Dying War Coral :(

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

So, I my war coral (Favites pentagona) is dying, I don't know why, and I'm a bit desperate and don't know what to do.  Suggestions welcome.

 

 

I am thinking of removing a possibly attacking gorgonian.  I am also thinking of isolating the war coral (since I will be gone for a month in a few weeks, probably the only way would be to, separate from this thread, beg a WAMAS member to put it in their QT tank).  My only alternative is to let it sit and see how it is when I get back.   

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC5CCpUr6NQ

 

[more pics in the R2R thread below]

 

 

The story:

 

- was growing excellently, under like 80% intensity of a Kessil 360, until about 2.5 weeks ago.  3 weeks ago, I added a rainbow BTA.   I started the "acclimation" light setting on the Kessil controller, so light went down significantly right after the BTA was added.    

 

- 2.5 weeks ago, I started noticing a small dead area and white spots on the coral.   After posting on R2R, I decided to run carbon and moved the war coral to an area with modest flow and lighting.  

 

- the situation has gotten worse, and about two days ago since it was happy in high lighting I decided to move it to an area in the main tank which is somewhat shaded and somewhat protected from the flow in the rest of the tank.   

 

- this weekend, I've seen no indication of change.  It's hard to say if things have gotten better or worse.   

 

- everything else is fine: BTA, gorgonian (Pterogorgia anceps), green implosion palys (Palythoa mutuki) are all well and growing.  Fish and shrimp are all fine.   

 

Theories:

 

- Someone on R2R suggested that it looked stung and it might be chemical warfare from a gorgonian.  I am thinking of removing the gorgonian for at least a week or so.   I kind of doubt this.

 

- the easiest inference, IMO, is that the BTA is waging chemical warfare and the war coral is a casualty (or, less likely, that the BTA had some sort of hitchhiker or bacteria in its water that had a parasite for the war coral).   BTA is doing fine, it seems, opening up comfortably and I believe growing in the past three weeks.  It's definitely fatter than when I got it.

 

- parameters have swung in the tank.  When I first got the war coral a few weeks before xmas, parameters were like 20ppm nitrate/0/25 phosphate.  (I try to keep alk at around 165ppm; I use PPM because my hanna checker reads in ppm.   nitrate is measured by salifert, phosphate and alk by hanna.  I run GFO, seachem matrix in a seperate box in this sumpless tank.  I dose white vinegar).   Around Easter time and after a cyano outbreak, I had finally gotten parameters down to ~2.5ppm nitrate and 0.1 phosphate, with the cyano gone.  Around the time the BTA was introduced, water parameters  swung up to 15ppm nitrate and 0.20 phosphate.   In the past two weeks, cyano came back somewhat.  In the past week, I've reconnected the skimmer, started skimming heavily, added chaeto, did a 20% water change (which I try to do biweekly, though I have been remiss since Easter), and sucked out a lot of detritus.  Water parameters were like 5ppm nitrate, 0.07 phosphate as of last nigh

 

I am inclined to think this was not parameters, since it was growing well all this time until the BTA came in, in all kinds of conditions.   But, maybe it was too much parameter shock.  

 

- maybe the thing that got the pocillopora got the war coral.   A few weeks ago a pocillopora colony RTNed on me.   When I got it its base was dead, but the top 60% or so had polyps.  It had grown, even covering up some inadvertent damage, in the subsequent two months.  But at about Easter, the same time parameters went down and cyano disappeared, the pocillopra started RTN/bleaching.  In like a week it went from decent condition to entirely white.   

 

I'm inclined to dismiss this hypothesis.

 

 

The full, detailed history can be found here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/war-coral-trouble.383866/

[overklok]

Probably has a secondary bacterial infection. Get some gram negative antibiotics, such up a quarantine tank and dose the antibiotic in that tank. 

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Interesting. Is there a link that describes this on a bit more detail?

 

Also, per the r2r thread, the person alleges that he used war corals to test gorgonian toxicity, so I am much More inclined to believe that this might be the cause.

Edited May 11, 2018 by KingOfAll_Tyrants

[zygote2k]

I’m suspecting that it’s the fluctuation of water chemistry and lighting.

This is the most likely cause.

Thinking that an anemone could have bacteria in its gut that’s harmful to corals is a stretch and unless the gorgonian was touching the coral directly, chemical warfare also not likely. Maybe if the tank was chock full of gorgonians....

 

When you hear hooves, think horses, not unicorns.

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Thanks Rob.  

 

Yeah, I thought those might make sense.  Water quality fluctuated on monthly scales before, but the coral always grew fine.  

 

Moving the coral, or setting the lighting back to its roughly original state, didn't seem to do anything. 

 

Again, the only thing that changed is the introduction of the BTA and the acclimation mode for the lighting.   I've never heard BTAs stinging corals via chemicals (the coral was well away from the BTA's touching distance).  

 

I would not buy the gorgonian hypothesis either, save for the fact that the guy on R2R claims from his extensive gorgonian experience that at least some species of photsynthetic gorg will sting war corals (and he used war coral as guinea pigs for this, since they grow back so easily).  AND both that guy, and an experienced aquarist who is taking care of the coral now, both say it looks like the coral was stung.   

 

 

Either way, the coral is the hands of an experienced aquarist now.   When it gets back, I'll isolate the palys and the gorgo in a coral QT tank, and see over two weeks (?) if the war coral is OK.  After which I'll add back the paly.  And two weeks after the gorg.......

Edited May 20, 2018 by KingOfAll_Tyrants