Argh... Brown Jelly

[fazgood]

Foolish nubee picked up a piece of Goniopora that had a small “bruise” on it and now, 3 weeks later it seems to have the dreaded ‘BROWN JELLY”. It is in an early stage and I was looking to get some help in trying to save this piece. I have it isolated in a quarantine tank and have done a little poking around. The jelly spots seem to be infested with little worms of some sort. I have the microscope set on 200 power and I have the following images. You can see where the little buggers are lining up to munch on the tissue. The question is, are they eating dead flesh or live? A sample from the unaffected part do not have any of the worms munching.

http://www.faszl.com/Reef/Images/MVI_6557.AVI

This second link they are slowing down from cooking in the light and drying up under the microscope.

http://www.faszl.com/Reef/Images/MVI_6555.AVI

Stills

http://www.faszl.com/Reef/Images/52L.JPG

http://www.faszl.com/Reef/Images/53L.JPG

http://www.faszl.com/Reef/Images/60L.JPG


I am looking for any advise on a cure. This is what I have in mind so far.

Rinse the brown goo off the affected areas with fresh salt water.

Do a dip in iodine solution (the mix is where I could use some help)

Return it to the Q tank in a stiff flow until morning and assess if I need to frag off the remainder that appears unaffected.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Joe

 

[Letmegrow]

Seachem Reef Dip. Best Iodine based product I have used.

Tropic Marine Procoral cure also works, but not as well IME.

Zoas are the only corals I would fresh water dip. Ever.

If I am not mistaken brown jelly is a Protozoan infection and can spread to other LPS.

Since it is a Goni, I would say cut your losses and throw it away.
If you want to save it, keep it off the sand as not to give it a secondary bacterial infection or have worms prey on the decaying flesh and upset the living tissue.

By now boring algae has most likely set in and will only destroy the skeleton. If you set up another tank make sure the ALK, pH, and Calcium is with in range or else you might cause further skeletal damage.

If you were "sold" this goni, tell the retailer they did not do a good job and sold damaged goods knowing it would die.
That is a bad practice and I can't believe LFS sell beat to hell gonis without guilt or remorse.

It should be their job (come to think of it, it is) to inspect corals as they come in and treat for problems and pest and not sell corals with obvious infections.

From my personal experience as a LFS employee - Most store owners don't care and don't know how to treat for RB, AEFW, Nudis, ect. They often will opt not to buy such needed medications or take the time out to give the coral a chance to live. They see it as "Why bother, I can just order more, besides someone will come in and buy it."

Not directed towards you specifically Fazgood:

Don't let LFS take advantage of your lack of knowledge based on your experience. Rarely do you get a customer that wants to kill animal after animal after animal, and want to be totally clueless as to how keep their tank alive and thriving.

Their objectives should number in priority as:
1st responsibility of not letting animals die - invertebrate or not. 2nd is to make the reefkeeper happy.
3rd to make money.

Otherwise, don't buy bad products thinking it will be okay, unless you have a method to treat the coral or fish in a separate system not jeopardizing your reef as a whole.

 

[levon15]

Their objectives should number in priority as:
1st responsibility of not letting animals die - invertebrate or not. 2nd is to make the reefkeeper happy.
3rd to make money.

The problem with this bussiness plan is that you need to do number three before the first two can even be possible. Staying open in order to do the first two is vital. I agree with your statement in a perfect world.

Sadly no one is subsidizing fish stores with tax breaks and subsidies like we do with power companies and oil producers. You see with the help these organization can do things in the order you suggest. Oh wait my mistake, this dosent work either, people dont have service sometimes and most customers are never happy, but they do make money. You still need the perfect world to make this work as well.

I think some stores try but your right most dont. I dont think you can get rich running a store and providing the services you describe. It would be hard or your customer base would have to be massive (online retail).

Sorry for the rant.

-Levi

 

[fazgood]

But...

But...

The number one goal right now is keeping it alive. In the long run it is my fault for putting my money down without doing the proper research. I took someone's word for it that this was a "beginner coral" and was easy to keep. Having read what I have read now I would have never bought any type of Goni.

But now I have it and I don't want to lose it. We seem to have stopped the deterioration and it appears to be stable. It has lost a few polyps in the process. My son and I have been doing a lot more work trying to understand the issue and have compiled a lot of data and observations in as controlled of an environment as we could provide. We are trying to find someone with an advanced background in biology/biochemistry that can help sort out what we have found. We seem to have identified the "bug" causing the damamage and we know how to kill it. Now we need to understand better what we did and what is actually hapening. The goal once again is to fix it long term.

I will put together a summary report today and post it in the event someone can clear things up.

Joe

 

[Letmegrow]

The stores that don't take care of their corals/fish are the stores that have something to fall back on.

I.E.

Out of State Internet Business.

Large FW section and almost wholesale tank prices.

Tank set up and maintenance service.

Selling dogs.

The stores that stay on top of their livestock are the ones who make money at it.

The stores that let everything die fall further into making money else where.

Show me a failing store with premium live stock.