White Bugs: they're real, nasty, and coming to a torch near you

[10g Reef]

White bugs. Not red bugs. White bugs. A pest that infects euphyllia corals yet no one has any idea what they actually are. In the past few weeks I have noticed them on my torch coral, although not nearly in the numbers some people have reported. It seems that a fair amount of aquarists have battled them but no one can actually identify the pest. They resemble copepods but are slightly more rounded and not as flat. These "bugs" are also white, not transparent like copepods. Someone on another site said: "these white "euphyllia bugs" are nasty buggers. They look like small copepods all over the affected coral. I have tried FW dips, TMPCC dips, and Revive in the past. The bugs look like they are "gone" the day after the dip, but always come back, worse than they were before the dip (or so it seemed). I know a few other locals to my area that have had torches killed by these bugs." Unfortunately I have been unable to get a good picture of the pests on my torch as they are very small and fast. From my reading (on other forums - there is no publications about these AT ALL) it seems they irritate the coral and can ultimately kill it. Luckily mine have been around for a while and don't seem to be doing any harm yet. I have also found that the only treatment that seems to work is dipping the affected coral in a bath with interceptor for a few hours with a light over it, so the bugs are exposed and die. I just wanted to post here and see if anyone is familiar with this pest and whether or not anyone may have them and not know it yet.

[markalot]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1776624

 

That seems to sum things up.

[10g Reef]

Yeah that's the main thread I saw. It's just surprising not to see any real documented cases of this on anything other than forums