SPS dying - white bug(?)

[andrespgc]

Hey guys,

Recently i lost 3 sps that died slowly as an infection or something like that.

Today i was cutting some dead branches and noticed that almost all of them had this guy in it.. Does anyone know what this might be?

Looks like a white venom to me, haha.

 

[Max93]

Do you have any other sps or is this the only frag?

 

[andrespgc]

Wrong post.

 

[andrespgc]

Do you have any other sps or is this the only frag?

Not a frag.. It is a colony.. I had to cut the dead branches and found this guy there.. It might be a coincidence but i found those on almost all dead branches..

 

[andrespgc]

Bump

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

@ISpeakForTheSeas? Looks like some sort of nem or NPS coral

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey guys,

Recently i lost 3 sps that died slowly as an infection or something like that.

Today i was cutting some dead branches and noticed that almost all of them had this guy in it.. Does anyone know what this might be?

Looks like a white venom to me, haha.

Appears to be tunicate sponge but need clearer pics under white lighting

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas? Looks like some sort of nem or NPS coral

That's a coral-boring barnacle - they're usually harmless (causing mild deformities, but no real damage to corals), but if the coral they're growing in is small enough and the barnacle big enough, it can cause issues.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

That's a coral-boring barnacle - they're usually harmless (causing mild deformities, but no real damage to corals), but if the coral they're growing in is small enough and the barnacle big enough, it can cause issues.

Oh yeah, I see it. The white protrusions threw me off

 

[Troylee]

That's a coral-boring barnacle - they're usually harmless (causing mild deformities, but no real damage to corals), but if the coral they're growing in is small enough and the barnacle big enough, it can cause issues.

I see these a lot on maricultured pieces of sps.. seems to be a tiny fan that comes out every so often but retracts super fast.

 

[Max93]

Do you have a full colony pic

 

[andrespgc]

Sorry to revive an old thread but i do have more to show now.. It’s eating from base up.

And it’s also very fast.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Sorry to revive an old thread but i do have more to show now.. It’s eating from base up.

And it’s also very fast.

A barnacle wouldn't eat your coral like that, but that pencil urchin visible on the side of the pic might:
Looks like the pencil urchin Eucidaris tribuloides to me:

For the pencil urchin (the top one is scientific study based, the bottom one is aquarium hobby/industry observations):

Yeah, from what I can find, these guys are technically considered spongivores* (i.e. they prefer to eat sponges), but when they can't get sponges they've been found to eat just about literally anything (one study found that these would even eat the wooden or fiberglass tank walls if starved enough**); so I'd imagine that how reef-safe they are likely depends on how much food they have available that they would prefer over the corals in the tank.
*Source:

Spongivory by Eucidaris tribuloides from Salvador, Bahia (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) | Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom | Cambridge Core​

Spongivory by Eucidaris tribuloides from Salvador, Bahia (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) - Volume 82 Issue 2

www.cambridge.org
**Source:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1539784

Looks to be Eucidaris tribuloides:

"its search for food, which can include sponges, corals, bivalves, gastropods, bryozoans, along with detritus and some algae."*

"It feeds primarily on algae and coral but they can feed on small invertebrates as well. "**

*Source:

Section: Urchins: Group: Common Urchins: Species: Eucidaris tribuloides (Mine Urchin, Slate Urchin, Club Urchin, Pencil Urchin)​

Marine Aquarium Library: Common Urchins, Order: Cidaroida - Family Cidaridae, Eucidaris tribuloides
www.saltcorner.com
**Source:

Pencil Urchin - Gulf Specimen Marine Lab​

E-1621 PENCIL URCHIN, Eucidaris tribuloides This sluggish, nocturnal sea urchin has thick, wooden like spines. It feeds primarily on algae and coral but they can feed on small invertebrates as well. They are a very hardy species and can range from a light brown to a reddish brown. HABITAT They...

gulfspecimen.org

Edit: From the threads I've seen about damage caused by these guys, it seems they prefer to eat LPS.

That said, that coral's looking pretty heavily covered in algae, so I'd guess there are some other issues going on with that too.