darker as they get bigger. I worked the entire coral over, and picked out maybe 2-3 large, and another 3-4 small ones. I just looked again a month later, and found where there's new ones growing in new places, mostly near the base (easily found by looking for the tissue recession) While the coral has mostly re-grown over where the old ones were.
I was even more careful this time, and rather then just picking off the visible ones, I poked at *anything* that wasn't coral tissue, and found a few more that were embedded in the frag plug farther down. I think this is where my re-infestation came from. I also was more dentist like, being willing to trade off a touch of destruction for cleaning the bad stuff out, and found a couple of very small ones tucked up under the edge of the base growth, that hadn't cause recession yet, and thus weren't very visible.
Is this just a common thing, small shelled things that burrow into and cause tissue recession as they grow? (quite significantly) or is it an actual pest that needs to be carefully watched for? Sorry I don't have any pics, I was so busy getting them off, I didn't think to stop and try and capture things visually. But they literally just look like a very small, flat, silver (when small) oyster. When I found the first ones, the largest were at least 3/8". This last round, they were all 1/8" to 1/4". They were spreading in clusters, and caused up to 1/2" of damage in some places.
Any input on these? I'm assuming manual removal is the best eradication method.
Thanks!
