Mysterious Ric "BUG" -08/12/08 OK got a good one here. Bob, thanks again for speaking for FRAG here in PHX it was a blast... Check out this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13137549#post13137549  <Interesting and strange... thanks for sharing this.> I have bought a large number of Ricordeas totaling at about $2000 in my days and honestly they are my favorite of all the corals. I have lost the last 2 batches of 20-30 I bought and whats odd is that people who received Ric's from the same batches are fine. I did have a few people who lost their Ricordeas however most were completely unaffected. I was turned onto that post by a member of FRAG (who knows my heartache with my Ric losses) about some "BUGS" similar to red bugs that prey on Ricordeas and create these holes in them, taking on the color of the Ric and eating it away... UGH just what this hobby needs another "BUG" to be on the lookout for. <Hmm.. how odd. Do you have any more/better pictures of these things? Do you have any friends with a camera mounted microscope you could borrow?> The symptoms in my experience go as follows. The Rics look GREAT for about a month or 2, full extension, very nice color, acting normal and even creating new mouths. I would notice suddenly they are smaller... next day they even less extension, and the following day they are starting to show signs, fuzziness at the foot/attachment site, large holes carved out of them and the mouths falling completely out. The Ricordea would almost look like a spiral apple skin shaving. Within about 2-3 days they are all completely gone. Even more odd is that they do not melt, or get slimy, just disintegrate. All corals around including Zoanthids, other Mushrooms, SPS, LPS are completely unaffected. On my last "D-Day" as I call it I even had a few Ricordea survive the initial hit, but a month later the 3 that survived had the same ending as the rest. <huh> Any clue on what these can be? <Sounds like a pest/coral predator. However, unfortunately, without pictures it's difficult to speculate.> Is this just a simple environmental issue? IE Water chemistry? Possibly too close the light (mine are about a 20'' from a 150 halide)? <Hmm, I do suspect, as one possibility here, that you might have some allelopathic (chemical warfare) problems. There is a limit to how many Ricordea you can keep in one tank (and it's up to them, not "you"/us). It may simply be that you've reached that limit.> I of course test EVERYTHING including Oxygen, very anal about it all... but everything always checks out and is backed up by LFS test kits. Any help would be GREAT and Bob if you don't mind I would like to post what you have to say in that thread. Thanks again for everything!!! <Sorry, not Bob here, but maybe he'll add his comments when this is posted. We just need more info (principally more images, accounts)... to have a better idea of what might (or might not) be going on here.> Adrian <Best, Sara M.> <Mmm, nothing to add. RMF>
Re: Mysterious Ric "BUG" -08/13/08 Right, thank you. As far as the pictures go my Ricordeas are long gone <Oh, sorry to hear that.> and I have not be masochistic enough to get any more lol. I am working on trying to get someone to ship me an infected Ricordea so I can at get it to a near by lab for some pictures and microscope viewing. <Good idea! And I thank you for sharing with us! I do hope you can get some photos and more information on this apparent "mystery" pest/disease.> I just wanted to throw this out there to see if the WWM crew had ever experienced this before. <Not that I know of (fortunately/unfortunately), but I am very interested to see/hear more about it.> Thanks again wand ill talk soon. Adrian <Thank you and good luck, Sara M.>

Flatworms on my Corallimorpharia 1/5/07 First, happy new years to everyone at WWM. <And to you.> My Corallimorpharians are covered in flat worms similar to the pic in the article, "Flatworms, including "Planaria" & Marine Aquariums" by Bob Fenner, on your website. In the article Bob recommends leaving them alone or getting a predator. <I actually prefer manual removal over getting a predator, most find something better to eat in the tank than the flatworms.> They do not appear to be harming the mushrooms however can I remove the rock the Corallimorpharians are on and give it a fresh water dip? <Would hurt/kill the corals.> If not, or also, what type of predator would you recommend. <A siphon during water changes. Otherwise 6-line wrasse are sometimes a good choice.> I have a 100 gal tank with 1-yellow tang, 1-regal tang, 1-blenny, 2-maroon clowns and two-Banggai cardinals. The tank is 6-months old and is doing well: sg-1.026 kh-12 cal-420 nitrates-0 phos low Thanks again. One additional thing I failed to mention, which may affect the choice of a predator, is that I have 2-cleaner shrimp. <A possible problem with the six-lined wrasse, although often works out fine. My suggestion is to go with manual removal during water changes. The worm's population will often wax and wane over time..> <Chris>

Snail comp., relating, Mushroom malady? 12/6/06 Hi Crew, <Hello, Mich here.> 10 gallon with some fish and mushrooms plus critters. Every once and a while I take a flashlight to see what's going on when the lights are out and I always find it fascinating. Usually I just see the threads of the spaghetti worm but last night it was out in full view with a whole web of red strands spread out over the rock. <Cool!> And I found some new snails (4 that I saw) that I did not buy and I have not added much in the past few months except for some small (2 inch ) rocks with mushrooms. <Many snails are fine, but be aware there are some snails that are not reef safe. Google WWM if you have questions.> The snails are small with the largest about half the size of a dime. They are like a dime standing on edge with a very visible spiral which is beautifully colored in bands of red and black with white background. Each band has a repeating design in it. It is amazing that something so small has such intricate designs. <The world is a fascinating place. You just have to stop to notice it.> One was on the glass and the others on the rock. I am surprised that I have not seen them till now. I have another small snail that I got with live sand. These are white and cerith shaped but were so small that it would take 4 to equal on grain of rice. I have lots of them and they are now about double in size but I do not see any smaller ones so I guess they will not reproduce. They are over a year old and are on the glass and rocks but only at night. I did have a strange episode in that I lost about 8 small (smaller than a dime) mushrooms that were all produced from the same parent. This happened over a two week period and I was unable to determine the cause. <As if often the case.> The parent is fine as well as other mushrooms in the tank including some that are small. But this group which was spread out over the tank just dissolved except for two that bleached and are still hanging in. <Sorry for your loss.> Keep up the good work. <Thank you, we'll try!-Mich>

White specks on mushroom coral - 06/07/06 Hello there!! Quick question regarding my mushroom corals. I was looking at the mushroom corals today and noticed very tiny white dots attached to the mushrooms. They do not move at all but when I poke them with a stick, they quickly dart around the mushroom. They move sporadically. I happened to siphon one out into a cup to observe it (they are like the size of a flea). They do not look like amphipods or copepods that I see in my tank. Once in the cup, I poke it with the stick. Since it has nothing to hold on to, it would swim and dart around with no sense of direction (Similar to a fish darting around when they have ich). I Googled mushroom coral parasites/pest but nothing comes up. I have no idea what this is and is it harmful to my mushrooms or any of my other corals such as colony polyps and frogspawn coral. <Mmm, from your description of morphology, behavior these are likely some species of small crustacean... and not likely of harm. I would tolerate them... and enjoy them while you can, as it is highly likely they will "cycle out" on their own. Bob Fenner>