• Bugs on the suffering euphyllia.

  • Jeremy3637

I have had Euphyllia for about a week, with 3 heads, of which only 2 are alive. I tried to siphon it out because the Euphyllia was hardly opening. I thought the reason might be the dark-colored sponge (blue, almost black) that was covering the foot and had reached the soft tissues of the Euphyllia. One evening, I took the animal out and scraped off the dark sponge with a knife (quite easily). After that, the Euphyllia inflated normally for a couple of days and looked better, but today I noticed some bugs on the soft tissues, like aphids. There are quite a few of them, and they are moving around. They are pink, about a third of a millimeter in size. I decided to make a bath with iodine (non-alcoholic) today. I will observe further. Maybe someone has answers to the following questions? 1. What kind of sponge is it? 2. Can the sponge harm the coral? 3. Should I be concerned about the bugs? 4. What are the mysterious bubbles coming from the sand with the worm?

Kenneth7210

Similar questions can be found at the link. Among the active measures: wash off the bugs with a special agent, defragment as much live material as possible, and treat as for bacterial infection.

Joseph9057

Can you tell me a bit more about the special tool? At least the name, because it's silly to search for "special tool for bugs" in the search engine.

Aaron6112

Sorry, how can you fragment euphyllia other than en masse? If you start cutting the head, it will rot in a day. You can wash the bugs off in osmosis, Lugol's solution, etc., but the bugs are more likely a consequence than a cause (they may be eating dead cells). Try raising it higher; maybe it needs more light.

Danielle

Thank you all for the advice, but the animal has vanished into the ocean depths of my aquarium. Well, I guess it was meant to be...