Can Someone Define Thinning

[kirstenk]

I have a hard time with this term. What exactly is Acro tissue thinning? I usually read about it happening on the Zeo Forum. Does anyone have a picture they can contribute?

 

[Travis]

I experienced it recently with several acros and montis in my tank. It is hard to explain. Basically, you know it when you see it. To the unexperienced eye, the coral actually looks better because the colors really brighten up, but the coral is not healthy. Without correcting whatever the problem is, the coral will slowly stop extending polyps and eventually die. By slowly, I mean over the period of at least 2 months. I had several acros do this to me recently and lost most of these in a levamisole AEFW treatment. I do still have some montis in the display that show the same signs. I'll see if I get some pics for you.

Also, with the thinning that I experienced, there was also bleaching involved. In only a couple pieces the bleaching made the coral white. In a handful of other pieces, the bleaching just made the colorful pigments stand out better.

 

[Travis]

Here is an Idaho Grape from 4 months ago. At this point it was new and still coloring up. It colored up a little more than in this pic.

And here it is now after the tissue thinned about a month ago. Surprisingly, it is still growing at a decent rate, but I don't have high hopes for this piece.

Here is a fragfarmer emerald loisettae 4 months ago:

And today, after it started thinning about 3 weeks ago:

This one is not as good of an example but you can still tell a little bit. This is an acro sp. from 4 months ago:

And today, after starting to thin 1.5 weeks ago. In this picture you can see that the tissue looks a bit more "transparent".

In this pic from 4 months ago, you can see what was sold to me as a Leng Sy in the middle left.

And here it is today. The tissue started thinning on this piece about 1.5 months ago. This pic is a good example of the later stages of the thinning, where the tissue becomes so thin that parts of the skeleton evenatually become exposed and start housing diatoms or any other type of unwelcome growth.

Sorry if these aren't what you were looking for. I would define the tissue on these corals as thinning but some may define it just bleaching. Normally, when I think of bleaching, I think of a coral turning white. But I feel that what has happened in these corals is more in line with thinning. But I could be wrong. I would also like to learn more about the thinning as I have heard it mentioned a lot over "there". For me, I haven't been able to reverse it. Probably because it was caused by me making a zillion changes to the tank in a short period of time. So it could have been caused by many things or one single thing that I am not able to pinpoint.

 

[shelburn61]

Travis, do you think you might be facing the lightening/extremely low nutrient problems a lot of BB users are seeing? Did the levamisole cause the thinning or just kill the already weakened corals?

 

[clkwrk]

I just lost most of my purple rim cap also and it looked just like the one above . Actually it got alittle worse so I yeanked it and put it in my more nutrient rich frag tank. I think its time for me to stop with my phosban ..........

 

[Ewan]

Travis, those photos are an excellent example of tissue thinning. I've had the same thing happen in my system in the past.

The tissue started thinning on this piece about 1.5 months ago. This pic is a good example of the later stages of the thinning, where the tissue becomes so thin that parts of the skeleton evenatually become exposed and start housing diatoms or any other type of unwelcome growth.

Sorry for your losses (I saw the aftermath pics of the levamisole treatment) Thinning tissue is a very hard thing to explain, and your photos show the telltale signs perfectly. For me, It usually starts with a gut feeling that something isn't right (usually brought on by a number of changes in the tank)

 

[samsfishnchips]

guys,

"Without correcting whatever the problem is, the coral will slowly stop extending polyps and eventually die"

what kind of issues that have cause it, and then corrected and the corals came back? thx

sam

 

[kirstenk]

Thanks Travis. The pics are great and now I have an understanding of what thinning is.

 

[kirstenk]

what kind of issues that have cause it, and then corrected and the corals came back? thx

Sam........I have only heard of thinning in a nutrient starved system.

 

[pfish]

bump

 

[Travis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7180499#post7180499 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by shelburn61
Travis, do you think you might be facing the lightening/extremely low nutrient problems a lot of BB users are seeing? Did the levamisole cause the thinning or just kill the already weakened corals?

That is a possibility. I have made a LOT of changes to the tank in the past 6 months. I had problems with levels and was doing 30% weekly water changes for a few months. This could have led to extra-low nutrient levels. The PO4 was still ranging from .03-.20 (Hanna colorimeter). But that doesn't mean that the N could not have been limiting, which can be almost as bad as P limiting. The levamisole didn't change the thinning, it just killed some of the corals that were already weak due to the thinning.

 

[Travis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7181396#post7181396 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nunez1980
guys,

"Without correcting whatever the problem is, the coral will slowly stop extending polyps and eventually die"

what kind of issues that have cause it, and then corrected and the corals came back? thx

sam

I have only heard of thinning in relation to low nutrients, but there could be other factors, including stress. Because I've only heard of this stuff over on the Z forum, I went with a an approach that they recommend, which is dosing AAHC and CV. Unfortunately, I found out that I had a AEFW infestation in my tank 2 days after receiving the supplements, so now that I am submitting my corals to stressful treatments, it is hard to tell if these supplements are helping.

 

[samsfishnchips]

Travis,

thx for the info, yeah know that one, low nutrients and corals look pale and transparent, while other don't mind, go figure,

sam