Please bear with me as this is the first time I've posted such a lengthy post.
Early last year, my friend and I decided to restart our reef hobby together. We were away from the hobby for close to 10 years. We each went with a small tank. Mine is a old Solana tank, modified to utilize a sump/refugium. His is a IM Nuvo Black 40 utilizing a sump/refugium. Everything was set up with equipment and dry rock. We did the long cycle, approximately 8 weeks before we introduced some fish. Everything is running nice and beautiful since. Until he contracted some sort of black bugs.
My friend's tank has been dealing with this black bug infestation for almost a year. He was always careful about dipping every single coral religiously, whether it was from a local reef store or online from WWC/JF etc. But about the time when he 'contracted' it, his reef was running beautiful, SPS and LPS with full polyp extension and amazing growth. Then one day, no polyp extension. He thought his parameters were off. He tested all of the parameters. He did multiple water changes. All his tests were testing fine. Nitrate is low, phosphates were very low. Nitrite and ammonia nonexistent. Calcium and alkalinity on point.
Then one SPS frag RTN'd. Then another. In the course of 1 week, almost all his SPS RTN'd. He frantically searched and tested during that whole ordeal. He saw something during that week of death. Little 'black bugs' crawling on the skeleton of his former animals.
He tried dipping the frags that didn't grown onto the rock in Coral Revive to kill the bugs. But it only served to 'stun' them and can be blown off with a syringe. But they were established in the tank by this point. We used Interceptor to try to destroy this infestation. It took 2 large breed dog pills to kill the bugs. We proceeded to dose for the next 3 weeks to try and break the cycle. Suffice to say, he lost all the SPS and some LPS during the dosing regimen. The rest of the LPS was dipped multiple times and transferred into my tank.
His tank was left fallow for the next 8 months. During this time, the sand was changed out. The rocks were scrubbed to hopefully be sure there were no eggs left on them. Monthly water changes were done to keep it running. Tests were run to see if the parameters are conducive to keeping animals. Every test came back within range. Observation was done during this time to see if there are any bugs left. All we see is copepods scurrying about. No black bugs running around whatsoever. Some algae and coralline algae is growing over the rock. We were confident the bugs are gone.
Finally, last week, he added 1 torch head coral and 2 tester SPS to test if his tank is ready for animals. The animals went through the dipping regimen. Nothing fell off the corals. The corals were placed on a frag rack looked fine in the tank that evening. Polyp extensions on the SPS and the torch was extended and looked happy. The next day, Both SPS looks pale, like they're bleached. Polyp extension was nonexistent and the torch was shrunk in halfway. We immediately went to work looking for any issues. Tests were done. All results are within parameters.
We took a closer look at his frags and dread filled our stomach. The black bugs were back. They were all over the base of the SPS and the torch. We dipped again, knocking off the black bugs again. There was an amazing amount of black bugs on the frags! The SPS did not survive the dip. The torch seemed better after the dip. But by the morning, the torch was filled with the bugs. Again.
That's when we knew that the fallow period does not stop them. By the third day, the torch was gone as well. Brown jellied and white skeleton showing. Video shows LPS recession and the black bugs crawling all over the exposed skeleton. Photo shows them all around the coral.
We're not fully sure if the black bugs we're seeing posted is similar, it doesn't have a elongated look of one type that was posted on R2R. We also read about this pod type black bug but we can't find any photos of the bugs we are looking at. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, for that, I apologize. The only thing we can say is that they are pod type and as some people here on R2R described, looking like a tick. The one difference for sure, is that this 'black bug' eats LPS.
We took photos of them as best we can. He purchased a pocket microscope to try and attempt to discern what type of bug it could be. The photo shows under the microscope, that it is more colored goldish/yellow instead of black. Video shows the ones that was stunned but revived perhaps about 20 minutes later still in the Coral Revive solution dip. The first 2 photos are from the first attack. The last photo shows them after they were knocked off the torch and the amount there was one just one frag.
The following photo is the pocket microscope my friend used to take photos of the black bugs.
2 burning questions:
1. I have never heard of black bugs attacking LPS. Always SPS exclusively. Could this be a new type of 'black bug' or maybe we haven't seen them with this type of habit before?
2. I know it could be impossible to see them on the rocks, but how can they move so quick and so fast to attack the corals? The corals are not on the rocks but on frag racks next to the glass.
