SPS Keepers!!! We need your help!!

[MrSandman]

Take a look at some of your SPS in your tank. Look closely! Look especially at the ones which may be bleaching or not coloring up. Do you see any small red bugs/mites? Does it look like this:

If so, then help us all out by posting some of your experiences with them. I know that maybe i shouldn't be doing this, but we really need some help defeating these mysterious red bugs/mites that live in some of our acroporas and seem to slowly make our SPS corals bleach and eventually die. So, if any of you have some experience, whether negative or positive, please post them here: http://www.reefcentral.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=056f2f6d5719bc76d2818d7a3de1d2ac&threadid=39956
We are just trying to determine possible causes, solutions, trends, predators and just more information on these buggers. If you have had ANY experience with these things, please share it. So, please...for the sake of all SPS Keepers, give us your $.02 Thanks!

 

[Carpentersreef]

I've never actually seen mites on my SPS, but I do notice that my 6 line wrasse will go over new additions, picking at SOMETHING. The SPS never seem damaged by his/her nipping, ,so i imagine it's taking other critters off, like the mites pictured.
I look REAL closely at all my corals, and have not seen any of what you pictured. Hopefully, my 6 line is taking care of them.

Mitch

 

[monkeyboy]

Whoa, thats odd. I've never seen anything like that on any of my SPS. I have a 6-line too and these guys are great at picking off little critters wether it be off clams, liverock, or even acropora. I'd give them a lugols dip and see if the pods drop off. If they don't then try blasting them with a powerfull pump in a seperate bucket to try and remove these guys. Thats very weird, i'd buy a six line wrasse and see what happens. HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've had these. And in fact posted about it to RC a looooooooooong time ago.

They seem to prefer staghorn-type acroporas to anything else. I've never seen any on a montipora or a pocillopora. I've never seen one on the rocks, sand, glass or anyplace but on a coral. My experience has been that the effected corals loose pigmentation gradually and slowly. It appears to me that individual polyps start dying at this stage. Eventually, tissue recession starts to set in and then proceeds pretty rapidly. Not as fast as RTN, but rapidly.

They do migrate to other corals, but slowly.

 

[mwm6]

I've seen this almost exclusively (similar looking anyway) on the skeletons of SPS where the tissue has recently died-off or is in the process of receeding and RTN. I can only assume that these are scavengers as I have never seen any on the live tissues of my SPS. I too would like to know if these are related in any way to tissue recession or RTN.


mack

 

[cubera]

Iodine baths?

 

[Mustang]

I have these on a few of my SPS's. I am not sure if the are doing any dammage or not I will keep a close eye on them.
I do notice that the large heads I have with Acro crabs do not seem to have them?
Also I have noticed my clown gobies around the one that have them. I am not sure if they are eating them or not.
I would like to hear others comments as well
_________________
Acura TL

 

[Acropora]

In the past I have noticed these spots on SPS corals that have begun to bleach or have RTN. I have not seen them on my other healthy SPS corals.If they are scavengers then they have not attacked other corals in my tank.In fact I never really looked at them as closely as depicted in your photo(thank you).I believed ,at the time, that the spots were just remnants of living/die-off coral. On another note,as hinted to above.I have found that for me, the single most secret to success with SPS Corals has been an initial Iodine bath.I use 10 drops of Lugol's solution/liter of aquarium water for a 20min-30 min. bath.Since starting this procedure,I have not lost any new SPS corals. Anthony P.S. I also have to credit steady water temps(79-80 winter-81-82 summer),high water movment,high calcium/Alk levels and 400 watt MH bulbs.

[ October 07, 2001: Message edited by: Reefexotic ]