Rapid Tissue Necrosis???

[osi]

I never been a gorgonian fan and kept only couple of small frags. But few months back I got this nice big piece of coral from my friend.

It was doing fine until few days back I noticed there is some damage area appears on it suddenly. And very next day there was 2 areas. and it keeps spreading.

I numbered all the areas on the picture according to the pattern they appear.

It always had excellent polyp extension from the day I brought it home. Even now undamaged areas always got excellent polyp extension. It's not showing on the pics coz I turn off all the pumps to take this pics and it reacted to that.

I fed it with brine shrimp twice a week and had excellent water movements and plenty of lights including sun light. Me and its previous owner both of us use natural sea water.

One of my friends told me this is RTN and fresh water dip can cure it. I didn't do it coz he wasn't sure wether it's safe to do a fresh water dip to a gorgonian.

Any comments?

Thanks.

 

[jwoyshnar]

Ive never been able to keep these. I have tried for years but with no luck. It is the only coral i have issue with. Mine looks identical to yours. I look forward to someone answering.

 

[mariner2005]

I didnt have a problem with that particular type of gorg. But I did have a couple problems with a Plexaurella and eunicia gorg showing black spots on the tips and throught the limbs . I trimmed back the dead ends and dipped the whole gorg in Melafix for 5mins and both areas healed over with some time. Not saying it would work for yours but could be worth a shot if it looks like its gonna go down.

 

[osi]

hmmm so u r saying no to the fresh water dip. It’s going to be a problem finding melafix in sri lanka. I’ll try to find it anyway.

is there anything else i can use which i can buy from a common drug store?

 

[scuba guy ron]

I've also kept these that I collected diving. I have had no luck. after alot of reading they must be fed. the problem in keeping them is that nobody has been able to pinpoint what exactly they must be fed. Mine did good for aprox 3mos then the same affliction set in and I'm guessing it is a nutrition issue.

 

[scuba guy ron]

and to add, I also read that those that have had success were tending to feed VERY VERY heavily.

 

[osi]

Still no luck finding melafix, but I think infection stop spreading. Atlest for now. I fixed a power head directly aimed at it day before yesterday to give it a bit more flow. Now it’s waving like crazy. And fed it twice yesterday and also today.

I’m gona keep feeding it twice a day with brine just to see if it’s a nutrition issue anything like Ron suggest.

Oh and also I change ¾ of my tank water.(3/4 of whole system)

I hope it survives coz it’s a very nice piece of coral and too sad to see it going down. Here are some pics of it I shot today just after feeding and without turning the pumps off.

 

[mariner2005]

Melafix is some form of tea tree oil. Not sure how or what to be honest. But if you find that maybe you can manufacture something (provided you can find tea tree oil) if it starts to decline rapidly...

 

[slurik]

Melafix is melaleuca oil. You can probably obtain this from a homeopathy store, or a healthy eating / herbal food stuffs store. have reads:

http://webpages.charter.net/bobalston/melafix_recipie.htm <-- might be able to make your own

Quote:



Melafix Recipie

Melafix is sold in two different concentrations - pond and aquarium. Same stuff just different concentration. My 16 oz bottle (non-pond stuff) says to use 1 tsp per 10 gallons US of water. Ingredients are 1% melaleuca and 99% inert ingredients.


Apparently the pond version is 5% melaleuca and is used at 1 tsp per 50 gallons. It is more economical to buy the pond version!

The label for the pond version describes MelaFix as using "the antibacterial power of Melaleuca (Tea Tree) extract for the treatment of bacterial infections."

You can read about the patent at:

http://164.195.100.11/netahtml/srchnum.htm

U.S. Patent # 5882647 - enter the number in the search window.

Per another post, by Eric Hanson

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=i...0210312146.6e4b16fe@posting.google.com&rnum=1

the detailed ingredients are:


"Melafix is composed of:

1% cajeput oil
1% emulsifier (Crovol PK-70 nonionic emulsifier)
0.2% defoamer (FG-10 by Dow Corning)
97.8% deionized water"

An aqueous solution without emulsifier and defoamer can be used, but the mixture must be shaken vigorously for 1-5 minutes first.


Note cajeput oil is another name for oil from the tree Melaleuca. From my reading, the patent is based on oil from a vietnamese version of the tree, Melaleuca
cajuputi, M. leucadendron and other species of Melaleuca.

 

[gh0st]

It probably needs to be fed more.

I'm pretty sure this a non-photosynthetic gorg, so bulk feeding will be required.

Brine may work, also try Cyclopeeze and Oyster Eggs, as well as some phytoplankton.

Gorgs can be a little picky when it comes to food size, try a few different foods, and see which gets the most feeding response.

 

[coltrref]

definitively this gorgonia is NPS/azoox, and it needs feeding continues.

regrettably I do not have the information why the gorgonias present the necrosis of the textile, but there are several hypotheses.

food absence
inadequate flow
high nitrate
high phosphate
infection for some pathogenic one

years behind experience a fall of 14 gorgonias on having put itself on the whole black textile.
according to the opposing literature, it owed to the removal of the organic waste that one was finding inside the system.

in my experience it is better not to medicate and topcoat with iodin, if the medicated gorgonia dies, all the iodin and proteins will be in the column of the water. big problem later.

the type of flow that favors this guy of organism is intermittent, it did not continue.

cut the damaged parts away and re-accommodate with more flow and feed every day.
the NO3 and PO4 observes, they do not like.

 

[scuba guy ron]

If the system isn't set to handle the constant feeding requirements (and I mean constant as in 3-5 x/day) then you will surely start to see a rise in Nitrates which will also harm the specimen as well as any others in the system.