Possible Pathogen Based Acro Necrosis

[250G]

Hey Kip,

I wish I had some words of advice for you but I have never experienced anything like this. Sorry man.

The fact that the frags in your other tank are showing signs, well this would displease me quite a bit as well. Truly scary, as it has taken so long for these frags to show the signs. This may be the start of something bad for all SPS hobbiests.

How long to we need to quarantine our frags now??? This may be enough for me to finally set up a separate quarantine/frag tank.

Let us know about your progress, and post some picture if you have a chance. Again, sorry to hear about this.

Dave

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991186#post9991186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
no stepping on toes, but you might want to remove the need to register to see the pictures.

uhhhh.... hmmmmm.... you must think i know more about bulletin board software than i do.... lemme have a gander at those 1million settings and see what i can come up with

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991191#post9991191 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 250G
Hey Kip,

I wish I had some words of advice for you but I have never experienced anything like this. Sorry man.

The fact that the frags in your other tank are showing signs, well this would displease me quite a bit as well. Truly scary, as it has taken so long for these frags to show the signs. This may be the start of something bad for all SPS hobbiests.

How long to we need to quarantine our frags now??? This may be enough for me to finally set up a separate quarantine/frag tank.

Let us know about your progress, and post some picture if you have a chance. Again, sorry to hear about this.

Dave

i'd always held acros for about a month... make sure they dont crap out from shipping... make sure no signs of bugs or aefw's.... but something disease related could take a few months to show itself

i really hope this doesnt become a wide-spread epidemic... if so, there are gonna be a lot of folks soured to reefkeeping i heard of a few that threw in the towel from aefw's

 

[sugartooth]

Hi Kip, it sounds like you are pretty confident about the cause of what's going on....

I have a naive question....do you think anything from the water treatment to your areas may have something in them? Maybe that would account for the same thing going on 3 miles away?

For us, twice a year in certain townships, they change their way of treating the water (I can't remember why). A store I talked to noticed a pattern of people coming in with problems with their tanks during certain seasons....

 

[Kip]

this has been going on for almost 3 months now... i would assume that an ro/di with all new filters would handle anything in the tap (typhoon III from airwaterice)

 

[Kip]

uh... hmmm.. .for some reason i cant post walter's company name

 

[TomRep]

When you purchased the salt for both tanks, did you buy it at the same time? Could it be the same batch of salt that is causing a problem? Those of you that have the same problem going on, what kind of salt do you use?
tom

 

[650-IS350]

I've lost a fireside acro, a couple of different stags, a large colony of neon stag.... I've been using Red Sea salt Pro... never had problems with the salt and have been using it for roughly 1/2 a year now..

 

[Kip]

i order salt 10 buckets at a time and test each when i open them for the usual things.... over the last coupla months when this problem has occured.... i was at the end of one IO bulk batch... ordered a few red sea pros to test... and then ordered a new IO bulk batch

 

[rc1214b]

Does the skeleton have the "fuzzy" skeleton you described with the blistering? Or have you noticed the tissue looks dry? If that makes sense, also does the coral look the same from all sides or does the color fade on a certain side?

 

[TomRep]

But you said the Red Sea went into a different tank, right? Wasn't in the tank your having a problem in? I'm not saying any imparticular salt is bad, but maybe they had something get into a batch and they don't know it. Look at the dog food epidemic that spread across the country. Any company, good or not, can have a bad batch of whatever they produce. Just a thought.
tom

 

[Kip]

nah.. no fuzzy skeleton like in the blistering

tissue looking dry... not quite sure what you mean, but i dont think so

the current coral undergoing this affliction is the cali blue tort... i can currently only see one side of it.... i may get my arms wet when i get home from work and have a look at the other side

 

[MJAnderson]

I've had a similiar problem with my acros. Started about 3 weeks after a frag swap where I picked up a few small frags. One thing I noticed is that it started not of the frags I picked up, but on another acro nearby. It spread and killed about 6 acros, all fairly close to one another. Luckily it never "jumped" across to my other island of rocks.

