Anyone ever seen anything like this before? (SPS death)

[christyf5]

Seriatopora caliendrum on its way out. I've never seen anything like this before. I didn't take any photos of it yesterday but part of it was bleach white so I assume after the polyps swell up like that, the tissue just sloughs off to pollute the tank.

Nearby corals were unhappy as well:

As well, the polyps on my pink pocillipora damicornis and pink irridescent birdsnest are pulled in and they look pretty unhappy. I'm running new carbon and hopefully this doesn't progress any further.

 

[jaa1456]

I would pull out that first coral and dip your other SPS if possible. In Coral RX

 

[flyyyguy]

I wouldnt start blindly dipping all of your corals as suggested. Unecessary further stress than what is already happening.


What would you be dipping to remedy?? Spontaneaous bubbling flesh??

Carbon for sure, perhaps a couple good sized water changes........maybe more than that if anything else follows



I have seen something similar before, but not even close to that extent........did. It was just one branch. The reason the other corals are ticked is probably becasue they were pelted with another corals flesh.

Can tell you anything as to why, but that is quite insane what youve got there


keep us posted and GL

 

[mike_cmu04]

Do you have any soft corals in the tank?

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

following

 

[christyf5]

I already turfed the first coral, there was no saving it, however I when I first noticed the issue yesterday I did frag off a few chunks on the unaffected side of the coral. Those that were located near the coral have since gone the way of the dodo while one frag at the opposite end of the tank looks completely normal. Odd.

I've stepped up the carbon (ie. changed it out for new and increased the amount) and am currently making RODI water for a 20% waterchange (not going to happen until tomorrow unfortunately).

I'm not really one for dipping already stressed corals. Everyone that comes into the tank gets a dip and thats about it.

There are no soft corals in the tank, there are a few LPS but they are mostly frags and I wouldn't really count them into the whole chemical warfare situation (I think they would be the ones dying if that were the case as there are way more SPS than LPS in the tank).

As of a few minutes ago, the tank is as if nothing happened. I only have two cranky birdsnests that still have their polyps retracted. The P. damicornis and irridescent birdsnest are back to normal.

A very weird experience thats for sure!

Thanks for all the responses!!

 

[shenyong]

+1

i wouldnt start blindly dipping all of your corals as suggested. Unecessary further stress than what is already happening.


What would you be dipping to remedy?? Spontaneaous bubbling flesh??

Carbon for sure, perhaps a couple good sized water changes........maybe more than that if anything else follows



i have seen something similar before, but not even close to that extent........did. It was just one branch. The reason the other corals are ticked is probably becasue they were pelted with another corals flesh.

Can tell you anything as to why, but that is quite insane what youve got there


keep us posted and gl

 

[allsps40]

Wow never seen anything like that before. I would also suggest that you test your water to make sure everything is ok there. Looks to me like an illness of some kind maybe.

 

[christyf5]

I've tested for everything I can possibly test for (ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, potassium, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, pH, salinity etc) and all the parameters are in order.

I'm thinking maybe chemical warfare, seems like an odd time to do it though, all of those corals have lived together for the past 2 years, the only difference is that they've increased in size. Perhaps to the point where they can assert themselves over another? I have no idea. The carbon seems to be doing the trick though and I'll be doing a 20% waterchange tomorrow as well as changing the carbon out again just for good measure.

 

[flyyyguy]

as i said before, I have seen bubbling, but so minor in comparison to whatever is going on in your pic that that Im not sure it could even be related. This coral pictured was unharmed when it finally subsided. If I recall it was like that for weeks though

Here is a coupla pics though. I have one somewhere else I couldnt find that is like an entire branch

In any case, glad to hear it seems under control now and the losses werent any worse

 

[flyyyguy]

actually, to correct myself, those pictures I just posted were taken 4 months apart I realized when looking at them closer. And that is the same piece of the same coral. The bubbles just shrunk/split up.

Man, that is one horrible memory I have. I cant believe I didnt remember those bubbles were there for over 4 months :lol:

 

[christyf5]

Wow, 4 months eh? Thats incredible and that it subsided, I would have been fragging it right away for fear it would spread. I wonder if I had just started running carbon at the beginning if I could have gotten it under control? No matter, its definitely for the best that I discarded the whole coral (pretty much all of it was bubbly and stringy anyways. All the other corals in the tank are looking like nothing even happened and everything is back to normal.

I've siphoned the tank bottom (barebottom), cleaned the wavebox and powerheads and repositioned some of the powerheads in case it was a flow issue. Not sure what else I can do other than the waterchange and carbon at this point.

Thanks for posting those pics flyyyguy

 

[dots]

I have noticed this type of thread happens primarily in the summertime when it comes to the bubbling. At the tail end of it too if I recall.

 

[christyf5]

I have noticed this type of thread happens primarily in the summertime when it comes to the bubbling. At the tail end of it too if I recall.

do you think it might be temperature or light related (or perhaps the typical summer neglect)? the temp of my tank is steady at about 80.6 year round, the tank does get some natural light in the mornings before the lights come on and yes, my husbandry did slack a fair bit more than the usual this summer.

 

[allsps40]

I really feel that it is an illness or coral warfare. Are there and lsp or other sps near the?

 

[dvanacker]

Ya...could be an SPS coral pathegen. I would get rid of it for sure.

 

[crsaz]

looks like brown jelly disease, its a bacterial infection that usually infects lps, but it is not unheard of for it to infect sps.

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

CRSAZ is on the right track, however I'm going to say that I'm 99 % sure it's a fungal infection. Bacterial infections would cause another set of symptoms.

 

[lolgranny]

Dip everything even if they are stressed. Better to kill whatever is wrong with it then let "it" spread.

best of luck buddy, sorry this is happening to you

 

[christyf5]

A LFS owner suggested it might be related to TDS, he says he's had a few customers report the same thing and all have had issues with higher TDS in their RO water due to an old membrane or not using RO water at all. I've been having issues not with my RO unit but with the brute garbage can I've been storing water in for water changes. Water comes out of the RODI with a TDS of 2 but in the brute can it was sometimes 40 or 60. Not sure if this is a big deal but I haven't checked it for months so over time maybe impurities built up in the tank to the point that the birdsnest was the first to go? Beats me. I'll have to keep an eye on the TDS in the future.

Everything else in the tank is still fine so I'm not sure about it being bacterial/fungal unless its just that nothing else was susceptible.