What is making my rics die?!

[WinjaChan]

Somebody help me!

Today, I come home to $100+ of slimed over ricordea... both R. florida & R. yuma. Upon closer inspection, I find that it is infested with a copepod-like bug (sized approx. = acro red bugs). I isolated a rock of R. floridas in a cup, no flow and this is what I see:
Close up 1:

Close up 2:

Close up 3:

They definitely move around, either crawling about or swimming in the water column.
Right now, they are coming in two different colors... black or white.

They seem to go straight into the ric mouth and aggrevate the heck outta it. (please click next 2 pics for bigger, detailed pic):




It seems they like mingling in the ric slime (circled in purple), and I have been doing my best to suck the slime out every half hour but to no avail. The foot slimes up and eventually works its way inward until the entire ric is a blob.

Time of infestation -> death is pretty quick. Does anyone know what these things are?!? I am at my wits end with this ric issue and some monti-eating nudis I just found! :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

PS: this stuff is also negatively affecting some other softies in the tank (namely, Rhodactis & Actinodiscus). The LPS & SPS is fine.

 

[55semireef]

What kind of symtoms are the softies showing? Are they shriveling up or shrinking?

 

[bigdaddyadam]

That's the first I ever heard of ricordea eating copepods or nudis, or anything else, although the ocean is a big place and I imagine somehting eats them....if I were you I would try dipping the remaining corals in a lugols dip, although if the tank is infested, who knows if it will be effective

too, perhaps it is normally a predator of some other coral and has taken a taste for rics, which might not be native to the area this pest is from. just a thought

 

[WinjaChan]

The softies (mushrooms, zoas) have shrunken after these little bugs swarm them. They all slime up until they turn into a big ball of mush. It is taking ~2 days from infection -> death. Unfortunately, it looks like they have now taken out some of my LPS's (micromussa, a frag of frogspawn, and the heliofungia looks bad).

I've freshwater dipped one of my r. yumas and it looked good overnight, but they have since swarmed again when I was @ work and made it slime. I am at a loss as to how I will rid them from my LR & LS. However, I did send a sample to be microscoped & photographed by an awesome LFS! I am thinking of doing a complete 100% water change tonight, dipping a lot of affected corals in Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure, and seeing if I can do a complete tank treatment (like Interceptor or FWE or whatever). :mad2:

 

[55semireef]

Man that is bad.

 

[chrisstie]

Here's a pic of Winja's stuff under a scope that our LFS was able to take .. anyone see something like this before?

 

[WinjaChan]

Thanks for posting C
Ya beat me to the punch there.

 

[55semireef]

Nice microscope camera.

 

[sunfish11]

I would consult with E. Borneman on marinedepot if I were you. I think I remember them studying something similar. He will probably have you send samples.

 

[Jimbo327]

Water change.

 

[reef2]

had a problem that was the same as urs what i did was do a 2x dose of the interceptor treatment on my tank. seemed to help kill most of them and my sixline has ate the rest.

 

[WinjaChan]

Borneman seems to think these things are ciliate protozoa and not the causitive organisms that are causing coral casualties. He thinks that they're most likely trying to "make the best of a bad situation" (so to say).

I have inklings that it's brown jelly disease (seemed weird that it'd affect the softies first... I had always thought that it was LPS that was first to show signs). A couple days ago, I did a massive 80% water change and removed the sliming/infested corals to dip in double strength TMPCC/Lugols and QTed. I also vaccummed as much of the supposed protozoas as I could. I looked this morning, and the protozoas were back on the sandbed, but not as much before...

I introduced a 6-line yesterday, but have yet to see him pick at any of the pests. I'll see if the protozoas come back with force before doing anything drastic (interceptor, flatworm exit dosing in the tank).