Dying Torch, can anything be done?

[Nikky.Werr]

All right so I'm at my LFS and in my experience every time they get a coral shipment, if they aren't sold quick enough, they end up dying leaving behind their skeletons. I purchased a few good pieces (a blasto and open brain) but there was a sad looking torch coral with 3 dead heads and one to go. I thought maybe moving it to my established tank would do it some good since I'm assuming all their corals usually die due to water quality issues. I purchased the coral for real cheap (since it was dying anyways), dipped the torch when I got home and put it in my coral quarantine tank. It isn't looking any better than it was at the shop, in fact it may look a little worse. I know it was a goner before I got it but does anyone have any idea what I could do (if anything can be done?) Should I continue to dip it daily in iodine? (i've done two dips so far, had it two days)
I'm not familiar with antibiotic usage with torch corals but I read an article on the use of Cloramphenicol for vibrio infections. Of course I'm not even sure whether it does have a bacterial or fungal infection or if it's just been in bad quality water/lighting for too long.
I know I shouldn't support my LFS keeping their corals wrongly by purchasing the same corals but I've saved other specimens from them before, I just felt I had to do something...
Any opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

[johanasu]

Looks like it had BJD, brown jelly disease. Some people have had luck with a diluted hydrogen peroxide dip, but most often if the head already has BJD then it will eventually die off. You want to be careful that the brown jelly doesn't transfer to other corals as well

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Thank you, I'll try that. I feel like it may be too late but I knew that before I even brought it home so I still need to do my best.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Looks like it had BJD, brown jelly disease. Some people have had luck with a diluted hydrogen peroxide dip, but most often if the head already has BJD then it will eventually die off. You want to be careful that the brown jelly doesn't transfer to other corals as well

By the way what dosage do you recommend? I'm looking around and see dips ranging from 50/50, 70/30, 90/10 (tank water/hydrogen peroxide dip)

 

[johanasu]

If it were in better shape I would do 4:1 first, keep an eye on it and up the concentration for a second dip. At this point I would probably do 2:1 tank water to H2O2 ratio and swirl it gently to try to dislodge the BJD, you don't want to shake off the remaining polyps.

BJD is actually an aggregation of thousands of tiny microorganisms, so it can be difficult to get them all off. You can also siphon the BJD off the coral first, then do the dip.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Okay, I'll do a 2:1and siphon excess mucous before the dip. Thanks a lot. Even if the torch doesn't survive (which is increasingly likely) I really appreciate your help and now I'll know for future reference. I've never had any trouble with my corals thankfully, and no experience beyond initial dipping to remove pests.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

If it were in better shape I would do 4:1 first, keep an eye on it and up the concentration for a second dip. At this point I would probably do 2:1 tank water to H2O2 ratio and swirl it gently to try to dislodge the BJD, you don't want to shake off the remaining polyps.

BJD is actually an aggregation of thousands of tiny microorganisms, so it can be difficult to get them all off. You can also siphon the BJD off the coral first, then do the dip.

I had two other corals alongside it in my 10g coral quarantine. They show no signs of bjd. Should I dip them as well anyways? Aren't they in danger if I leave them with the definitely deteriorating torch coral? Its a really nice blastomussa and an open brain coral, I'd hate to see them succumb to the same disease while they're currently doing so beautifully.
Thanks in advance.

 

[johanasu]

Hydrogen Peroxide can be quite a harsh dip. I wouldn't recommend doing it on an otherwise healthy specimen. It didn't look like you had a significant amount of BJD on the torch, I probably wouldn't dip the others for now.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Thank you, I'll leave them alone for now. I'll update this post with any new info (death of torch or otherwise).