Black bugs? Microscopic! Ate my chalice? HELP

[Pudge&Bubbl]

Last evening I looked at a chalice frag a friend gave me on saturday - and its flesh was almost completely gone! Within a day! I swooped it out, swished vigorously in one bowl of tank water and prepared a second bowl with coral rx. After the vigorous swish, I started looking at the contents of the bowl with my camera, zooming in, and I found TONS of MICROSCOPIC bugs..... I've not seen these before, and I'm having a hard time finding any information. The "black bugs" I keep seeing are larger, like pin-tip or larger and definitely black. These are not. They were in the first bowl, but could not be seen in the bowl of coral rx after.


It was not happy the first couple days I had it, it started to pale a little - so I moved it to lowest light, low flow, and it seemed better. It still has a tiny bit of flesh and an "eye" (I think that's what it is).

ANY advice, help, identification....PLEASE

I have a montipora plate frag that's been growing beautifully, and several LPS in my tank, I have not lost anything until now. Everything I read also said to check magnesium, and I did - 1340 at the time I pulled the frag.

I am attempting to link a video... hope it works.

 

[Pudge&Bubbl]

Anyone? Anything?

 

[taricha]

in your video, at 30sec, the mass of brown moving material looks kinda like brown jelly disease.
When I say that, I mean that brown jelly appearance is caused by a swarm of ciliates that are ingesting the zoox from a coral. Here's a pair of videos at microscope zoom (Low and then High power)

(the ciliates are generally considered secondary infection, with the primary infection of the coral being bacterial, but the ciliates are what makes brown jelly look like brown jelly.)

 

[Pudge&Bubbl]

in your video, at 30sec, the mass of brown moving material looks kinda like brown jelly

(the ciliates are generally considered secondary infection, with the primary infection of the coral being bacterial, but the ciliates are what makes brown jelly look like brown jelly.)

That's definitely not what I want to hear, but brown jelly? From a chalice frag? I'm still new to this, and am learning a lot about a lot, every day.

Do you have anything else to add? What do I need to know about these ciliates? And what do I need to watch out for? That piece was in my display with a lot of LPS and some softies, one montipora piece..... are they at risk? Everything has been doing great. That piece was just added from a friend. I put it in my holding tank after I found it, and swished it. I have a recuperating coral in there, and a coral that I just havent decided where to put it. ....

Anything is appreciated, I like learning about everything. I like to be "equipped" but I feel like in this hobby so far, there is no such thing.

 

[taricha]

A lot of times brown jelly will affect multiple LPS Corals in a system. I personally would quarantine the coral frag for now.

 

[Pudge&Bubbl]

A lot of times brown jelly will affect multiple LPS Corals in a system. I personally would quarantine the coral frag for now.

It is quarantined. Unfortunately, there are still other pieces in the QT tank. So whatever is killing it could attack the other pieces? I just never saw any evidence of brown jelly on anything. I only found these things after discovering tissue disappeared in a day.

 

[taricha]

It may stay contained to the sick / damaged frag.

 

[SVP]

while

That's definitely not what I want to hear, but brown jelly? From a chalice frag? I'm still new to this, and am learning a lot about a lot, every day.

Do you have anything else to add? What do I need to know about these ciliates? And what do I need to watch out for? That piece was in my display with a lot of LPS and some softies, one montipora piece..... are they at risk? Everything has been doing great. That piece was just added from a friend. I put it in my holding tank after I found it, and swished it. I have a recuperating coral in there, and a coral that I just havent decided where to put it. ....

Anything is appreciated, I like learning about everything. I like to be "equipped" but I feel like in this hobby so far, there is no such thing.

while I cannot Identify the small black bugs I do not believe that to be brown Jelly. I have dealt with BJ quite a few times and I have never seen a parasite/bug with the naked eye causing bJ. I will say this I was taught this trick back when I first started reefing and it has held to be true every time so far. If it is indeed BJ and you have a coral with it, smell the coral. It will smell like death and once you smell BJ you will never forget that stench. Otherwise if it just smells(I grow Euphyllia and they have a certain smell) like fleshy coral then it is NOT bj. You cannot mistake the difference between them. It is easy and free to do so and I have found it to be an extremely useful tool to determine if BJ is the issue.

 

[Pudge&Bubbl]

I definitely didnt detect an odor. I've had bad luck with a toadstool leather starting to deteriorate (from another situation, another tank). It had an odd smell, definitely not pleasant, but also not vomit-inducing rotten stench. They were never in the same tank. I'm hoping whatever it is , does not affect my bubble coral. Thank you for your replies! All information is welcome!