Creepy Bugs

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I have some wierd light colored kinda long bugs on my gorgonian that i found after a few days of its polyps not being out. It is gross and i have no clue what they r. Can ne 1 enlighten me?
 
They are a type of coral eating nudibranch, there is a couple of species which specifically eat gorgonians. You need to remove them NOW or they will eat your gorgonia then eat any other polyps to keep alive.

Ben
 
Could they be Copapods, or amphipods? Can you post a pic?
 
Yes dont panic, they may well be simple pods and be of no danger to the tank at all. Can you supply a picture or if not then perhaps look up copopods or amphipods on google to see if these cretures resemble what you have.
 
Well they wont get off my purple ribbon gorgonian and therefore is probably annoyed, whatever the case may be its polyps arent out, so that also means that it hasnt eaten anything in a while, right? My ghetto computer setup and lack of a scanner impairs the easiest option of figuring this out for sure by posting a picture. We should really get one of those. But I looked up those copepods and amphipods and have determined that they are probably amphipods and also have determined that I can see them all of a sudden because I have no fish in the tank at the moment{or for the last 2 weeks} because i got a case of ich! So im assuming that my fish had been eating them and kept the population down until now, when the tank seems overwhelmed with them. I read how to get rid of them and the only thing i could find was to install a canister filter, which i already have. So obviously its not working and in the meantime, for the next 3 weeks I dont want my gorgonian to be stressed out until i can safely have fish in the aquarium to eat them so what can i do? The QT tanks have copper in them and I dont have a refugium. Will it really be that bad for the coral?
 
They might be flatworms from that description. They are not armful i n themselves but they can become a nuisance.
I would think that your tank wil be ok for the time being. If you are really concerned them you might want to consider "flatworm Exit" This is supposed to be really good for getting rid of flatworm (if of course they are flatworms).
 
It could be, but the coral will probably be okay until you get fish and they begin to lower the population. I find that if the water conditions are up to par, that the corals can take quite a bit of punishment.

If you do find out that they are a nudibranch, use a fair amount of caution. Nudibranchs absorb the toxin of any animals they eat, so they are about ten times as toxic as the coral or anemones they consume. If you were to touch the stored up nematocysts, then you would be hurting. Some coral-eating nudis can be deadly, but the small ones usually require a laceration in order to release toxin, not a simple touch.

-Lynden
 
Well i guess thats probably not the case cuz ive touched them in order to get them off my coral and it didnt do anything. Im also thinking that they arent because they just happened to show up when there were no fish left to eat them. Thanks everyone!
 

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