New to Hobby and first ever corals! We need some help identifying some hitchhikers on first corals Please

[saskreefer]

Hey guys saskreefers here! My wife and I are new to the hobby and need some help with our journey! After setting up our first 20g red sea max nano g2+ and waiting about 2.5 months our tank is ready for corals. We have added already a Yellow-tail blue damselfish and a Cleaner Shrimp.
So here it is. We have purchased about 8 zoanthids from fragbox website here in Canada.
So all 8 zoanthids came in the mail yesterday. We followed world wide corals instructional video on youtube on how to add them into our tank, we did not dip the corals before adding. We have the 2 little fishies coral dip and could dip them but first we would like to ask some questions on what to do. We are worried after observing them. Please help us identify what is on our first corals ever. We are very concerned. We will attach some pictures below please let us know what these are and how to get rid of them or if they are ok for our tank


1st image is something we are worried about as it lookes like 3 little spiders on the corals

2nd image we are worried that these are also pests

3rd image as we are worried that this is a worm of somesort as its green and shaped like a worm with little orange hairs or orange legs

 

[shakacuz]

you should always dip and inspect your corals. if you can see the corals in person i would highly suggest doing that than buying online so you can make sure to avoid pests.

potassium chloride or polyp lab reef primer would work best with "stunning" the pests so you can use a baster or pipette to blow them off the plugs. you can also invest in a potentially pest eater like a wrasse(pink streaked, 6 line are some options considering how small your tank is)

most dips tell you exactly how to dose/mix. and youtube/r2r are great places to read or watch how others have done it

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I honestly can't tell what any of them are from the pics - sorry.

That said, the spider-looking things in the first pic are the only ones that would concern me from what I can see - without being able to tell what they are for sure, I can't say if they'd be a problem or not, but those ones would be probably be good to remove.

 

[saskreefer]

you should always dip and inspect your corals. if you can see the corals in person i would highly suggest doing that than buying online so you can make sure to avoid pests.

potassium chloride or polyp lab reef primer would work best with "stunning" the pests so you can use a baster or pipette to blow them off the plugs. you can also invest in a potentially pest eater like a wrasse(pink streaked, 6 line are some options considering how small your tank is)

most dips tell you exactly how to dose/mix. and youtube/r2r are great places to read or watch how others have done it

Yes we purchased the two little fishies revive coral dip but we’re not sure if it would kill the corals. Also does the wrasse fish need any specific type of food? Can I feed it with normal fish food along with my other fish?

 

[saskreefer]

I honestly can't tell what any of them are from the pics - sorry.

That said, the spider-looking things in the first pic are the only ones that would concern me from what I can see - without being able to tell what they are for sure, I can't say if they'd be a problem or not, but those ones would be probably be good to remove.

I will try to get some better pics when I get home from work. Also would you say it’s better to entirely remove that coral from the system?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I will try to get some better pics when I get home from work. Also would you say it’s better to entirely remove that coral from the system?

If those things are moving around at all, then yeah, you probably don't want them in the system.

 

[shakacuz]

Yes we purchased the two little fishies revive coral dip but we’re not sure if it would kill the corals. Also does the wrasse fish need any specific type of food? Can I feed it with normal fish food along with my other fish?

pellets, flakes, or frozen food works

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

the critters in the first pic are the most concerning. they could be zoanthid eating spiders. i'd remove and dip that coral straight away and inspect the rest closely out of the water and remove anything looking like that.

in the second pic, at lease one of those things looks like it could simply be new polyps growing, so maybe good news there.

in the third pic, if it doesn't move and is attached with a hard tube, it could be a vermetid snail. in which case, i would remove that plug, inspect and cut off anything that looks like that with bone cutters or with a tool like a screwdriver. make sure you get the fleshy part of the snail, which will usually be in the base of the tube when you remove it from the water.

there's a lot of discussion about when to dip and when to not dip new corals, and for me, it mostly depends on a really close visual inspection before it goes in the tank and the type of coral it is. there aren't many corals more durable than zoanthids in my experiences, so i personally would always dip them before dropping them in my display.

good luck and don't get discouraged if you find a few pests. its a part of the game.

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

on a closer look, in the second picture, i would make sure those are not vermetids too. they look like they have a darker brown tube compared to the polyps around them.

 

[Cell]

I would pull those frags ASAP and commence dipping. Not sure about zoa spiders reproduction but lacking any other info, I'd toss any zoa frag with spiders. Maybe eggs aren't a concern though.

Any other unidentified growth gets prodded and/or pulled off with a tweezers.

 

[Reefjnky]

1st pic looks like aiptasia..are they definitely creatures; it could it be something retracted? Second one looks like new zoas growing but i cant really tell from the pics. Third one definitely looks like a worm..maybe a bristle worm from how you described it

I'm sure people will have a better idea with better pictures..try and get the first picture with the zoas open. aiptaisa will close up if it is disturbed

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

i could also see those being aiptasia in the first pic too? do they move around on the frag (motile)? or sessile (stay in one place)? sessile would be aiptasia, and motile would be spiders.

vermetids, even though they are snells are also sessile, btw. most people think all snails move around, but not in the case of vermetids.

 

[saskreefer]

i could also see those being aiptasia in the first pic too? do they move around on the frag (motile)? or sessile (stay in one place)? sessile would be aiptasia, and motile would be spiders.

vermetids, even though they are snells are also sessile, btw. most people think all snails move around, but not in the case of vermetids.

They no not move around. I will update when I check them out here later today.

 

[saskreefer]

Thanks guys for all your help I will keep you updated on what we find out. Cheers

 

[saskreefer]

Okay guys so I just got home. I dipped the corals and check this out. Can you guys identify what’s coming off of them. They are alive.

 

[shakacuz]

Okay guys so I just got home. I dipped the corals and check this out. Can you guys identify what’s coming off of them. They are alive.

unfortunately can’t view the video.

 

[saskreefer]

Okay I uploaded it to my YouTube

 

[saskreefer]

Also here is the video the screen shots are from if it helps with a better look.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Okay I uploaded it to my YouTube

Looks like probably amphipods to me in this one - should be harmless/beneficial.

Don't really have anything to add about the others at this point.