Miami orchid pest I'd?

[seattlereef]

Just picked up a new coral and this afternoon noticed some white pods on them! Not sure if there pests?

 

[mcoomer]

Very hard to tell from the picture but it looks like those clusters are in an area that doesn't have skin. Look at the edges where live flesh meets clean skeleton and see if you can make out scalloped edges like bite marks but on a very small scale. If you see clusters and tissue that's been cleaned off a section of coral I would guess that you have red bugs with clusters of eggs. They don't look exactly right but again, hard to tell from a single pic. Below is a pic of an ORA Purple Nana that I bought that had the critters on it. What you're seeing are the egg clusters. General consensus seems to be scrape the eggs with a toothpick, bath coral in a solution of Coral RX and tank water, then a rinse in tank water, and then QT. Repeat every day for a week, every other day the second week, every third day the third week (you see where this going, right?) and continue until they're gone. I ended up fragging the top of the coral and letting it regrow. Still got it in my 180.

 

[seattlereef]

Thanks. I went ahead and did a Coral Rx dip. I kinda thought they are red bugs but the white dots are criters that crawl around not eggs.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
The picture is not clear enough to tell much. I think you are wise to do the dip anyway. Did you see anything in the container after the dip and were they gone afterwards?

Regards,
Kevin

 

[mcoomer]

Failed to mention that, didn't I. Kevin's right about checking the dipping containers after you dip the coral. Wait for a bit and see if anything has settled to the bottom of the containers. If they're red bugs they'll appears as tiny little pink/reddish specks. Also, while dipping the coral use a turkey baster to wash the surface. You don't need to blast it. Just agitate the water a bit to loosen the egg clusters that you scraped loose with the toothpick.

Mike

 

[mcoomer]

Failed to mention that, didn't I. Kevin's right about checking the dipping containers after you dip the coral. Wait for a bit and see if anything has settled to the bottom of the containers. If they're red bugs they'll appears as tiny little pink/reddish specks. Also, while dipping the coral use a turkey baster to wash the surface. You don't need to blast it. Just agitate the water a bit to loosen the egg clusters that you scraped loose with the toothpick.

BTW...if those dots are a critter of some sort and you can't find egg clusters on the coral, probably not red bugs.

Mike

 

[estanoche]

do you have the coral in quarantine??? one dip, with an infestation like that, likely wont do it... expect to dip periodically for a while until you stop seeing pests.

 

[seattlereef]

Unfortunately I don't have a QT tank for my corals. The dip yesterday brought down the population a bit but they are still there. I don't see any skeleton on the coral just discolored... although it could just be its normal coral at the base?

 

[estanoche]

hmmmm those kind of look like eggs? can you drip the coral again and use a soft toothbrush to get all those white critters off of it?? They are definitely not good - and eating the flesh I'd seriously worry that these are going to spread to everything else in your tank...

try to keep this coral as far away as you can from any other coral, alienated out in the sand, to keep the critters isolated to this coral, and not let them jump to any of your others

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
If it were mine I would cut the coral above the affected area and remount it making sure only living tissue was kept and none of the critters were left. That coral grows fairly fast so don't worry about cutting it back as it grows out quickly.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[seattlereef]

I ended up cutting it off at the base and doing another Coral Rx Dip. Haven't seen the critters since. Thanks for the advice!