HELP Frogspawn and tiny white bugs!!

I have had a frogspawn for about a month now and until today it has been relatively healthy. This morning, however, it did not open up at all. I looked closely and I can see tons of tiny white bugs crawling all over it. I did not quarantine the coral as I have only one tank nor did I dip it. The water parameters are fine and I was wondering what these could be? I have read about people doing FW dips or something on their coral I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on that? They look a little like copepods. Should I stop feeding phytoplankton?

 

Frogspawn are meat-eaters, not plant eaters so the phytoplankton is not food for it.

Is there any nasty brown jelly-like slime where the polyps come out of the skeleton? If so, you need to do a saltwater/Lugol's Solution dip. A freshwater dip would likely kill your Frogspawn.

 

no no brown jelly i meant to starve out the bugs (if they are copepods)

 

it looks one hundred percent fine but its tentacles are retracted almost all the way.
Though he has gotten bigger since this morning. Should I be feeding it mysis or something? I tried when I first got it all sorts of food but it never accepted anything and the clowns just ate it.

 

Unless you have a fish that eats pods it is hard to decrease their numbers, I know because I have what I consider to be too many as well. But I do not believe they do any real physical harm and are probably just eating sloughed off organic material.

With regard to why the corals appears more closed, perhaps you could post/check parameters to make sure nothing is too out of wack, including SG. If the corals does not improve perhaps post an image.

 

Cut back on the phyto. Your corals will eat the pods, but if they are being over-run, it won't be beneficial. But as said above, make sure it is a totally tank population problem and the pods in your tank are not just swarming a sick coral.

If there are swarms of pods everywhere, cut back on the phyto. If there are just swarms on your frogspawn, do what they say to take care of it, providing it's more than just a poop-eating fest. (I tried re-wording that... nothing sounded "right")

 

only have cell phone and images suck.


o nitrats, phosphates, ammo, nitrite

450 cal (Salifert)
1350 mag (Salifert)
8 dkh (Salifert)
8.2 ph (milwalki (or however its spelled) test instrument)
34.5 ppt (1.026sg) salinity (refractometer)

i keep parameters up with biweekly water changes of about 10-15% no crabs only snails

all other organisms are ok (Clown, maximas, mushrooms, zoas (though one set of my zoas has been having a really tough time (too low flow, then too much light, but they are looking much better now))

 

with the exception of the tiny white bugs (as we are not sure they are pods) i would say the thing is entirely healthy. I attached a pic from by black berry but its blurry as hell. lol. i moved it wednesday in readjusting my tank and did a water change thursday. I looked over the rest of my critters and couldn't find any white bugs on anything else. However, i did find some tiny elongated buggy things in the corner that were too small to photograph. but they looked like elongated lice and were flat. (But had antennas like an insect and a segmented body so not a nudi or flatworm)

 

is lugols a common medicine or am i making a concoction from baking soda and vinegar and heartworm medication or something. I dont make stuff up well im not a vet lol.


btw it did not look like this this morning it was retracted for several hours and I just got around to taking a picture. I know stupid).

 

Elongated lice? Amphipods perhaps.

Even with a blurry image it looks ok but no detail to the image so kind of pointless but thanks for the effort.

I have had cleaner shrimp really bug my euphyllias in the past, and I had to remove the cleaner shrimp.

Good luck hope it turns around for you. Oh yeah try to check the coral at night, hours after the lighting goes off for polyclad flatworms.