Blastomussa wellsi recovery

blasto damage!

blasto damage!

First of all I do not have any pictures available right now.
I have several colonies of blasto W. and about a week ago I had one fall off the rocks and take some damage. I read your post on how you got your to grow back and I was pretty amazed that you got them back from the condition that they were in.
My blasto's didn't recede like yours did they are missing a pie peice of flesh that goes from mouth to the edge of the coralite and the largest is about 1/8th of the polyp 2 polyps have around 1/16th pie piece missing. I've tried to feed them but they do not expand and feed like they did when they were whole. Other polyps in the colony are fine and feasting while I try to feed the injured.
My question to you is you say you put about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of cyclopeeze. I feed my blastos cyclopeeze all the time but i buy it in frozen bars and then mix it with tank water so that the water is red when well mixed but it is mostly water with cyclopeeze in it. I spray it on the blastos with a turkey baster and they usually catch peices of the cyclopeeze in their little tenticles. So do you put on pure cyclopeeze or some sort of suspension when you say you use 1/8th of a teaspoon? Any suggestions on how to get them to feed better since they are not swelling up and feeding?
Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I am currently thinking about transfering the blastos to a small tuperware container and then just dropping nearly pure cyclopeeze on them....what do you think?
One other thing my blastos do well in my tank but I have not seen any new bubs in the past 5 months that I have had them. They have small buds that are getting bigger but nothing new. How often do you see a new bud on your colonies?

thanks
jeff:strooper:
 
TippyToe, Thanks for this post. While in my lfs yesterday they had a skeleton of a blasto colony sitting at the bottom of a tank collecting crap. It had what appeared to be 1 polyp that left was a purplish color with green in it. They gave it to me and I placed it in my tank and fed it cyclopeeze last night. Today the polyp looks good and the skeleton above it is starting to come alive with a polyp. Thanks for the info!
 
What should I have done?

What should I have done?

TippyToeX, You seem to know da' Blasto:) so I want your opinion on what happened to my PRIZED possession?? :confused:? :confused: ?:mad2:??

Following are some pics; In the first pic, it is still healthy and:rollface: happy.
blastoahealthy.jpg


Then in the 2nd I think this was taken (unknowingly) an hour or so after the contact... I think the (double underlined) blue Riccordea 'brushed"/touched it ever so lightly, as they were both swelling to enormous sizes. That arrow points around the back/side, to the polyp that dissolved 1st, (not really visible)
blastopreD.jpg


This one it is still "Lookin' good",.... compared to what it looked like in 48-72 hrs anyway.
blastozdead.jpg

After this all polyps started to dissolve. The one I think touched the Ric was totally gone, and pink pieces were dislodging and floating around, onto other corals. I was too worried about it causing the other stuff in the tank to begin "Rapid Tissue Deterioration" as well so I removed it to my buddies tank, there was no tissue left on any polyp within 72hrs after that.

I have since read enough that, I think I should have fragged it immediately. At the time I was unaware that these could have their skeleton broken and the tissue ripped, and that that was, "OK" fragging procedure for blasto. Or is it?

I find the fact that you brought damaged polyps back, from what looked to be worse if not equally inflicted as mine, very interesting. Do you think a Riccordea sting would be a more deadly(less likely to recover from) than the sting that yours received?

Considering that dead stringy pieces of Blasto were blowing around the tank, What would you have done in this case?

Oh, this also took place at a time when I had no Ca test and somehow had the Ca @ 760 or somewhere ridiculous like that. Could this have lead to the Blasto's RTD all on its own, Maybe the Ric never touched it (though it seems to be the culprit). Would this prevent it from recovering? Would the high Ca cause then to inflate to enormous sizes??

I LOVED that coral and I only want to understand them more so I can avoid losing something like that @X:rolleye1:
 
First sorry for the delay, I'm on vacation and staying away from the message borads. :)

jefe03
[welcome]

My question to you is you say you put about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of cyclopeeze. I feed my blastos cyclopeeze all the time but i buy it in frozen bars and then mix it with tank water so that the water is red when well mixed but it is mostly water with cyclopeeze in it. I spray it on the blastos with a turkey baster and they usually catch pieces of the cyclopeeze in their little tentacles. So do you put on pure cyclopeeze or some sort of suspension when you say you use 1/8th of a teaspoon?
Click to expand...

Well what I did was first make sure all the pumps are off. Not a bit of water flow in the tank. I would load a turkey baster but even better for you if you are having problems is to use a testing syringe. Like what you would get in a salifert test kit. Then slowly, and I mean ultra slowly eject the cyclopeeze (yes pure) on to the polyp. You can with patience get all of the food onto the polyp.

If that doesn't work don't worry too much. So long as a little bit can be eaten you are doing the right thing. You can also use a more meaty/heavy food like mysis and just chop the living heck out of it! That is a good food.

It takes time for them to learn to accept food this way. Even more so with it being sickly. Just stick with it and don't give up. I would not move the blasto to a container and feed that way. Moving the animal is only going to cause more stress. How long have you been trying to feed it? Just for the week since it's injury?
 
