zoa pests
 

I noticed that a frag of zoas of mine have been closed for a few days so I had a closer inspection. What I found were some red bugs and they look exactly like the ones the OP is describing in this post I found:

http://www.michiganreefers.com/forum...-red-bugs.html

I first I thought these were flatworms (planaria) because of the fact that they are attacking the zoas, but they aren't. They are definitely not the well-known acropora red bugs either. I'm not quite sure what they are. It might also be helpful to know that I have not added any new coral in months, so they must have been around for awhile or possibly came in on a recent fish addition.

I did a short FW dip on the frag and about 20 of the little things fell off instantly. This morning however I noticed there were more on the frag.

Does anyone know what these are? How can I get rid of them? I've read up on the interceptor treatment but I want to be sure that it will actually kill these things before I jump to drastic measures.

do you dip each coral before adding them? I know its a PITA, but it always helps avoid these problems, I have bought coral all over, from reefers and LFS and dipped every one, and the crap that comes off its astounding. I doubt half of the people who I bought from even know its in their tanks!

sorry I cant offer too much advice, try dipping in coralRX or peroxide and see what happens if it doesnt help, time to move on to plan B

Sorry I don't know either but the fact a bunch dropped off after a dip would indicate they are bad news.

Google zoa pox or zoa spiders as well. Also babies nudis can be so small you can't make tjemthem out, and they change color to what they ate eating.you'd be surprised how small zoa nudis can be:)

Nope. I dipped all but one shipment. The person I bought the frags from told me they dipped them on their end before bagging them. Never had a problem with any other stuff I bought from them so I didn't think it would be an issue. This one time I didn't do my due diligence was about 4 months ago.

Nope, it's not zoa pox or spiders either. I also looked into those when I was trying to figure out what these are. It's very possible that they are a baby or larvae stage of a bigger pest, I just don't know which one....

In any case they have to go. Will interceptor kill everything bug/pest/pod related in the tank? I'm willing to do that route. I don't want these things to get out of hand and as it stands right now they are ruining a $100 frag. Most expensive one I own of course :roll eyes:.

ETA: They are as small as a zoa nudibranch, but they are more streamlined, no body spines or whatever those growths on their backs are.http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...nudibranch.jpg

They kind of look like a little torpedo with a ribboned tail and are very red in colour. They look identical to the picture the author created in my first post.

Looks to me like baby nudi's.

I haven't yet seen an adult nudi in the tank (fortunately), and boy, I've been looking!
Could these possibly be the larvae form of the amphipod?

Turns out they are a type of flatworm:

You can see it at 0:39 in this video:

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2011/07/tin...rtebrates.html

They aren't supposed to eat corals but I just got lucky.

This is a pretty god reference for pests.

http://www.coralpedia.com/index.php?...&g2_itemId=384