What is this on my torch?

Joe13374

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 11, 2022
Messages
32
Reaction score
10
Location
Cleveland
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Can anyone tell me what this is on my Torch. Its white and opens and closes every few seconds. Is this a pest and if it is how do I go about getting rid of it?

IMG_5372.jpeg IMG_5371.jpeg IMG_5367.jpeg IMG_5370.jpeg
 

ISpeakForTheSeas

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Messages
8,450
Reaction score
10,304
Location
United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A coral-boring barnacle:
That's a coral-boring barnacle; it's a filter feeder, so it's technically harmless (but large barnacles and small corals sometimes see issues).
They're usually not a problem, but they do generally cause a little, dead/deformed patch around where they're burrowed in (and that patch tends to grow as the barnacle does). It being that close to the mouth is a bit concerning to me, but I haven't seen it on enough LPS like this to know if it's an issue.

If you want to get rid of it, I'd imagine you would need to either crush it in its burrow or carefully inject something into it that would kill it - either way, you'd really want to be careful with it being in the coral.
 
Back
Top