HELP my coral is infested!

[Yuki Rihwa]

I know we are in 21st Century but I like to stay old school way in this hobby by observation my live stock by my own eyes, if I look at my live stock seeing, feeling that they are happy then I'll leave thing at it, I'm not poking around trying to fix something that not broken and get unwanted problematic. I'm not saying the OP not to worry but since he already saw it, it won't go away or out of his mind until the issue resolve or the issue not even need to worry in the first place. I don't meant to offend or upset anyone though it's just my point of view and a peace happy mind of enjoyment how I look at my tank

 

[BoomCorals]

Update: I ordered a microscope and tried to get a picture of one of the bugs...
This is the result and the best I could manage.

My best ID at the moment is some sort of "Ciliates".
Any further information is much apreciated.
I still don't know what they do on the Fungia and if they harm it.

I know @taricha helps us with Dino and other microscope IDs, might have an idea here?

 

[Moonfruit777]

@Yuki Rihwa I completely disagree with you.
If this coral would not do good or even die, and these little things are the cause - I'd never know why it happened and the next best thing you get to hear is "KH swing" "bad lighting" or some other overly generalized and unprecise answer.
Without a good phone camera and clip-on magnifier I would never have found these and without the microscope it would probably not be possible to ID them.
I think that a lot more people that have a certain coral that does not do well should take a "closer" look.
This is not your standard coral pest - otherwise I would not ask for help / otherwise someone would have come up with a definite answer.
I think this thread can be very helpful to anyone. Many times the cause of coral disease are very small things like bacteria.
I personally also like to know what is going on in my reef - so I don't see a reason not to look at things from a different perspective.

 

[taricha]

Thanks for the tag, I love looking at weird stuff through the microscope.
I'm not sure if that microscope pic is the same organism as the dots pictured on the coral. Ciliates big enough to be imaged on the coral are pretty unusual. I've seen some, but not many.

Regardless of the precise ID, I think a Bayer dip would be great. Totally harmless to coral, and kills many pests.
The scope pic does look like a ciliate, and every ciliate I've ever seen in a tank was beneficial - bacteria and phytoplankton eaters. harmful ones do exist however, some cause diseases in humans, and a recent mass mortality of hundreds of sharks and rays was caused by a ciliate.

If you want to just dip and move on, that's great. If you want to investigate further, here's my recommendations.

getting a sample from off the coral - Pull the plate and splash it in a small amount of water, or blast surface of coral with a turkey, baster/pipette. Let everything in the water settle down to bottom for a couple minutes and suck up a little bit from bottom for sampling under scope.
Then shoot video of whatever is there. Context of video - what is around and movement is more helpful that a single zoomed in picture

Edit: I didn't specify dip - I'm also big fan of Bayer.

 

[Rakie]

No dip is half as good as Bayer is.

 

[Moonfruit777]

double post sorry

 

[Moonfruit777]

Sorry for the long wait!
But I still have to END this Thread!
I found out what these little things are.

After a longer google session I found an article by Michael John Sweet from the University of Derby who has done research on Ciliates.
I simply decided to email him and sent him the picture which I took under the microscope - with very little hope
to receive an answer of a "random guy" on the web who probably has better things to do than to ID some reefers critters.

To my biggest surprise he answered my mail and solved the mystery! A very BIG thank you to Michael J. Sweet!

In the mail he stated:
"it looks like it could be Varistrombidium kielum or a Euplotes sp. both these are similar sizes and have been shown to ingest symbiodinium
they are associated with coral diseases but as far as we can see not inflicting the disease unlike Philaster sp.
it is likely if you have tissue loss you will have many other species associated with your corals"

He also was kind enough to attach his research on them - which can be found here
https://www.researchgate.net/public...s_Consistently_Associated_with_Coral_Diseases


I think Euplotes sp. is almost identical to my pictures.

The rainbow Fungia is still alive, healthy and has grown a bit!
I did not check if the Ciliate are still on the coral - on purpose

I hope with this Update noone finding this thread will leave without an ID.

Greetings
Felix

 

[Coral_North]

S stylifer oculatum Coplex ?

 

[Coral_North]

S stylifer oculatum Coplex ? Oops double posted

 

[SurfLife]

No dip is half as good as Bayer is.

You really feel that strongly about that or is there some sarcasm in there?
Only ask because I have always used traditional dips sold for corals but have strongly considered the Bayer treatment.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

Good eyes. Clueless on this one, but along for the ride! No idea if they will be problematic or if they just feed on the mucus or something -for all I know the plate gets something in return. Does a quick freshwater dip with a little shaking just do nothing? Typically the shock from the change in osmotic pressure combined with vigorous shaking is an easy way to remove teeny tiny organisms which have a harder time adjusting. That being said I have been sure it would work on certain things and had it be totally useless.