Coral wars??

OceanicCorals-Ian- · #1 03-21-2009, 05:32 PM

Not likely Coral warfare. I had this happen to a huge volleyball sized Green Montipora Capricornis, I believe this is caused by either a viral or bacterial infection. The coral seems to dissolve into a brown mucus type substance leaving only bare skeleton behind.

I did not find any way sto stop this, I even fragged off a piece far away from the developing infection and put it into my quarentine tank, it still eveloped this malady and completely died.

I would suggest keeping an eye on this but be ready to remove the Coral should it look like it will not pull through, I am not sure how contagious the disease is but I would not take any chances.

Hope this helps.......

christyf5 · #2 03-21-2009, 05:40 PM

Thanks Ian,

For the most part only the backside of the callendrium closest to the cap was bare skeleton, the rest was slimy and looked like the tissue had just dissolved into brown goo. The part farthest away looked unaffected which I why I just fragged it. If I had known I would have turfed the whole thing. I've gotten rid of the callendrium but ugh, if I have to watch that acro go, man I dunno. I've had that piece for 4 years now. Guess I'll have to watch it like a hawk today.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Chaloupa · #3 03-21-2009, 05:55 PM

OH NO! I lost a few mille's when I first started with SPS to the same thing...fine, then a ball of brown jelly. Never was able to save one. Good luck

christyf5 · #4 03-21-2009, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaloupa

OH NO! I lost a few mille's when I first started with SPS to the same thing...fine, then a ball of brown jelly. Never was able to save one. Good luck

But was it contagious? Am I going to watch my corals do this one by one? Just the ones that come into contact with it or were near to it? I'm a little freaked out here.

Chaloupa · #5 03-21-2009, 06:05 PM

There were very few corals in my tank then....but all the mille's died....I had 3 colonies and the same thing happened to each, and they were far from each other. It took maybe 24-48 hours....HOWEVER there were a couple of other corals that weren't affected AT ALL (acro's and monti's, maybe 6 or so corals...). And they were between the mille's.....I don't blame you for being freaked......I would be as it seems very odd that suddenly this happened. I'd like to say, don't worry...but I would be...

i have crabs · #6 03-21-2009, 07:22 PM

brown jelly disease maybe?
never actually seen it before but thats what it sounds like to me maybe started by the corals being close enough to fight
http://www.athiel.com/lib/bacterial.html

MitchM · #7 03-21-2009, 10:01 PM

It sounds like brown jelly disease, but I've only experienced it with some LPS in the past. I found it to be totally treatable by suctioning off of the brown jelly-like material, followed with a Lugol's dip, then keep the coral in a good alternating water flow. If the brown jelly reappears, repeat process.
Watch for reinfection at the edges of the receding edge of the coral.

Mitch

MitchM · #8 03-21-2009, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christyf5

But was it contagious? Am I going to watch my corals do this one by one? Just the ones that come into contact with it or were near to it? I'm a little freaked out here.

I found it NOT to be contagious. It seemed that the brown jelly only took hold in areas of necrosis on the affected coral.

Mitch

GreenSpottedPuffer · #9 03-21-2009, 10:11 PM

I was going to say brown jelly disease too.

I did find it to be infectious or at least it found a way to spread in an old tank of mine. Was just a 33G sps tank but wiped out the whole thing. Sounds exactly like what your describing. I never had any caps, so maybe they are "immune". Caps are pretty hard to kill.

untamed · #10 03-22-2009, 12:23 AM

Sounds very similar to what I've had happen to my hynorphora, and callendrium. So far, I've been unable to save the hyorphora even with repeated fragging and dipping. Three large colonies are now down to two frags. Whatever it was, it certainly moved large distances between the three colonies. It was the first thing that happened that started a nasty bad stretch there for my tank.