Friend or Foe??

[I'm Batman]

So this is a WWC Nuclear Rhodactis - after dipping and observing for abut a week, I noticed uncountable amount of bugs crawling on it at night while it was closed up. There were red bugs and another type of critter.
 

When I pulled it out for another dip tonight, the critters wouldn’t dislodge. I had to manually scrape them off with a pipette and then they would cluster back together. I think it got them all but took a few dips and some meticulous manual removal.
 

The critters in the picture below don’t look familiar, I was wondering if anybody has identified these - These look different from the red bugs and withstood the 3rd dip.

Looks like wings with a tail.

[farkwar]

What dip are you using?

[I'm Batman]

Revive and then Reef Dip

[farkwar]

Revive is pine oil and lemon peel extract, an insect irritant that keeps them from boring into or eating the tree

 

Reef dip is iodine, essentially a Lugols replacement, which is an anti bacterial and anti microbial, anti fungal

 

Bayer is literally a neurotoxin for invertebrates like spiders and ants; and thus starfish, crabs, worms etc.  It's probably not very safe for humans either.  I treat it with the same care as a neurotoxin for humans when I use it(imidacloprid).  Pretty sure it's illegal in Europe

 

You literally could drink the first two in small quantities, pretty safe. 

 

Don't even get Bayer on your skin

 

I don't think there could ever be an effective dip for aptasia.  They are too close in anatomy with half of the corals we keep.

 

Anyway, I can barely see the pests in your pics.  They do appear to be 'buglike'.  But then, they could be the larval forms of the Rhodactis for what I know without doing more research.

 

[I'm Batman]

Don’t know if this helps, tried to magnify the image. 

[mcarroll]

If you can't ID them from forum posts on coral pests (there aren't that many), then they are probably safe.  The likely pests are all pretty well known and ID'd at this point.

 

(I can't make ID-able out in the photos.  You sure that coral isn't dead?  Doesn't look anything like the pics on WWC's site.)

[I'm Batman]

On 11/28/2020 at 8:10 AM, mcarroll said:

Doesn't look anything like the pics on WWC's site.)

It’s surely not dead. But when it closes up at night it had bugs crawling on it.

 

 

[king aiptasia]

On 11/28/2020 at 8:10 AM, mcarroll said:

If you can't ID them from forum posts on coral pests (there aren't that many), then they are probably safe.  The likely pests are all pretty well known and ID'd at this point.

 

(I can't make ID-able out in the photos.  You sure that coral isn't dead?  Doesn't look anything like the pics on WWC's site.)

i commend you for this viewpoint

 

OP, it could be a species of copepod, but the image quality is so hard to see the animal, its hard to say