Something strange happening to a couple corals

rostervandross

Active Member
Just thought i'd post a couple pictures to see if there are any telltale signs of something going on with my "atl meteor shower" frag.


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I got it about a month ago and it had been doing all right but has started to change color. First at the bottom of the plug it went from it's purple to reddish.. and now has started to on top, now some film is growing on it and it is nearly bleached.

All my other corals are fine, strangely except for my kenya trees that are shriveling up. Not a big deal but kind of curious since they have been so hardy and growing like crazy. Not long ago a small piece of kenya tree shriveled and got brittle, now another tiny bit and my big main piece are looking brittle and dry.

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Any thoughts?? Nothing of note has changed and nothing extreme is happening elsewhere
 

rostervandross

Active Member
messed up the picture size.

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There's the bleaching to the meteor shower plug with the goo blown off... overnight. The bottom of the plug shows the initial decoloration that has been going on for a few weeks, and now it is pretty well bleached apart from the small purple area in front. I expect to lose it with it this far gone :frown: i tried relocating it to less light about a week ago.. i dont know.


I lost another bit of kenya tree not long ago but in the mean time this big main one was fine.. now it is shriveling and there are other small bits doing fine, one in the first picture to the right coming out the the rock and one in the second picture right to the left of the ATL meteor

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Goo film this morning.



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DaveK

Well-Known Member
This isn't good. Those white areas are dead, not bleached. This can have several possible causes.

Low quality water. Test your parameters, especially phosphate, nitrate, pH, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium, if either of the others are off.

Something is attacking them. Look for flatworms, red bugs, coral eating nudibranchs, and so on.

Something toxic is in the system. For example, did you make a new addition and add the water it was shipped in to your system?

Water changes can help a lot. If your not using RO/DI water for salt mixing,this could be a source of copper and other unwanted material.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
+1 - good advice by DaveK

So what responses do you have to Dave's comments?
  • Test your parameters, especially phosphate, nitrate, pH, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium
  • Look for flatworms, red bugs, coral eating nudibranchs, and so on
  • Something toxic is in the system

How is it going now?
 

rostervandross

Active Member
It appears I have acropora red bugs. Tank parameters are all normal

Most of my corals remain unaffected and the cyphastrea/meteor shower is making improvements and growing back into the white area after I moved it down to the sand bed. I trimmed the shriveled bits of kenya tree off and it is regrowing and looks better. I added some acropora before this happened and the red bugs are definitely concentrated on them.

I essentially rescued the acros from a store that had their AC go out and tank temperatures creep up so the owner gave me a few to try and rehabilitate. and they are doing really well now, gaining color and starting to extend their polyps but they have bugs on them.

What can I do to treat for the bugs?
 

rostervandross

Active Member
It seems like I have had the lesson learning experience of just directly adding things from the fish store assuming no problems. Is there any recommended reading of treatment prior to adding new specimens? It is just that i don't really like the idea of extended quarantine and added step of stress to fish at least.

Basically I need to treat for the pests that have now surely made it in, and invest in a dip / treatment medicine for future additions. Can anyone chime in on what they do and use?


Thanks a lot,

RD
 

anarchy

Well-Known Member
All my acros get dipped in Bayer then heavily inspected before entering my tank. I found some tiny black bugs on one of my acros recently.
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I believe it's black bugs so I dipped it in Bayer and coral rx. Even went to the extent of dumping 100% Bayer on the coral.(not recommended. Killed half the coral, but atleast i know nothing lived)
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Now it's pest free but I have interceptor on the way that I'll be adding to the tank to make sure it's all gone. If you can get your hands on some interceptor I'd put it in your tank and let it kill off all the red bugs. Make sure to heavily research interceptor because it could kill off shrimp, pods, and crabs
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Make sure to heavily research interceptor because it could kill off shrimp, pods, and crabs
It probably will kill all of the above. I read on another forum where a heavy acro tank became infected with red bug. He simply Bayer advanced the whole tank after removing fish and crabs. I would not recommend whole tank treatment unless there was no other option. I would not trust residual from treatment sneaking up....however I guess that the presence of pods after treatment would be a good sign.....Still don't trust it.

I picked up some Bayer home advanced insect stuff and treated all my corals. Bugs are gone and corals are fine
Great to hear! That bayer is good stuff, and well worth it. You learned like I did after reading this thread today...the hard way. I had a "doh!" moment a few weeks back. I learned that a small quarantine tank and a few dips can fix huge tank issues.
 
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