21Reefman- Again so sorry for the delay! :(

I have since read enough that, I think I should have fragged it immediately. At the time I was unaware that these could have their skeleton broken and the tissue ripped, and that that was, "OK" fragging procedure for blasto. Or is it?
Click to expand...

When the tissue was melting away, was it a brown gooy substance. If so then fragging would have been the best course of action. LPS can get Brown Jelly Infection and blastos can get that with ease. It is highly contagious and fragging and iodine dips are strongly recommended.

If the tissue just receded more and more over a short amount of time I would not of fragged it. Your last picture, it still looks like that? Gaping and receding?

Do you think a Riccordea sting would be a more deadly(less likely to recover from) than the sting that yours received?
Click to expand...

I thinks rics would do a heck of a lot of damage in a short amount of time, being so closely related to anemones. They pack an amazing punch. I think yours can recover though! It might take a ton of babying.

Considering that dead stringy pieces of Blasto were blowing around the tank, What would you have done in this case?
Click to expand...

I would have just sucked up any tissue that was sloughing off during a water change. Then moved the blasto if needed to keep it away from other corals, and strat the feeding in a med. flow, med light area.

Oh, this also took place at a time when I had no Ca test and somehow had the Ca @ 760 or somewhere ridiculous like that. Could this have lead to the Blasto's RTD all on its own, Maybe the Ric never touched it (though it seems to be the culprit). Would this prevent it from recovering? Would the high Ca cause then to inflate to enormous sizes??
Click to expand...

Yikes! If your CA was that what was your alk and pH. Any water parameters being out of whack does not help. If you can do a big ol water change and bring your parameters back to normal I'd suggest you do that ASAP.

Has it gotten any worse?
 
Oh, the Blasto was dead in maybe 6 days after contact. There was never any brown slime, it was bright pink and white.
This happened 4-5 months ago, water parameters have been back in check for 4months. All is well with the tank now, unfortunately that particular piece is gone:(

Thanks for the reply, sorry to interupt your vacation:)
 
Aww I'm sorry 21Reefman. :( I misread your original post. I'm sorry you lost it. Good thing to know that if you should ever seen brown jelly again to frag and dip though. It's amazing how quickly the can die.

No worries on the vacation. :) Glad to try to help, and again so sorry for misunderstanding and the loss.
 
tippy- thanks for the response, I got them to feed a couple time over the weekend, not as much as when they were healthy. The pie piece shaped wedges of lost flesh got bigger on 2 polyps but have now seemed to stopped growing, hopefully with continued feeding the polyps will grow over the exposed coralite in time.
Now for a second question, I have a very healthy colony that needs to be fragged. Larger polyps are keeping smaller polyps covered during the day when fully expanded. SO I definately would like to frag. Ive read a thred on here some guy would pull them off the rocks with is fingers and tear them and they would still grow? I'm afraid of killing this colony when I frag it. I paid alot for it and it is very beautiful and rare cororation. They polyps seen to grow out of the rock they they are attached to. I don't see how to pull them off the rock? I was thinking about cutting the rock with a dremmel but that would not get the little polyps away from the big ones that are covering them up. Any suggestions?
 
I would never rip the tissue of any LPS when fragging. Bad things happen (Brown jelly) when you get sloppy or careless with these corals.

A diamond cutting wheel or point attachment for actually cutting the frag when detached from the rock. Those cut through LPS skeleton cleanly. Put on some goggles and go slowly. :) That would be my first suggestion for cutting the frag.

For popping them off the rock you should look into a sharp chisel. Dig it under the rock slowly just under the skeleton. You can start with the dremmel cutting wheel to help you get the chisel just under the frag and a good depth.
 
Here is a pic:

100_0550.jpg



The area above the large healthy polyp has some tissue but no mouth. If it's kept in good condition can it regenerate?

I picked this piece up over the weekend. The two full polyps are both taking pieces of mysis. I'm just worried if that one polyp is too far gone that it will possibly harm the other polyps?

Thanks for any input,

Jon
 
Owch, the ones on the right do look pretty far gone. I wouldn't hopeful for any recovery. Is there just a spattering of tissue, or a good portion in areas?

I doubt it would cause harm to the other polyps. Only if there was some infectious matter (such as brown jelly) on the dying polyps would I suggest fragging. It doesn't look to be the case on your frag thankfully. Unless I am missing something just out of sight?
 
For the recovery it would daily or at least 3-4 times a week. Fine foods, cyclopeeze, DT oyster eggs, minced up mysis, krill, brine, squid, etc. Just be sure it's a fine mince. More so when they are sickly, it takes more energy to eat when they are in poor health. Got to make their job more easy. :D
 
Thanks for the reply Amy.

I got the piece for $15. I figured it was a good price since 2 of the polyps were in decent shape. They are looking great and getting fuller everyday. If the other polyps that look bad start developing any type of brown jelly or other infection I'll make sure it doesn't spread to the healthy ones.

Jon
 
i know im in on like the 4th page, but tippytoeX i had my blastos nailed by my anenome, and now my shrimp hassles the tissue thats trying to heal.

what did you use to cover them? a strawberry basket work?
 
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