Plate Coral Disaster Help

[Principal_P]

Not sure exactly which type of plate coral I had...it was mostly orange, had short tentacles, and was about 3-4" in diameter. I got it at a frag swap in early April. About a week ago, I noticed there was a white sort of cotton candy looking covering that went from the outer edge all the way into the center. It was about a 1/4" wide so it was as wide as about 2-3 ribs. I could still see the orange color through the white stringy covering. I couldn't tell if this was coming from the center out, or from the outer edge in. I didn't know if this was normal or not as this was my first plate coral. My plan was to watch and see what happens. When I came home from work the next day, the entire plate was covered. Needless to say, the coral is now just a skeleton.

I have a few questions.

1. Not that makes a difference, but was this a type of fungus that got it?
2. Would this have come from my sand bed or from the coral?
3. Am I safe to try another plate coral in the future?
4. If I see this type of growth again, what can I do to stop it from spreading?
5. Is there any chance the coral could come back from this?

 

[rt67ghy]

Did you take a picture?

Ans to #1. It's hard to say without seeing a picture. It was probably a bacterial/protozoa attack.

Ans to #2. It could have come from the sand bed since all kinds of nasties live there. Although it is possible it came with the coral I wouldn't think this was the case here since as you mentioned, you got the coral almost 2 months ago; if there
was an issue with it when you first got it, it would have shown up much earlier.

Ans to #3. There's no reason why you shouldn't keep another plate if you know the nature of the problem and know how to cure it. In this hobby we're learning new things all the time and limiting the corals we want to keep because of one dying on us limits our future choices and makes us resigned to failure IMO.

Answer to #4. If there are any signs of it happening again I'd do an iodine dip for a few days until it's fully recovered. This would help for bacteria/protozoa. I'm not sure if it'd work for a fungal attack but I shouldn't think there's any harm in trying.

Ans to #5. I don't know about this but since I don't know what the disease was I'd dump the skeleton since any lurking germs could contaminate your other corals; it's best to be on the safe side here and not risk everything on the off-chance that the plate will regrow.

 

[droth335]

Don't throw the skeleton out too quickly as plates will often have babies even several months after they die. We lost 3 plates in a "kalk incident" last fall and two of the three have babies - one has 100+ and the other has about 16-17.

 

[rt67ghy]

Nice pics on plate babies. Nature's way of survival for the species. It makes me wonder why it may happen with some corals such as plates and hammers but not with others, or do we throw away the skeletons before there's a chance of re-growth?

 

[Sk8r]

Likewise don't throw away any euphyllia (frog, hammer, torch) OR brain. I have had popped heads grow new skeleton, skeleton grow (from the side of a branch) new heads, and an algaed-over maze brain I'd used as structural rock suddenly turn up with live tissue.