Please give your opinion (verry strange)

[Adam]

K, for the past 6-7 months, my yellow figi leather coral(the bright yellow kind) has neither died nor opened any significant amount. Water is fine I am sure, all acro's and fish and such are doing really well and growing fast.

I got to looking at it one day, vveerrrryyyyy close, and I saw MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of tiny black "bugs" moving very fast around the coral. I did a Kent's coral dip a month ago and that had no effect on these odd things. They are sooo small I can barely see them, but they are definately there. They are probably half the size of red bugs, very small indeed. They show up well because they are jet black on a bright yellow coral. They are NOT pods or anything, I know what those are, not ever close. I am litterly dumfounded.

What I am guessing is happing is the movement of all of them over the coral is irritating it and causing it to not open up. I want them gone, I dont know if they are benefitial or harmful. The coral is not falling apart or anything like that. It is just there. It is soooo neon yellow, twice as yellow as the smilie things I really dont know.

I want to see if a freshwater dip will kill all of them, nothing else has.
What are your opinions/experiences on this?

PLEASE reply if you know any pests/info on how to kill them or what they are.

I made a post before and nobody replied, please reply.

[SeanCallan]

Can you give us the actually water parameters? Just because you're sure doesn't mean everything is AOK, there may be something you're missing.

[wasp]

These yellow fiji leathers can be quite temperamental and take a long time to settle in. Just as an example, I have an established one doing great in my frag tank. I put a new one in right next to it, within a couple of inches, and the new one has been looking real sad for several months. It is just starting to improve now, probably 4 or 5 months after going in. There is nothing wrong with the conditions as the one next to it is doing fine.
The black things you refer to, I have seen them on yellows sometimes also, although not in the numbers you describe. Possible they may be all over the tank though, and only show on the yellow. Not sure if they have a negative effect or not. If you do a FW dip, I'd be inclined to dip just long enough to make them lose their grip, shake violently to remove as many as possible, and return the leather as fast as possible. I'd probably remove the yellow from the water, give it a couple of minutes out of the water to give it time to retract its polyps, and then do the dip. Leathers hate FW dips, and recovery time afterwards can be many weeks, so make it as quick as possible. Perhaps you could do the entire dipping thing in a matter of less than 30 seconds, then monitor afterwards to see if that was effective against the little critters. A quick dip is less likely to hurt the leather, and in fact the problem with the leather may lie elsewhere. Another thing to look at is possible contaminants such as alumium in trace amounts.

[Adam]

Well I have had this leather for a long, long time.
And the problem seemed to start when I had the temp. issue, which was sometime around early January 2005. It hasnt really done much since then, and I really beleive these black things are causing a problem because there are so many on the coral that I think they are irratating the polpys and causing them not to open. And I dont thinkt hey are all over my tank because I looked very good everywhere and I dont see them.

there are sooo many and the coral is so neon yelow it is like they are sucking the zoanthelle out of it. It was fine about 9 months a go...and there were none of these black things on it. I really want to do a freshwater dip just te kill them.

[SeanCallan]

Again, what are you water parameters? You said it yourself, the problem really started when you overheated. Perhaps there is a lingering problem in your water quality that someone with more experience may be able to notice.

I'd rule out the water for SURE before I FW diped my leather. Post your parameters up and have someone take a look at them.

[nbd13]

I agree with Sean on this one, you need to get some test kits, high quality ones and test your water! its VERY important!

Nick

[wasp]

What? You don't have any test kits?
That's where to start. Also salinity can be an issue, from what I've noticed anyway, most leathers do better with salinity at the upper end.

[SeanCallan]

Wasp, he had mentioned before that he never tested water cause he didn't have kits. I'd think by now he'd have acquired some, hopefully.

Test that water and let us know what's going on so we can help you. I'd hate it to be something easily fixed and you FW dip for nothing.