Large scale STN from base event. Tiny black pods on dead skeleton.

Velcro · May 11, 2018

I can't find any of these little guys on healthy tissue. I've just never seen jet black copepods in the past, so I don't know if these things are typical scavengers or if they might actually be causing some STN.

Anyone have experience?

Very difficult to get pictures of them, but I guess these are better than nothing.

jda · May 11, 2018

I have seen some really dark pods before that you almost need help seeing (at least a magnifying glass). The are harmless from what I can tell.

I have never had healthy coral suffer from STN even with pests... growth stops, bad color, etc., but not tissue necrosis unless left neglected for many months.

Has a dip helped the coral out at all?

hatfielj · May 11, 2018

What you're seeing on the already dead skeleton could just as easily be the clean up crew. My live rock has all kinds of critters crawling on it, especially at night. I've seen lot's of other black bugs like this. Just because it's crawling on a dead skeleton, doesn't mean it was the killer

MrPorter80 · May 12, 2018

I’d be extremely diligent in verifying what those black bugs are. I’ve had some experience with some vicious unnamed in a qt setup from frags I purchased. I thought I got rid of them during qt and found little to no information on them. Display ended up with them and had to go through a process of breaking off colonies, killing the entire rocks the colonies were on (fresh water soak, dry, pressure wash, reseed, reintroduce), and leaving colonies in qt until I didn’t see them. It’s been about 6 weeks now and I’m not convinced they’re gone but have not seen one since. My contingency has been to frag all colonies, qt, and regrow in a separate tank in case I need to go fallow in the dt. If nothing come from it than I might have started me a side business lol.

Some say nothing kills them ie. Interceptor, flatworm exit etc... They tend to group up on a specific colony and devour it within days, almost like a hive behavior, then off to the next colony they’ll go. Take a flashlight and wait a couple hours until they come out, they like the nighttime hours. You’ll see them for sure, they don’t like the light and will cruise they’re little tails away. They move rather smoothly, not jittery like pods. They lay eggs similar to AEFW, yet not clustered, more sporadic and indiscriminate. They cannot hang on easily and will get blown off by strong current so colonies in a decent current might not seem affected. If you suspect it is them, 3x coral rx dip will kill them in my personal experience. Eggs take 4-6 days to hatch and they’ll lay them either the underside or within the glue of the plug. They are no joke man. I wish I had more info for you other than that. Look up black acropora eating worm bug. Utube has a video or two.