Small black spots on upset Nepthea

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Hello everyone!

Title pretty much says it all, I added some new coral to my coral QT recently and one of the corals from my first order (a few months ago now) showed signs of being upset- nothing unusual as this particular coral seems to be little moody, always shrunk and tight in the morning when the lights come on and by the end of the day when I turn the lights off Its fully extended and swaying in the current like its having a grand time. The only exception to this this is when it shed. I thought it might be going into shed again but there were none of black spots on it last time. I also noticed a fine olive fuzz on most of it which to me also suggest it just wants to shed. All the other corals appear to be doing fine except some of the new ones still haven't fully recovered from shipping (shipped overnight but there was 3 day delay). I should also mention I've been keeping any eye on them and they don't seem to be able to move around.

Hoping it'll be ok, this one has always been my favourite! I can try and get clearer photos if needed, thanks in advance!

 

[najer]

Do they move, possibly some kind of bugs?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks to me like black bugs. pencil wrasses will eat these.
It's VERY hard to kill black bugs. There is a product called Ivermectin is very similar to Interceptor, its a liquid form of animal de wormer, Interceptor is a pill form. You will need to get it from an animal Vet. It will take several dips over several weeks to break the life cycle of the bugs and more effective than bayer dips. Bayer just stuns them, which is why you have to use flow from a powerhead towards the coral to blow them off.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Do they move, possibly some kind of bugs?

Looks to me like black bugs. pencil wrasses will eat these.
It's VERY hard to kill black bugs. There is a product called Ivermectin is very similar to Interceptor, its a liquid form of animal de wormer, Interceptor is a pill form. You will need to get it from an animal Vet. It will take several dips over several weeks to break the life cycle of the bugs and more effective than bayer dips. Bayer just stuns them, which is why you have to use flow from a powerhead towards the coral to blow them off.

Don't take this personally but I really, really hope you guys are wrong (although your probably right)

I'll pull out my macro lens later today to confirm, I thought they were too big to be black bug(more so hoping). They don't really seem to move around but they do seem to be popping up in more places.

 

[living_tribunal]

Don't take this personally but I really, really hope you guys are wrong (although your probably right)

I'll pull out my macro lens later today to confirm, I thought they were too big to be black bug(more so hoping). They don't really seem to move around but they do seem to be popping up in more places.

Just as a devils advocate here, have any of the spots potentially turned into lines/grown out of their oblong shape? Also, is this coral bleached compared to its normal state?

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Just as a devils advocate here, have any of the spots potentially turned into lines/grown out of their oblong shape? Also, is this coral bleached compared to its normal state?

Unfortunately I do believe they are black bugs. I have not seen them elongate and the coral has not bleached.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Ivermectin isn’t water soluble. You generally have to mix it with oil in its natural state to give as a oral led to dogs or cats or use to treat ear mites.
There is however a cattle ivermectin topical. I have NO idea what this stuff would do to coral because it’s ugly mean. But then I’d think Bayer dip would kill them. If ivermectin will work you could get one percent cattle swine from the local feed store maybe dab it in the coral with a q-tip? It would have to go pure unless you’re sure something like corn or canola oil wouldn’t kill the coral. Then you could potentially make a dip. Has anyone experimented with something like comfortis? It attacks the central nervous system of bugs that eat crops and insects like fleas. May also kill ticks but can be confirmed by the company cause it hasn’t been officially approved for that.Comfortis is a spinosad and has proven very safe for animals and not destructive to the streams and such. It may be worth a try if no one has tried it.