Pest ID, Eggs?

[Dos_tank]

Good morning all. Long time reader/learner, first time poster. I need help identifying the spots on my montipora capitata and montipora digitata. The ones on the monticap have been there for quite a few weeks, four or more. I just noticed the ones on the digitata this morning. Thanks in advanced.

 

[ahiggins]

Silly question here but do you have astraea snails? Their poo looks like that when they find a spot they like but I also don’t have sps (can’t grow it) so definitely wait for more people to chime in.

 

[Dos_tank]

Silly question here but do you have astraea snails? Their poo looks like that when they find a spot they like but I also don’t have sps (can’t grow it) so definitely wait for more people to chime in.

Thank you for the reply. In this tank I do not have any astraea's, just Ceriths, Nassarius and Nerites and one turbo.

 

[ahiggins]

At the very least it gave you a boost lol

 

[Dos_tank]

@ahiggins - thanks again.

Update, out of concern for the tank and because it was fairly easy to get to it was able to pull the digitata out. Upon closer inspection it looks like feather dusters to me. If I need to zoom and/or crop let me know.

 

[ahiggins]

Ohhh I see what you mean. Still, they may be Vermitid so best you pulled them

 

[ahiggins]

Are the stalks hard? If so my bets on vermitid. They could be feathers but I’ve never seen feathers form in the light part of the tank

 

[Dos_tank]

The stalks seem kind of soft. They flow back and forth if I "swish" the frag plug in the water. Also, I was able to pull one off and look at it under a microscope. It looks like a tube made out of very fine sand particles.

The monticap rock is harder to get to. I'm going to try and get it tomorrow.

 

[ahiggins]

If the stalks are flowy, they definitely aren’t feathers or vermitid. Both of these make hard calcium shells.

 

[Dos_tank]

Update: I was able to get a sample off of both corals and look at them under a microscope. Both samples look the same, the ones on the monticap are just smaller. Both look like tubes built out of very fine sand and shell particles.

 

[reef lover]

Google hydroids...