Early last year, my friend and I decided to restart our reef hobby together. We were away from the hobby for close to 10 years. We each went with a small tank. Mine is a old Solana tank, modified to utilize a sump/refugium. His is a IM Nuvo Black 40 utilizing a sump/refugium. Everything was set up with equipment and dry rock. We did the long cycle, approximately 8 weeks before we introduced some fish. Everything is running nice and beautiful since. Until he contracted some sort of black bugs.
My friend's tank has been dealing with this black bug infestation for almost a year. He was always careful about dipping every single coral religiously, whether it was from a local reef store or online from WWC/JF etc. But about the time when he 'contracted' it, his reef was running beautiful, SPS and LPS with full polyp extension and amazing growth. Then one day, no polyp extension. He thought his parameters were off. He tested all of the parameters. He did multiple water changes. All his tests were testing fine. Nitrate is low, phosphates were very low. Nitrite and ammonia nonexistent. Calcium and alkalinity on point.
Then one SPS frag RTN'd. Then another. In the course of 1 week, almost all his SPS RTN'd. He frantically searched and tested during that whole ordeal. He saw something during that week of death. Little 'black bugs' crawling on the skeleton of his former animals.
He tried dipping the frags that didn't grown onto the rock in Coral Revive to kill the bugs. But it only served to 'stun' them and can be blown off with a syringe. But they were established in the tank by this point. We used Interceptor to try to destroy this infestation. It took 2 large breed dog pills to kill the bugs. We proceeded to dose for the next 3 weeks to try and break the cycle. Suffice to say, he lost all the SPS and some LPS during the dosing regimen. The rest of the LPS was dipped multiple times and transferred into my tank.
His tank was left fallow for the next 8 months. During this time, the sand was changed out. The rocks were scrubbed to hopefully be sure there were no eggs left on them. Monthly water changes were done to keep it running. Tests were run to see if the parameters are conducive to keeping animals. Every test came back within range. Observation was done during this time to see if there are any bugs left. All we see is copepods scurrying about. No black bugs running around whatsoever. Some algae and coralline algae is growing over the rock. We were confident the bugs are gone.
Finally, last week, he added 1 torch head coral and 2 tester SPS to test if his tank is ready for animals. The animals went through the dipping regimen. Nothing fell off the corals. The corals were placed on a frag rack looked fine in the tank that evening. Polyp extensions on the SPS and the torch was extended and looked happy. The next day, Both SPS looks pale, like they're bleached. Polyp extension was nonexistent and the torch was shrunk in halfway. We immediately went to work looking for any issues. Tests were done. All results are within parameters.
We took a closer look at his frags and dread filled our stomach. The black bugs were back. They were all over the base of the SPS and the torch. We dipped again, knocking off the black bugs again. There was an amazing amount of black bugs on the frags! The SPS did not survive the dip. The torch seemed better after the dip. But by the morning, the torch was filled with the bugs. Again.
That's when we knew that the fallow period does not stop them. By the third day, the torch was gone as well. Brown jellied and white skeleton showing. Video shows LPS recession and the black bugs crawling all over the exposed skeleton. Photo shows them all around the coral.
We're not fully sure if the black bugs we're seeing posted is similar, it doesn't have a elongated look of one type that was posted on R2R. We also read about this pod type black bug but we can't find any photos of the bugs we are looking at. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, for that, I apologize. The only thing we can say is that they are pod type and as some people here on R2R described, looking like a tick. The one difference for sure, is that this 'black bug' eats LPS.
We took photos of them as best we can. He purchased a pocket microscope to try and attempt to discern what type of bug it could be. The photo shows under the microscope, that it is more colored goldish/yellow instead of black. Video shows the ones that was stunned but revived perhaps about 20 minutes later still in the Coral Revive solution dip. The first 2 photos are from the first attack. The last photo shows them after they were knocked off the torch and the amount there was one just one frag.
The following photo is the pocket microscope my friend used to take photos of the black bugs.
2 burning questions:
1. I have never heard of black bugs attacking LPS. Always SPS exclusively. Could this be a new type of 'black bug' or maybe we haven't seen them with this type of habit before?
2. I know it could be impossible to see them on the rocks, but how can they move so quick and so fast to attack the corals? The corals are not on the rocks but on frag racks next to the glass.
Last edited:
