Zoanthid Bugs?

[SaltwaterNoob17]

I've noticed that some of my zoanthids haven't been opening up lately, and some of the polyps seem to be dying. Tonight I examined them with a flashlight, and I found little tiny grey bug/centipede/pod looking critters crawling all over them, and one of the zoa frags has a polyp that looks like it has a white patch of eggs stuck on it. The zoas had been fine til now, and I freshwater and iodine dipped all of them before adding them to the aquarium. Despite my efforts not to introduce pests to the tank, it seems like I have somehow; what do you guys think? Do you have a guess what pest I might be dealing with? Are the zoas the only target of these critters or should I start freaking out about the welfare of my other corals too?? :passedout

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Here's a picture (sorry it's horrible, but it's the best I could do...)
-There's one of the "bugs" on the left of the zoas (the little brownish thing)
-The polyp second from the left is the one that appears to have "eggs" on it...

 

[Bifferwine]

Does it look like this:

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

No...
They look more like this:

 

[ggNoRe]

Looks like pods to me. I have the same "bugs" all over my tank.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Whatever they are, they are pissing off the zoanthids. You can even see in the first pic I posted that the polyp at the very top of the cluster is dying and appears to half eaten...

(Clarification: the 2nd pic I posted was a random pic from Google, not my tank)

 

[Bifferwine]

You should do a freshwater deep, even if you don't know for sure what's 'bugging' them, hahaha. If there is a pest keeping them closed or eating them, a fresh water dip will help.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Thanks, Biff. I'm glad you're getting humor out of my situation :roll:

 

[dcantucson]

Looks like Amphipods to me.

http://www.google.com/images?q=amph...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=6&ved=0CEgQsAQwBQ

 

[sen5241b]

If you dip, do it for only a haf a minute maybe. We just had someone dip for 10 minutes and it killed the coral.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

I inspected all of the zoas this morning and only one frag plug of zoas (the one pictured above) had any "bugs" on it. So, I freshwater dipped the zoas that had the "bugs" on it, and I left the others alone. I also got a pair of tweezers and removed the "white patch" that was on the zoa polyp. It turned out to be just a little itty bitty piece of LR that somehow got attached to the zoa for whatever reason...

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

If you dip, do it for only a haf a minute maybe. We just had someone dip for 10 minutes and it killed the coral.

I only dipped for 10 seconds so I should be good. ;)

 

[cageburn]

its completly normal to find little "bugs" running around at night, ive seen then bother my zoas at night as well but there more or less just cleaning around the zoanthids, depending how strong of flow a zoa colony is sometimes you more or less will find detrius between the polyps, that whats there after there not trying to kill your zoas or anything dont worry :)

 

[cageburn]

the polyps could be just sick and dying, ive had polyps that were doing great for a long time just start to look sick looking, get reall thin and short and wont open then die, looks like you still got some good polyps on the frag though :)

 

[Hiker4twenty]

+1 Sen. Whatever it is will fall off very quickly in the fresh water. For the record they look like amphipods to me as well, which are good and safe.

 

[yote]

The brown bug in Samanthas pic is an amphipod.But if you look close at that same pic,there is a green nudibranch in between 2 of the polyps.

 

[cageburn]

no kiddin i didnt even see it it blended in so well

 

[cageburn]

that would explain the eggs!

 

[yote]

My one good pays off at times.:wink:

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Yote, I don't see the nudibranch! Hopefully it washed off in the dip...