brown mites...

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

I was looking at some frags in my quarantine tank tonight and noticed some frags had clusters of what looked to be tiny brown mites on the stalks of the zoos, starting at the base and then spreading upward. They remind me of aphids on plants except much smaller and with no visible legs.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I also found some on the base of my sinularia frags.

This tank has no predators of any sort, just copepods and snails, so I was wondering if these things might be building up since I have no wrasses in this tank.

I dipped everything with Trop Marin and am contemplating nuking it all with Interceptor to be on the safe side.

Azurel · Sep 1, 2009

I had something like that but it was a Ricordea Florida eater. Does any of the coral seem to be bothered by it?

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

The zoos that were really infested with them were closed up. For all the world they look just like a bunch of aphids do on a plant. There were really tiny creamish ones and then tiny and a little bigger brown ones. I put one on my finger and it did run around on my finger, much like a mite would. These are similar in size to terrestrial spider mites.

If I find any other frags that missed my extermination I'll try to get some pics. What makes me nervous is that they were in the aragonite under the infested frags, so I worry about how easily they can spread.

I checked the zoo colony that I suspected that they might of come from which is in a different tank and those zoos were completely clean. That tank has a wrasse and other predators. I'm going to get a small japanese or coris wrasse for this tank and see if that makes a difference.

gilmour01 · Sep 1, 2009

are you sure they're not just pods?

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

Def not pods. I know what pods look like, that tank is full of them. lol

Gimili the Great · Sep 1, 2009

Hitch Hiking Copepods, Isopods and Amphipods this will help you with that

gilmour01 · Sep 1, 2009

do they move fast or slow?

bangoo · Sep 1, 2009

I remember seeing somethig that look just like brown mites in the www.zoaid.com (Just go to the predator/irritant) section and you'll see something that resembles the tick. I can't send you the direct link because somehow zoaid is blocked at my work. Good luck.

Acroholic · Sep 1, 2009

If they ae a crustacean, then you might try a 6-8 hour bath in Interceptor, like we treat our SPS for redbugs. The Interceptor would have no negative effects on the zoas.
Dave

Murfman · Sep 1, 2009

This them?

CoralPedia.com! :: The definitive repository for named Corals!

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

pesty

No, they're not spiders. I already looked on coralperdia and the web, but couldn't find anything like them.

They look like tiny brown specks, they are perfectly round and have no visible legs (to the eye). The one on my finger moved moderately fast, not slow like a planaria. I guess I'll have to try and get a pic. My macro lens is good, but we'll see how good.

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

This one best fits the bill.

The Halacarid Mites - The only mite family completely adapted to life in the sea. With over one thousand species belonging to this family and having an assortment of body plans, species identification is extremely difficult.

I don't have a magnifying glass, I'll have to try something.

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

pictures

This is the best as I could do with my lens. Since I dipped everything yesterday I could only find one frag that still had several on it. A few of the frags I dipped yesterday had a ton of them around the stalks. The other pictures are of them on my aragonite under the infested frags.

To any noobs that feel like commenting this is not fish or snail poop.

revhtree · Sep 1, 2009

Whoa! Are these on the sand and on all your coral or zaos? Just one frag?

Reef Goddess · Sep 1, 2009

I found a couple zoo frags that were really covered and then others that were close to these that just had some. They are throughout the aragonite where the infested frags were. I also found some on the base of a couple loose sinularia frags (not the slimey stalk). I think they can't get on my ricordia and sps because of the slime. What concerns me is that they are on my aragonite and not just the coral.

I'm going to add a wrasse and a cleaner shrimp this week to see if that helps. Now you see the reason why I'm considering nuking this tank. I don't know if these things are just abundant because this system has no predators or what, but they make me nervous. Luckily its my quarantine tank and nothing is moving from there until I figure these guys out.

ahayes13 · Sep 1, 2009

wow, thats a bunch of em !

Azurel · Sep 1, 2009

Might want to add a Mandarin I bet that fish would put them in check......That looks just like the things that attacked my Florida ricordea. One the stuff on the sand was killed or irritated. Good luck and keep us posted.

Reef Goddess · Sep 2, 2009

Did you add a mandarin to take care of your problem? How did you get rid of them?

I actually cut a bunch of ricordia last week, tossed them in that tank and barely any of them survived. I wonder if the mites had something to do with it. I saw a bunch of the mites on part of one of the cut ricordia that was melting. I thought it was weird that I lost a bunch because they were looking fine. My ricordia colonies in that tank are still healthy and bug free.

kass03 · Sep 2, 2009

I would try treating the whole tank with interceptor.
It will kill crabs, shrimp and pods I believe but the corals will be fine.
Ive only ever dipped corals in it so not sure about the dosage or anything.

Ive dipped chalice and acans in it and they were fine.

kass

Azurel · Sep 2, 2009

I didn't, I couldn't get one local. I dipped all rics in FW/iodide dip, the rics that I had issues with were all on the sand. Not one in the rock work or on large rock in the sand showed issues. I didn't notice till I kept seeing small things moving around that were bright orange. Then I looked around my orange rics in the sand that were having issues and sure enough they were all over them around the base. They seemed to be either colored or take on the color of the rics. I had zoas around them as well and they showed no signs of issue....After dipping I placed all rics on to the rock work away from the location where the things were. After a week I dipped again just to be sure this time I did SW/Iodide dip. I haven't seen them again but I have a new system as well and no old sand was used.....Might want to look into the interceptor could be the only way to get them all......