My LFS was stumped and did tests for everything. Only thing that showed up was 0 iodine and 0 strontium. I started dosing. Things got better. No idea if it was the 25% weekly water change for 2 months, the additives or if it just ran it's course.

My only change in habit was switching and increasing my GFO. I went to the Phosar HC from regular Phosar. The HC is supposed to be much better than the old stuff but I increased the amount used as well as I was battling some red felt alage as well.

EDIT: I use Red Sea Pro as well. Switched about 6 months ago and my acro issue has been going on for about 3 months.

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991800#post9991800 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TomRep
But you said the Red Sea went into a different tank, right? Wasn't in the tank your having a problem in? I'm not saying any imparticular salt is bad, but maybe they had something get into a batch and they don't know it. Look at the dog food epidemic that spread across the country. Any company, good or not, can have a bad batch of whatever they produce. Just a thought.
tom

the red sea pro is running the 75g that is currently serving as an acro-rescue tank with no signs of problems yet

the other tanks are running a mix of IO and Red Sea Pro at around 75%IO to 25% Red Sea

 

[TomRep]

I just mean that maybe the Red Sea salt had a chemical or something that got into it that is causing everything. But the tank you are having the most problems in never had Red Sea salt in it, correct?
tom

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991826#post9991826 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MJAnderson
I've had a similiar problem with my acros. Started about 3 weeks after a frag swap where I picked up a few small frags. One thing I noticed is that it started not of the frags I picked up, but on another acro nearby. It spread and killed about 6 acros, all fairly close to one another. Luckily it never "jumped" across to my other island of rocks.

My LFS was stumped and did tests for everything. Only thing that showed up was 0 iodine and 0 strontium. I started dosing. Things got better. No idea if it was the 25% weekly water change for 2 months, the additives or if it just ran it's course.

My only change in habit was switching and increasing my GFO. I went to the Phosar HC from regular Phosar. The HC is supposed to be much better than the old stuff but I increased the amount used as well as I was battling some red felt alage as well.

EDIT: I use Red Sea Pro as well. Switched about 6 months ago and my acro issue has been going on for about 3 months.

thanks for posting... interesting on your Red Sea Pro (possibly) related problems

Sr ... i'd figure i would be getting enough of this breaking down reactor media... that and Sr use has never really shown anything defnitive in the hobby over the years anyway

Iodine... i've always lived by the rule that if i was feeding mysis or any other crustacean food that uses Iodine to molt that the tank woudl have plenty of iodine in it.... on that note... a lugols bath did nothing to stop necrosis of a large frag

i am running rowa on my home tank... but it is the same big bulk tub i've been using for about a year and a half

i have been hoping this will just run its course... but it has "traveled" from my frag tank to my display and at the present rate .. .i will watch my acros die one by one up to around the end of the year. thats a long, painful process.

if i cant stop it.. i kinda wish it would just wipe them all out and be done with it

 

[rc1214b]

If you have a smoother skin acro that is doing it look at the tissue compaired to other "healthy" ones. Does the tissue look like it isn't as metallic or shiney, it's hard to explain. Also with that does the tissue feel different to the touch, like "dry" or rough?

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991837#post9991837 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TomRep
I just mean that maybe the Red Sea salt had a chemical or something that got into it that is causing everything. But the tank you are having the most problems in never had Red Sea salt in it, correct?
tom

i do 90g water changes monthly if not biweekly (25%).... there were two water changes that were 75%IO and 25%RSPro... they were about a month ago

i re-started a tank as an acro rescue tank that has been running 100% RSPro with no troubles (yet)... only been running this way a little less than a month

 

[Kip]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9991883#post9991883 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rc1214b
If you have a smoother skin acro that is doing it look at the tissue compaired to other "healthy" ones. Does the tissue look like it isn't as metallic or shiney, it's hard to explain. Also with that does the tissue feel different to the touch, like "dry" or rough?

yeah... i'd guess not as vibrant... if i touch/feel of it... i am sure the tissue would just rub right off

 

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9990844#post9990844 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kip
is doxycycline something that a vet would readily write for a guy with dying corals?

i dont have any close/personal relationships with any physicians/vets

KIP sure your vet can get u some!