Worm egg hitchhikers

[SuncrestReef]

Today I picked up a new goniopora frag, and when I took a macro photo I noticed a bunch of eggs on the frag:



I scraped the eggs off with a tweezer, and took a look at them under my microscope at 40x. I found live worms wiggling around inside the eggs, as seen in this video I shot through the microscope:


I'm really glad I checked this. Anyone know what these worms might have been?

 

[AquaticJamaica]

I believe you should dip and quarantine it till you get a positive ID.

 

[reef lover]

Ohhh myyyy.... #reefsquad

 

[KJ]

Hard to tell. We need a little help from marine biologist for positive ID. Anybody know one on this forum? #reefsquad

 

[Maritimer]

It looks like a roundworm, nematode or similar ... I'm not _aware_ of those being dangerous in a reef, but there's a ton of stuff I don't know. From what I understand, roundworms are pretty common 'round the globe.

Excellent video!

~Bruce

 

[SuncrestReef]

It looks like a roundworm, nematode or similar ... I'm not _aware_ of those being dangerous in a reef, but there's a ton of stuff I don't know. From what I understand, roundworms are pretty common 'round the globe.

Excellent video!

~Bruce

Thank you! It does look like nematodes.