Something is eating my shrooms!

[shabash]

HELP!!! 8O :!: :!:
Ive lost 2 shrooms so far. My orange ricordia and a green/blue striped both single polyps, now my green ricordia is shrinking too. Ive FW dipped them but they dont look very good. From what I can tell there are tiny tiny little bugs under them (i found them when I pulled out what was left of the orange ric) I cant get a pic of them at all, my camera isnt very good and neither are my skills with one im afraid. The bugs as far as I can tell become the color of the shroom they are eating. They are the size of a grain of sand but shaped a little like a grain of rice. Ive tried to suction off as much as I could as well as vacuumed the area of substrate where they are but with them being so small I dont know if they are anywhere else. What can they be and what else should I do? None of my other corals appear to be affected. THere are a couple of zoanthid colonies near where the shrooms where.. any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[SnowManSnow]

there are a few possible things:

1) The "bugs" are some sort of pod. Most times these guys like to hang out in the shade underneath corals and are absolutely no threat. If they are pods that means that your water quality is likely the problem.

2) they COULD be flatworms. Some are pretty much clear so they would look like the color of the coral. That being said if they are flat worms a FW dip of 3-5 seconds should kill them.

Other than those possibilities I donno.. maybe someone else can chime in.

b

 

[shabash]

Thanks for the reply. If they are pods wouldn't my mandarin eat them? He seems to ignore them completely. My water param are PH 8.4 Amm 0 Nit 0 No3 now 5ppm it was at about 10 but I just trimmed some caluerpa SG 1.025. I'm not sure I understand how having pods is a water quality issue. I KNOW there are copepods in the tank is there a type that are not eaten by mandarins but eat shrooms?
Never had flat worms and there's always a first time for every thing but I checked other posts and the FAQ and from all those pics I could not find any that matched what I have in refernce to size and shape. All the ones I saw listed were HUGE compared to what's in my tank. I did dip whats left of the green rics in FW for at least whole minute though, not 3-5 seconds.. I hope I didnt do them in. I made sure the temp was the same as the tank 82. If they are flat worms should I dip everything or wait to see if they show signs of distress? OK now im going panic!!
Again thanks for the reply

 

[brandonberry]

Check out my post here:

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=110818

Are they these? They are about the size you mentioned.

 

[shabash]

I dont think so.. but I cant be 100% sure. The ones in your post seem very very big compared to what was ( I think I gotem :twisted: ) in my tank. I know for a fact that they become the color of the coral they are eating because they were orange and black when they ate my orange ric and purplish blue when they ate the other shroom and when I got them off the green most of them were the same neon green of the ric. They are literally the size of a grain of sand but not round just a smidgen more cylindrical. Probably the only reason I could see them was because they become the color of the coral, they are that small. I do agree with the slime tho. they seem to like the slimy ones.. they didnt mess with my sun coral and it was near the orange ric.

Should I dip ALL my corals?

So far none others are showing any signs of distress. It only took these lil buggers a day to eat those shrooms so I am hopeful that they may be gone.
BTW whats left of the green ric is still hangin in there..just looks kinda sad and beat up.

 

[brandonberry]

I wouldn't take any chances. Dip anything that you think might be infected and then dip it again in 2-3 days in case there were others you missed. Just be sure not to dip them so long that it greatly stresses the corals and allow the corals to recover in between dips.

 

[SnowManSnow]

i would personally make sure the "bugs" you describe are the problem before I'd go dipping saltwater animals in freshwater!

B

 

[shabash]

Thank you for the responses. I am going to use caution and wait and see if anything else shows signs..I KNOW prevention is best but I agree with snowman and since I am not 100% sure of anything I dont want to add insult to possible injury dipping anything else. If I do have to I will only dip for 3-5 seconds. My cup coral has been closed up as of yesterday but I cant see anything on it at all... if it continues I may dip it but Im gonna wait and see .. im a bit panicked right now since the cup was nowhere near the shrooms but I guess in a 12g NC that's a relative term :?

Thanks guys!