Help with Florida Ricordea Dying???

[SnapDragon]

HELP Please...

Here are my tank specs:

30 gallon acrylic
150w HQI MH with T5 actinics
Ricordeas
Zoos/palythoas
Mushrooms
1 - Pipefish
NO OTHER FISH, and none of the corals are touching each other.



I have a ton of Florida Ricordea that are just disintegrating. I have had some bleach out before, but this is just insane. I just noticed it yesterday, and by today most of them are either half gone or gone. I did a 10 gallon water change, but it just got worse by the time my husband got back from work. I am not dosing anything, and just occasionally feed the tank with cyclop eeze.

I do have some snails that seem to be hanging out on the rocks where the rics are dying, but other than I don't have any fish other than my pipefish, and he doesn't seem to bother them.

Thank you

 

[tankgeeks]

firstly, you need to test your water parameters

 

[dustin Combs]

Dito on the params! Alk, Ca, SALINITY, Mg, TEMP
Do you have any other issues with the Zoanthids? Where are they located in the tank?

 

[Azurel]

I had an issue a couple of months ago with some of my ricordea dying and found out that it was a copapod that was the size of SPS redbugs........I dipped FW/iodine and moved them once dipped away from the area that most of them were in. The copapods would hide during photo periods and come out at night. During the day they would hide in the underside of the polyp close to the base. I lost about 10-12 rics out of the 80 or so I have.....I saved most of the ones effected and once I moved them the pods seemed to die off and have not had an issue since. I'm not saying that it is the answer but something to look into

 

[Azurel]

I forgot to mention that they were a dark red/black color and only seemed to effect Florida ricordea. Some of them that ate into some of my bright orange ones also turned bright orange, that was one of the ways I figured out what they were. They didn't seem to swim at all but crawl around the sand where everyone of them that was effected were sitting. Once moved into the rock work and dipped they no longer had any issues and recovered.

 

[dustin Combs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12304964#post12304964 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Azurel
I had an issue a couple of months ago with some of my ricordea dying and found out that it was a copapod that was the size of SPS redbugs........I dipped FW/iodine and moved them once dipped away from the area that most of them were in. The copapods would hide during photo periods and come out at night. During the day they would hide in the underside of the polyp close to the base. I lost about 10-12 rics out of the 80 or so I have.....I saved most of the ones effected and once I moved them the pods seemed to die off and have not had an issue since. I'm not saying that it is the answer but something to look into

Azurel,

What was the dip that you used? We dip all of your incoming in TMPCC and not only does it schwack all of the bad bugs but also helps with the health of the shroom.

 

[john76]

how new is the light and have there been any changes to the tank?

 

[Azurel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12305977#post12305977 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dustin Combs
Azurel,

What was the dip that you used? We dip all of your incoming in TMPCC and not only does it schwack all of the bad bugs but also helps with the health of the shroom.

I just used FW/Iodine for about 5 min.....Then I swished it around and blew the polyps with a turkey baster while in the dip then placed them back in the tank.....

 

[Amadeusb12]

It could be a bacterial infection that is spreading through the ric colonies. Have any been fragged or been damaged?

B

 

[SnapDragon]

Okay, salinity was a little low, and temp seemed a little low as well. Although what seemed to make the biggest difference was the flow. I had always heard that rics don't like too much flow so of course I placed little to no flow in the tank. I think that I must have created some spots where there wasn't enough flow. That is when everything went crazy. I have upped the flow and added a Koralia 2 to the tank. It seems that most everything has at least started to come back. One of the rics still shows some signs of worry, but I am curious if that is just because it was already on its last leg??

I am going to have to look for the copepods to see if they are eating them, and the bacterial infection could have occurred, even though I wasn't fragging them lately.

 

[Azurel]

YEa I have all of my Ricordea florida in some med/high flow and the seem to love it. I don't put Ricordea yuma in alot of flow though I keep them in low/med flow at best....

 

[greetin]

The little black things you are actually seeing are a protozoan. I propagate rics on a massive scale and have too seen this problem for some time. The iodine dips do work pretty well. After much investigating and talking with collectors in the keys, I guess these buggers live in the rics and attack and destroy when they are stressed. I have lost virtually hundreds of rics due to these protozoans. In my experience, I have found that a higher salinity keeps these things away. My ricordea only system is now kept at 1.026 to 1.027 and I haven't seen signs of a single protozoan since. I also have found that my rics get much more vibrant colors with the higher salinity. Hope this info helps a bit. Good luck!!

 

[Azurel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12330337#post12330337 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greetin
The little black things you are actually seeing are a protozoan. I propagate rics on a massive scale and have too seen this problem for some time. The iodine dips do work pretty well. After much investigating and talking with collectors in the keys, I guess these buggers live in the rics and attack and destroy when they are stressed. I have lost virtually hundreds of rics due to these protozoans. In my experience, I have found that a higher salinity keeps these things away. My ricordea only system is now kept at 1.026 to 1.027 and I haven't seen signs of a single protozoan since. I also have found that my rics get much more vibrant colors with the higher salinity. Hope this info helps a bit. Good luck!!

That's great info greetin, thanks for sharing.....I felt like I was the only one that had seen this......

I didn't have any till I got a large shipment of rics and then they showed up and did seem to come from the rics themselves.....

 

[reefmaister]

Azurel, have you seen any signs of improvement yet. Did you raise the salinity?

 

[reefmaister]

Greetin, you propagate rics on a massive scale? Could you share with me your techniques? I only have a few, but I would like to speed up the process, and I've read that bacterial infections are a risk. Do you have any tips or techniques you could share with me?

 

[Azurel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12343731#post12343731 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefmaister
Azurel, have you seen any signs of improvement yet. Did you raise the salinity?

Yea that was awhile ago, I lost about 10 rics out of a 100+/- a few. They have never showed any sings of this since, so it seemed once everything was dipped and moved to new locations of the tank the intruders couldn't seem to swim up the rock to get to the rics. Only the rics that were on the sand were effected....

 

[nexhasfishies]

This thread is wonderful. For the last week I was wondering what was eating just my Florida Rics while my yuma s were remaining unscathed. I initially thought it was a bacterial infection or BJD or maybe those poor little serpent stars. After heavy inspection I did notice these little bright orange specs azuriel mentions. After reading the comments by azuriel above I do believe this protozoan has attackedmy lovely ric garden. These little buggers were the color of the rics they were attacking. Bright orange, bright pinl, etc. At first glance I assumed it was the guts of the ricordea but after looking up very closely I could see these little specs of "guts" were actually the critters that were chowing down on my Florida's.