AcanSamDC
Community Member
I have about 30 Euphyllia and generally they do great. I’ve got a bicolor hammer that has gone from 2 to 40 heads in about two years. Most of what I have splits and splits and splits at varrying rates. But every month it seems there is literally one head in my tank that just slowly recedes and then dies. Sometimes it’s a head on a piece with just one head so I lose it. Other times it’s just one head on a piece with many and the other heads don’t get effected.
I’ve looked and looked for flatworms but never seen any. I do have the ghost flatworms that feed on pods in my refugium, but never seen one in my display. I’ve also started pulling the effected heads out when I see them and using revive and a magnifying glass to see what’s there. Never a flatworm.
Recently I’ve started noticing a type of copepod that I never seen elsewhere in my tank, and I never see other types of copepods on my dying Euphyllia, just this one. And I have lots and lots of copepods in the system, dosing starters from algae barn every other month.
Most recently I lost an octospawn and pulled it out and dissected it under magnifying glass, and sure enough this one really specific type of pod was on the dying part of the coral and the stem. I noticed a criststa torch head not looking amazing like usual so I pulled it and sure enough it has the same type of pod. I then went back at night and inspected every single healthy head and did not see a single one of these critters. I only ever see them on the receding heads. So I’m pretty sure this is my culprit.
It took me forever to get this just barely passable photo, but here it is. It has a pretty unique shape in that it’s very straight other than the roundng at the ends. And the internal lines are also pretty distinct. I cross referenced it with the five common pods algae barn sells and it looks nothing like them.
So is this the notorious white Euphyllia eating bug?! Also noting that I put him in a double concentration of revive for an hour and he gives no *****.
Alkalinity is stable just over 10.0. Magnesium sometimes gets down to 1300 so I’ve been keeping it over 1400 to rule that out. I had a mystery wrasse and red scooter in the tank for the past year while this slow process continued to unfold. A new fish bright velvet to my system so I’m now fallow but I’m not (yet) seeing an uptick in Euphyllia loss, just the same, slow, one at a time loss.
I’ve looked and looked for flatworms but never seen any. I do have the ghost flatworms that feed on pods in my refugium, but never seen one in my display. I’ve also started pulling the effected heads out when I see them and using revive and a magnifying glass to see what’s there. Never a flatworm.
Recently I’ve started noticing a type of copepod that I never seen elsewhere in my tank, and I never see other types of copepods on my dying Euphyllia, just this one. And I have lots and lots of copepods in the system, dosing starters from algae barn every other month.
Most recently I lost an octospawn and pulled it out and dissected it under magnifying glass, and sure enough this one really specific type of pod was on the dying part of the coral and the stem. I noticed a criststa torch head not looking amazing like usual so I pulled it and sure enough it has the same type of pod. I then went back at night and inspected every single healthy head and did not see a single one of these critters. I only ever see them on the receding heads. So I’m pretty sure this is my culprit.
It took me forever to get this just barely passable photo, but here it is. It has a pretty unique shape in that it’s very straight other than the roundng at the ends. And the internal lines are also pretty distinct. I cross referenced it with the five common pods algae barn sells and it looks nothing like them.
So is this the notorious white Euphyllia eating bug?! Also noting that I put him in a double concentration of revive for an hour and he gives no *****.
Alkalinity is stable just over 10.0. Magnesium sometimes gets down to 1300 so I’ve been keeping it over 1400 to rule that out. I had a mystery wrasse and red scooter in the tank for the past year while this slow process continued to unfold. A new fish bright velvet to my system so I’m now fallow but I’m not (yet) seeing an uptick in Euphyllia loss, just the same, slow, one at a time loss.
