Tiny White Worm-like things on my torch

[MarsWulf5]

I came home from work and my torch coral was all shriveled and mostly retracted. Also my Dunkin had been closed for a few days now.

I gave them a 10 min dip in CoralRx. A number of super tiny things were left in the water.

Most noticeable were these tiny like worm things creeping along the bottom of the bowl.

They are too small to really see any features or snap a photo of.

They are not red planaria. They are long and thin and appear to be some other form of flatworm.

I'm new to keeping coral. I dipped everything and they are in a 20G high quarantine going on 3 weeks.

I added 2 mushrooms and a cynaria over the last two days and did a 50% H20 change at 2pm today.

Water parameters are OK. Phospates are high.

Wondering if these worm things are good guys or bad guys for my tank/corals.

Flow is good. Light is good. I fed the corals Reef Chili yesterday.

The torch looked great at 2:40pm by 10 pm it was shriveled and looked really bad.

Pests? The torch was near a mushroom. Maybe the mushroom released some chemical warfare? I'm at a loss.

I dip and quarantine everything. I need a microscope to see features on the worm things. They are about 1/3rd mm in length, so very small, and the width of about a human hair.

Any ideas?

 

[ScottR]

Can you share pics of the torch? I iodine dip all my Euphyllia as they’re prone to bacterial infections like brown jelly disease. Sometimes it needs to be dipped every few days for a week or so. It could be pests bothering it but I would lean that it’s probably not the issue. Sometimes amphipods look kind of like worms when dipped. Can’t say without a picture.

 

[MarsWulf5]

Thanks for the input. I will be buying some iodine and dipping my new corals for sure. I heard about iodine dipping somewhere before this time it makes sense to me.

What brand do you recommend?

My torch looks healthy and spry as ever. Maybe it was just taking a break? I had just never seen it look so bad before and it was my second coral purchase and I've had him almost a month now. Still in QT. I was sure my torch was going to go Brown Jelly. The dip in CoralRx did the trick whatever the problem was. I will for sure be trying/doing iodine dips in the future.

My Dunkin is still half closed which is strange because the two SPS I have look great as do all the other LPS.

I really appreciate the input on the iodine dip. Thanks for the response and information.

When I find my disecting microscope and dip again, I will try to get a pic of the little wormies and post it. There were some small pods for sure - maybe these were a type of pod I just haven't seen before. I'm a nube, so that's very possible.

Thanks again for the help! Much obliged.