What causes SPS to peel/shed?

[Jan]

I've lost three acropora colonies to RTN. Now there's another one. The flesh appears to be shedding/peeling right off of the skeleton. Does anyone know why this could be happening? I don't see ay flatworms or redbugs. I've looked and looked and there's nothing. The flesh is just peeling away. They were all in different parts of the tank.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Jan

[Coral Hind]

Is it peeling from the tips, base, or within the center?

Have you checked your water parameters?

I would do a large water change as soon as possible.

[Jan]

They're peeling from the base and the center. I've been doing water changes twice weekly. I'm wondering if I have red bugs and I just can't see them. I've searched posts on here and found someone had something similar and it was red bugs. Jon Lazar saw them in a photo that the member posted.

 

 

Is it peeling from the tips, base, or within the center?

Have you checked your water parameters?

I would do a large water change as soon as possible.

[sportzfish]

I don't believe red bugs cause that, only polyps to retract when irritated by the bugs. The only times I have had issues like that were either due to temperature or alk levels.

[Coral Hind]

Red bugs will cause the color to fad from the color before it gets to a point that it RTNs. Double check your parameters and test kits. Check your SG with a calibrated refractometer. I would add some fresh carbon or a poly-filter pad to remove any possible chemical contamination.

 

Have you made any changes lately such as salt brands or new additives?

Edited June 20, 2010 by Coral Hind

[reefhunter]

Hi Jan!

 

I would do a few water changes. Red bugs wont kill sps IME. I have had red bugs many times, sometimes for many months with no coral loss from it. Run carbon if you arent already.

[BowieReefer84]

How many times per hour do you turn over the water in your tank?

 

edit: I see you have your powerheads listed in your sig. Seeing that you are doing over 60x per hour nevermind what I asked. Thats a great rate of turnover!

Edited June 20, 2010 by BowieReefer84

[zygote2k]

I'm sure that many things can cause tissue loss. I'm sure that alk, salinity, trace elements, and the like play a significant role. Pests can even cause it. Until we actually start doing biopsies and dissections, we'll probably never know the true cause. We've only had captive corals for 30 years and we still know very little about coral physiology. Look at how long we've been studying the human anatomy and we still know very little.

FWIW, the same thing happens in my skimmerless system every now and then, but only to recently cut frags. The Lamarcks' love RTN corals- MMMMM, coral flesh. It's what's for dinner.

Edited June 21, 2010 by zygote2k

[ctenophore]

SPS corals don't have a lot of tissue in which to store energy reserves, so once a coral loses it's ability to feed, it goes downhill rapidly. RTN is believed to be a bacterial infection, but when the tissue just flakes off with whole polyps intact, you may simply be witnessing a dying coral due to any number of causes- water chemistry, lack of food, bacterial infection, etc. I've seen this most often with wild colonies or larger mariculture pieces. Like big trees, they just don't transplant well. Something goes wrong in one portion of the colony, and then overnight the entire colony dies. My guess is that at least one of these pieces was borderline re: energy reserves when you got it, became a host for a nasty bacteria, which then spread to the other three. Sorry about your rotten luck :(