My Frogspawn is dying =(

[Bret61081]

Earlier this week I noticed that one of the heads on my frogspawn was gone. Well I didnt think anything of it. Well last night i got back from the keys and now I only have 2 heads left. Ive had this thing for over a year and a half and has always done great for me...When I got it, it was 4 heads and now it was upto about 8 or 9... Today I reef dipped it for about 10 minutes hoping to save the last 2 heads but I am still stumped as to what caused it. Salt was a little high around 1.026. Nitrates were 0-10, No Phosphates, no nitrite or ammonia either. PH was right on the money. So i am stumped as to what killed it. I will try to get a picture of what it looks like later. It looks like the heads just fell out. IT SUCKS!! That was my favorite coral!! Anyone ever have this happen to them?? or know what caused it?

 

[NanoKat]

I have a small frogspawn that was the size of my thumb when I got it, then it expanded in my tank over the next couple of months to about 2 1/2" in diameter. I had it next to my "monster" frogspawn that keeps getting bigger and growing new heads, then one day the big guy had sweeper tentacles all over the little guy. I had to move it "upstream" from the big one so that the sweepers couldn't get at it. Not it's half alive...with some skeletal remains showing on half of it. Not sure if you have anything that could have sent sweepers out and hit yours or not, but it happened in mine.

 

[Rogger Castells]

Did it had any brown jelly like stuff in the head?

 

[Bret61081]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9787373#post9787373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rogger Castells
Did it had any brown jelly like stuff in the head?

No...no "brown Jelly" coming out at all. It was even still open and inflated after it fell off(I threw them in the refugium just incase they are still alive). As far as sweeper tenticles, I do have a bubble coral that has been under it since I upgraded tanks back in September. As far as I know Ive never seen the sweepers go up that far. so I dunno...Just kinda ticked off!!!

 

[truth954]

Rogger what would the "brown jelly" be? sort of melting away?

Gerald

 

[ReefWreak]

Brown Jelly is an infection common to the Euphillia species (torch, frogspawn, anchor/hammer).

I bought a beautiful piece of frogspawn when I first started my tank, that did fine under my 4x54w T5s for a while, but for whatever reason, just started dwindling away and dwindling away, and eventually just disappeared. No BJ infection, nothing. All that I could find towards the end were a bunch of tiny pods scampering over the skeletons, probably cleaning up the last of it's flesh. Really sad. But now I've got a nice big torch coral that has been doing great in my tank for a good 2-3 months or so, so I don't know what it was...

 

[Sk8r]

Check your ph, your alk, and your nitrate/ammonia. s/b 7.9-8.3; 8.3-9.5; 0.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9787608#post9787608 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by truth954
Rogger what would the "brown jelly" be? sort of melting away?

Gerald

Yup, like reefwreck said it is a very common bacterial infection easily curable with running Tap water.

 

[whaler1582]

hey sorry to hijack the thread, but you can cure brown jelly infection with just running tap water over the coral??? that is awesome news as a neighbor is loosing a nice hammer to brown jelly. oh, btw bret, sorry to hear about your frogspawn. did the fleshy part just let go or did it kinda disappear. if it let go, there is a whole explanation about it, but ill have to have you call a friend to have him explain it all to you. he knows more about it than i do, but if it did just let go of the skeleton, there is a chance that it might grow the skeleton back
Thanks,
Josh

 

[Rogger Castells]

Josh, this is an old but very effective way to cure brown jelly, you need to cut the heads that are completely dead and then basically wash the coral under room temperature running water, if done in time the infection will stop and the remaining heads will survive the tap water episode.

 

[Abengochea]

theres nothing like a nice tap water wash to cure it all!

 

[Rogger Castells]

 

[REDDAWG43]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9787373#post9787373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rogger Castells
Did it had any brown jelly like stuff in the head?

Is this something that looks like the head of the torch or frogspawn is throwing up?
How long do you run it under tap water?

 

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9791394#post9791394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by REDDAWG43
Is this something that looks like the head of the torch or frogspawn is throwing up?
How long do you run it under tap water?

Brown jelly is caused by the protozoan, Helicostoma nonatum. No one really knows if this is true in fact in the past I've read an article In FAMA magazine as well as one by Boneman that states the opposite.( nobody knows-ciliate vs not)
Brown Jelly disease is often a secondary infection, taking advantage of a weakened or damaged coral. It commonly infests LPS corals, the affected area must be cut off, there is no other remedy. Once you have cut around the living tissue wash it in clean RO water. Some people like to give it a hypo salinity bath for about 1 minute.
I'd get rid of the colony myself since it can be very invasive and get a hold of some other weak corals.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9791394#post9791394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by REDDAWG43
Is this something that looks like the head of the torch or frogspawn is throwing up?
How long do you run it under tap water?

The brown jelly is not something that you see coming out of their mouth but rather it starts at the base of the flesh and starts covering the head, it looks pretty similar to Cyano bacteria but the color is more to the brown side.
Depending on the amount of heads a good 30 seconds each head under the running water, preferably if you have a spray type kitchen faucet.
The flesh will be completely retracted in the skeleton when you are spraying them with the water.