dying plate coral

[monkeydad]

14g BC

Most water parameters good.

Amonia NH3/NH4: zero

Nitrite NO2: zero

Nitrate NO3: .05

pH: 8.2 in morning, 8.4 late afternoon. Until buffer treatment began five days ago the night time drop was from 8.4 to 7.9-8.0

Calcium: Has been low until calcium additive started five days ago. From 350-380 to 420-440 ppm

Alkalinity: Has swung around, but in the normal range from low to medium of proper meq/L range 3.00-3.8 meq/L

Temp: Set for 78F, over the last five days it briefly hit 80.0-80.5F from the warmer house temps. I've regulated it to 78 since.

 

I currently dose 1 ml of Purple Up calcium additive and 1 ml of buffer solution for my 14g. The water seems to be holding a stable pH and Alkalinity now.

I do partial water changes twice a week.

 

My plate coral looked great up until last night. The before and after photos below illustrate what has happened over the last 48 hours. Man, when I read that bad things can happen fast, I never thought it could happen that quickly, especially with seemingly decent water params and frequent water changes! The quickness and severity of the changes are shocking.

 

I saw that in 48 hours the plate coral's flesh was dying off. All other corals in tank were/are happy. Acans, mushrooms, GSP, monti growing nicely.

Last night I came home from Mr. Coral's (to pick up my FREE FRAG-THANK YOU!!), and the plate coral looked horribly discolored (gray/brown). I picked it up and saw it's flesh was decayed, so I shook the dead material off, and it filled the tank with the decayed flesh-ewe-and I got a bad feeling that maybe I should have done that in a bucket...

 

Reading a book this morning, I suspect brown jelly (protozoan) infection. What I see fits the symptoms well.

 

Treatment: I shook off the material again this morning in a bucket of salt-water, and dipped in fresh water (both from LFS) for several minutes, and placed back into tank. Lets hope it bounces back!

 

I also placed over $200 worth of Mr. Coral's corals in the tank, and now they are exposed to the infection... Water changes twice a day for a few days are on my to-do list...

 

Lessons learned:

-Cause of infection; I moved the plate coral around a lot reefscaping, and dropped it a couple of time. Also, I put it up on a rock and a snail knocked it down and it sat overnight upside down. From what I've read, a healthy coral that gets damaged can have the infection introduced. Also, high temps could be a factor as well. I suspect my rough handling of it let it get infected.

 

-Don't shake off what you might even SLIGHTLY suspect is dead flesh of a coral in tank-QUARANTINE ASAP! Brown jelly (and many other things) is/are contagious.

 

-Did I mention, QUARANTINE ASAP! I was ill prepared to quarantine.

 

-Be sure to warm up the water for quarantine and dipping water....I did not, and didn't realize how cold the water was until I put my hand in placing the coral.

 

So, I'm embarrassed to tell of this experience, but I hope any other Noobs out there can learn from this.

 

The plate coral is on top center of the rockscape in the before pic.

[phisigs79]

I dont know if i would call it a infection but it sounds like you might of stressed it out by moving it so much. The freshwater dip will more than likely finish it off and i wouldnt ever recommend them on corals. Good luck and my only worry would be water quality. If its a gonner pull it from the tank and dispose of it. Whats you parameter?

[arwndsh]

Another thing to note is plate corals should always be in the sand bed. Having them on the rock means they could be damaged easily they need a soft surface to rest on.

 

Secondly it appears to be a long tentacle plate and those are incredibly hard to keep heatly even for really experienced reefers.

 

I'm still sorry about your loss.

[monkeydad]

I dont know if i would call it a infection but it sounds like you might of stressed it out by moving it so much. The freshwater dip will more than likely finish it off and i wouldnt ever recommend them on corals. Good luck and my only worry would be water quality. If its a gonner pull it from the tank and dispose of it. Whats you parameter?

 

We'll see what happens. It was stressed some, but in the last 24 hours it's flesh turned into a brown jelly as described in my coral book. It happened very fast. Stated treatment was a fresh water dip. Params are as in my above post. I'll give it another 24hrs.

[monkeydad]

Another thing to note is plate corals should always be in the sand bed. Having them on the rock means they could be damaged easily they need a soft surface to rest on.

 

Secondly it appears to be a long tentacle plate and those are incredibly hard to keep heatly even for really experienced reefers.

 

I'm still sorry about your loss.

 

It is a long tentacle plate. I learned about the sandbed preference yesterday. It's in it's original place on the sand where it was happy before.

Thanks.

[rocko918]

what type of lights do you have on it?

