Acropora pest ID

[thekeywork]

Hi all,
I don’t know if this is a pest causing damage to my acros, or if the acros STN’d and they are just inhabiting the skeletons, but I’ve had two Acro frags die from the bottom up with these tiny black worm things on them. Any ID?
Thank you!

 

[reef lover]

Are they worms and not the dreaded black bugs.

 

[C. Eymann]

looks like SEB/ skeleton eroding band disease.
It is caused by a ciliate called halofolliculina coralasia.

 

[C. Eymann]

Here is a little write up RB did on it, unfortunately, not much is known on eradication and control.

You can add Skeletal Erosion Band to the list of known aquarium diseases | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Ugh, as if we didn’t have enough coral diseases and parasites to worry about, now we can add Skeletal Erosion Band caused by the heterotricch ciliate Halofolliculina corallasia to the list.

reefbuilders.com

 

[HawaiianReef]

;Facepalm oh, great. another crazy pest to eat up sps

 

[thekeywork]

yeah....that looks a lot like it, though I've ordered a microscope to get a better look. I removed the frag from my tank, but the concerning bit is that the previous frag that showed the same signs was removed before this one was added, making me think that it hung around in the tank. Thanks for the diagnosis.

 

[C. Eymann]

yeah....that looks a lot like it, though I've ordered a microscope to get a better look. I removed the frag from my tank, but the concerning bit is that the previous frag that showed the same signs was removed before this one was added, making me think that it hung around in the tank. Thanks for the diagnosis.

I commend you for purchasing a microscope, to my knowledge not much is known about this on a hobby level at least, thankfully it's not very prevalent... yet
Anything you observe and document can be incredibly valuable to the hobby.



Let's hope it doesn't turn into the same story as the vibrio sp. "outbreak" back in the late 90s/2000s