Anyone ever seen anything like this before (sps death)?

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Here's a term for you:


Extracoelenteric Digestion:

Corals expel digestive filaments which contain cnidocytes (digestive fluids).

Cnidocytes can be expelled from the digestive track en masse (puking) onto a nearby coral, digesting it.

Sounds lovely....

Mitch

Eew!!

I did notice yesterday at about 11 a completely different coral that was doing that white stringy thing quite excessively (it usually has some issues when I feed the fish mysis and I just figured it was excited about the extra nutrients in the water column) however at 11am I hadn't fed the fish. Everything else looked normal though. But on my return at 7, that green birdsnest was 1/4 white, 1/4 brown slurry and 1/2 normal. This morning at about 7am there were just the couple intact branches you see in the photo. The original coral that was doing the white stringy thing at 11 yesterday is completely fine and sans strings.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

AI yi yi.

My biggest worry about this sort of thing, beyond the chemical warfare is if it could be a pathogen of some kind (baterial, viral, or protozoan). The real worry with that is that it's 1) impossible to verify or test for, 2) essentially impossible to treat for. It's sort of like a greenhouse with bugs and all you can do is hope they die out on their own or that the stock becomes resistent to it.

I hope that this is an isolated incident. Sorry, I realize I've said nothing helpful ... just that I sympathize (and empathize) and wish you good luck!!

that was pretty much my worry as well, is it transmissible and what is it going to do to the rest of the tank? Guess there is nothing I can do but run more carbon and do a waterchange and hope for the best

[Lance]

Holy Crap Christy you've had a run of bad luck lately!
IMO 20% weekly water changes and carbon changes every month are plenty adequate. Kent carbon is one of the better carbons as well. I don't think this is the problem. Something must have changed in the tank to trigger the chemical warfare. Have you moved any corals lately or even fragged some. Maybe that set off WWIII?

[MitchM]

Great pictures of it BTW...

Maybe put it in the Corals Reference Library here.

Mitch

[daniella3d]

It could be. It remind me of the brown jelly disease.

I had a duncan that was wounded when fragged and was going that way. I removed it and put 3% peroxide directly on the affected area as it was only on the bony structure and not yet on the polyp and it recovered 100%. I would not do that on sps though, that would be the end of them.

Best way would be to check a sample with a 200x or 400x microscope. protozoare are easy to see and when I had this I could actualy see the protozoares eating the zooxanthellea of my coral! There was thousands of them.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

AI yi yi.

My biggest worry about this sort of thing, beyond the chemical warfare is if it could be a pathogen of some kind (baterial, viral, or protozoan). The real worry with that is that it's 1) impossible to verify or test for, 2) essentially impossible to treat for. It's sort of like a greenhouse with bugs and all you can do is hope they die out on their own or that the stock becomes resistent to it.

I hope that this is an isolated incident. Sorry, I realize I've said nothing helpful ... just that I sympathize (and empathize) and wish you good luck!!

[untamed]

That coral looks beyond saving. Take it out and frag off any remaining healthy bit ASAP. As it goes, I think it is causing the reaction you are seeing elsewhere. You've got one coral there sending out chemical signals of stress and death. Of course it is upsetting to the others!

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Lance

Holy Crap Christy you've had a run of bad luck lately!
IMO 20% weekly water changes and carbon changes every month are plenty adequate. Kent carbon is one of the better carbons as well. I don't think this is the problem. Something must have changed in the tank to trigger the chemical warfare. Have you moved any corals lately or even fragged some. Maybe that set off WWIII?

Yeah I know, its been a bad run, not the worst though. Actually this has been a "good" year for me

No fragging lately, I was saving that for today to get ready for the frag swap. There will be no fragging now though

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by untamed

That coral looks beyond saving. Take it out and frag off any remaining healthy bit ASAP. As it goes, I think it is causing the reaction you are seeing elsewhere. You've got one coral there sending out chemical signals of stress and death. Of course it is upsetting to the others!

The funny thing is yesterday before I left for work at 11am there was a completely different coral doing that white stringy thing and the green birdsnest looked perfectly fine. Then I come home at 7pm, the "different coral" looks fine and the birdsnest is half gone. I fragged a couple pieces off the unaffected side (as well as clipped off all the "gunky" parts) and put them in different spots in the tank (ie, the two frag racks I have on either side of the tank). Those frags that were near the birdsnest went the same way but the one frag on the opposite side of the tank is perfectly fine, like nothing ever happened. Weird!!

I did turf the affected coral this morning, there was no saving any bit of it as it was almost completely gonzo and I could see if was affecting the other two photos and would pollute the tank even further if that amount of tissue sloughed off.

[PoonTang]

Geez those poor things look awful. Let me know if you need anything.

[lngrhaul]

boy, this is the frustrating part of this hobby. You do all the right things like water changes and then something hits out of left field that you can't identify, can't treat and can't save the affected corals.

no advice to offer, but plenty of sympathy and well wishes.