 

Also turn it over now that it is pretty much gone, plate corals will spawn to save their life. So you might get little babies off it. I know a guy who had 1 plate coral, then lost power during the hurricanes a couple years ago, his plate coral died but spawned to save its self. a couple months later he had hundreds of plate corals.

[monkeydad]

what type of lights do you have on it?

 

Also turn it over now that it is pretty much gone, plate corals will spawn to save their life. So you might get little babies off it. I know a guy who had 1 plate coral, then lost power during the hurricanes a couple years ago, his plate coral died but spawned to save its self. a couple months later he had hundreds of plate corals.

 

Stock BC lights.

What does the spawning look like?

Edited April 15, 2010 by monkeydad

[trockafella]

I wouldnt do 2 water changes a day, your going to throw off your system, and possibly stress everything else.. Stabilty is the best thing for fish/corals/inverts.. I would let things be and just flip it over and wait... Just let things take there course and dont risk your other corals and livestock with drastic water changes..

[monkeydad]

Good idea trockafella. I don't like that the dead matter flew all around my tank though... I did a partial change last night when it happened.

[trockafella]

I think that is fine... Just give it some time and it will be fine.. For future reference I would stay away from long tent plates in a smaller tank, they get bigger and have long tentacles, get yourself a nice orange or pink or green plate and throw it on the sand bed and you will be golden..!

Edited April 15, 2010 by trockafella

[rocko918]

i think the stock lights are not enough for that. Are the PC's? T5's?

 

i don't know what the spawn looks like.

[monkeydad]

i think the stock lights are not enough for that. Are the PC's? T5's?

 

i don't know what the spawn looks like.

 

1 U-shaped Coralife 10k 24watt florescent

1 U-shaped Coralife actinic

[dbartco]

leave it in there even when you think there is nothing left. Some have sprouted babies when it seemed like there was no flesh left.

[sen5241b]

I've had a short-tentacled plate for a long time. They need MH but not too close to it and to be on the sand bed. I'm surprised that phosphates were not mentioned. Plates (Funghia) are very sensitive to phosphates. I would take your water to LFS for immediate low-range phosphate test. The presence of phosphates may have stressed the plate and caused the infection. Also, when they are sick --feed them every day! Mine eats sushi roe.

Edited April 15, 2010 by sen5241b

[monkeydad]

Thanks dbartco and sen,

 

I'll leave it. It is sloughing off a clear globulous slime-strands (maybe a spawn?), and the tentacles are turning brown, as if burned. I feel horrible:cry:

 

I have had high phosphates, despite religious water changes. I put a macroalgae in the tank behind my rockscape to eat it up. The phosphates have dropped from.50 to .25 and I hope to see it go to normal soon.

 

I fed it, and it perked up a bit, but after an hour, it started looking worse again...I fed him Rod's Coral Blend.

Edited April 15, 2010 by monkeydad

[arwndsh]

Plates do not need MH as long as you feed them. They don't need MH even if you do feed them. I had 10 in a 2.5g pico with 18w of pc light and they were fine. In fact my smallest plate was growing quickly and it wasn't getting fed because it was too small for the food.

[sen5241b]

Thanks dbartco and sen,I'll leave it. It is sloughing off a clear globulous slime-strands (maybe a spawn?), and the tentacles are turning brown, as if burned. I feel horrible:cry:I have had high phosphates, despite religious water changes. I put a macroalgae in the tank behind my rockscape to eat it up. The phosphates have dropped from.50 to .25 and I hope to see it go to normal soon.I fed it, and it perked up a bit, but after an hour, it started looking worse again...I fed him Rod's Coral Blend.

 

According to Dr Shimek (big invert expert) phosphates at only 0.25ppm will start killing many stonies. I have a fuge with a big ball of cheato and two strong lights on it. One of the two bulbs burned out and only 48 hours later my plate starts looking bad. Replaced bulb plate gets better. I had some issue with the fuge lights twice and both times the plate began to bleach.

 

 

Plates do not need MH as long as you feed them. They don't need MH even if you do feed them. I had 10 in a 2.5g pico with 18w of pc light and they were fine. In fact my smallest plate was growing quickly and it wasn't getting fed because it was too small for the food.

 

Interesting.

[Chris-]

According to Dr Shimek (big invert expert) phosphates at only 0.25ppm will start killing many stonies. I have a fuge with a big ball of cheato and two strong lights on it. One of the two bulbs burned out and only 48 hours later my plate starts looking bad. Replaced bulb plate gets better. I had some issue with the fuge lights twice and both times the plate began to bleach.

 

Actually, I found that to be just as interesting, lol.