Could this be my problem?

[dphins]

I have been having problems with my tank for a while now. My sps corals have been receeding from the bottom up. The only thing that doesn't measure right is my magnesium. It is 1200 which isn't terrible. I have done water changes and run lots of carbon but it hasn't stopped. Today, I pulled 2 different corals looking for acro eating flatworms and I find this.

Could this be the problem?

 

[Turf]

are you talking about the little circular star thingy in the middle of the white abyss? Could be a good post for the sps forum.

 

[dphins]

Yeah, I am talking about the star. I remember reading awhile back that there are some good ones and some bad ones.

 

[dphins]

That white abyss used to be this.

 

[Turf]

That SUCKS!!! Seems very probable but I've been out of SPS for awhile and haven't kept up so who else has an input of some knowledge?

 

[kentrob11]

Those little starts are algae eaters- Highly doubtful that they are the source of your problem. That one is probably there feeding on algae that accumulated after the tissue loss. Dude- I would really recommend getting your colonies out and fragging them 1/4" above the clear line of recession or you're going to lose them all. You can take all of the frags and mount them to a ball of epoxy putty and it will look like a colony again within 6 months...

 

[DrBDC]

Some don't have problems with them and others do. I had a problem and as soon as I went on a star hunt, my problems stopped with no other changes. I noticed you had them Kent and your corals looked great. Different variety I guess but they seem too similar. At first I thought they were just cleaning up the decay from another problem but that's all I changed and the monti cap they were attacking started to regrow very quick. The same thing was going on with some zo's I had too. I did find this article:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php

From that article:

Returning to our example of the common, small Asterina species found in some reef tanks, these sea stars in recent years have suffered, unfairly I might add, the reputation of being risky or just plain un-safe in the reef. This is interesting because for many years prior to that, they were not only regarded as harmless, but beneficial! What happened? Did they all change their voter registrations overnight? No, the answer really is quite simple. It also explains why some other "controversial" reef invertebrates have contradictory reputations like Mithrax/Mithraculus crabs. Many such creatures are opportunistic feeders. While they favor one type of prey that is convenient or popular to us, like sand bed worms, brown diatoms or bubble algae, they will adapt to eating other food items following the reduction or absence of a preferred food item. Thus, the reef keeper with a persistent growth of microalgae in a garden reef display will likely have less trouble with misbehaving omnivores than another aquarist with an aggressively skimmed and scrubbed tank that supports little growth of the matter. In a phrase, the hungrier that a so-called "reef-safe" creature gets, the less "reef-safe" that creature becomes. In the case of Asterina, many years ago during the bare-bottomed, nutrient poor Berlin style era of reef keeping, reef husbandry with early protein skimmers and limited nutrient export processes was not as efficient as it is today; diatoms and other nutritious growths grew quickly in our tanks. And Asterina were not considered un-safe by hobbyists.

And another link:


http://www.garf.org/news26p2.html#STAR

 

[Saltgills]

Mike,
I know there once a lot to talk about the "acro eating" starfish in your pic. But I doubt that is the problem. I think he is just the clean up crew in this case. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve seen those starfish in many healthy SPS tanks. But, you never know.

However, the symptoms you describe sound more like a different problem. A very well camouflaged acro eating flatworm is making its way into the hobby. It blends in so well with the color of the coral, it is nearly impossible to see, although it could be as large as 1 cm. I had the same problems you described and was stunned when I finally found them. I do see in the pic what could be the tell tale signs of those flat worms. The darkest of the brown (what looks like dead coral tissue) spots on the dead skeleton could be their eggs. They are very tiny. If youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll PM me your email address I'll send you some picks I got from Mitch Carl that clearly slow the eggs and some flatworm pics I took when I found them on my corals.

To find them, put an acro frag in a quart of tank water and add a cap full of SeaChem Reef Dip (that's what I used) or some other iodine solution. Flat worm exit won't work. Give it a minute to work. Then, firmly and thoroughly spray the frags while they are in the dip. A turkey baster works well for this. This will case the worms to quickly release. Actually, if you donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t have reef dip, you can still loosen the worms with a firm rinsing. You can try it this afternoon without having to make a trip to the LFS for reef dip.

If you do have them, they are not that hard to get ride of, if you are diligent. The hard part is knowing when you have them.

Yes, now I quarantine.

Good luck,

Jim Craig