RTN confirmation, please?

[melev]

After reading Travis' posts about acropora-eating flatworms, I had a coral start RTNing a couple of days later. I figured maybe I should confirm with you guys what is going on here. Do you think it is "just" RTN, or could it be little pests I've not seen personally?

Here is a beautiful coral I got from Brent a couple of months ago. It looked great then, and stayed rock stable ever since, until 24 hours ago.

Then yesterday morning, I saw this.

So, I took a bunch of pictures, which you'll see next. A couple were taken in the tank, and then the majority out of the water right before I fragged it within the healthy tissue in hopes to salvage parts of it.

 

[melev]

Here are pictures, out of the water. Any tiny dots were poked but no response was observed. Might be leftover tissue not blown off.

 

[melev]

And here is the base 24 hours later.

The fragged portions don't look too promising. The tissue seems to be thin, easy to blow off or peel away.

 

[clkwrk]

definite RTN no doubt.......Sorry to see

 

[melev]

Thanks for the reply. I couldn't believe how long I had to wait for a reply - I've almost eaten all the chocolate covered almonds while I waited.

 

[concept3]

Ouch Marc, that looks like it hurt.

I had that happen to a small wild aquacultured colony of mine a while back.... no apparent reason, just decided to RTN on me. Knock on wood, I was able to save a 1/4" piece, encrusting right now, I wish I could say the same for all his other frag brethren.........

 

[clkwrk]

Hmmm.....Chocolate


BTW I was surprised also .

 

[Lunchbucket]

i'm no expert but it looks like RTN and not FW attack. but i haven't seen the FW's in person or the damage they do. i believe it takes the coral longer to do "up in smoke" when the FW attack it.

Lunchbucket

 

[slojmn]

That definately looks like RTN at its worst . I had a large Acro loripes look just like that that after a week or two in my tank. I got it from Reefer Madness and knew it was a wild colony and I was taking a big risk. It was a large colony, really large. I was able to frag off three different sets of frags and I mounted them 2 frags to a rock and placed in different parts of the tank. One set took and I now have, 6 months later, a slow growing healthy section of that originally beautiful colony. I swear it looked just like yours. Out of 40+ branches only 2 survived. Is there anything left of it at this point??
Such a pretty piece, bummer.

 

[damienkee]

RTN? yes! for me... pls frag it asap.....

 

[gflat65]

I didn't see what I would consider signs of AEFW's. Looks more like just rtn... Not that that's any fun, either, though. What I'd noticed from my AEFW infestation early on, there was a definite lightening of the tissue with splotchy sections all over like something had munched in one area, then moved on to another area.

A tip I'd throw out there is if you have somethign rtn and want to try to cancel out AEFW, dip the dying coral in some iodine water and see if any fall off. If they are there, the iodine will mess them up enough to knock them off the coral so you can inspect what's left behind. All of my acros that lightened over the course of a month or two were suspect after found them on my validas and nana's (found using the method mentinoed above). I then started bastering (from all angles in short blasts) my corals to see which ones had flatworms fly off into the water column. then you know you've got em. (Of course, not seeing any is not a definite that you don't have them-they can hang on for dear life...). You should see some signs of damage, though, if they are there...

 

[Malolo]

Definite RTN. WOW it hurts just looking at those pics (awsome photography btw).

Im sure youve already made the obvious checks on conditions and parameters. Anything else showing any signs of problems?

Id probably do a healthy wc in an attempt to be proactive. I strongly believe there can be water chemistry factors involved which we as aquarists have yet to learn how to quantify, which are detrimental to the health of our animals, so a little dilution of potentially existent toxins cant hurt.

Then again stability can be key to recovery in a healthy system, so one must be careful. That said, Ive had good success turning around bad situations with WCs alone even though all parameters looked good. OK im rambling. Unexplainable or controlable losses are so frustrating!

I truly hope your corals recover!

 

[Brad W]

Prodibio problem?

 

[wentreefgirl]

Jeez, dont see any pests. Sad and I hope one of your fraglings live.

 

[melev]

Thank you all for your input. I know RTNing comes up often enough, but I haven't really come across an RTNing event that was documented. I'll take these images and put them on a page on my site so that others will have access to it when they visit.

And here is a picture of the fragged sections. I had a total of seven pieces, but you only see six in this image. Of these, only two seem to be holding on, ever so slightly.

I did receive a PM from one member saying they had a Green Slimer go up in smoke just like this after he dosed Prodibio. Which leads me to wonder if perhaps it would be wiser to dose it more gradually rather than all in one session. One part required six vials of the product to match my water volume, while another part required two. Perhaps I should stagger it slightly, dosing 2 vials and 1 vial, then 2 vials, then 2 vials and one vial over a three day period.

Totally a guess on my part. All the other corals look good in the tank, but I was really disappointed to lose this one.

 

[trueblackpercula]

how close are the zoanthids to it when it started to rtn?

 

[melev]

It was nowhere near them. This is the new rock from the refugium with frags glued on it, and it was placed on top of another rock that is in front of the zoos. Something did shift the frag-island since yesterday.

 

[trueblackpercula]

could current from the palythoas be to blame?

 

[melev]

I really don't think so. This coral was doing fine and wasn't being touched at all by anything in its area. Plus the flow, while varied, comes mainly from the left side of the tank and the zoos are on the right.

I do run carbon.

 

[jnarowe]

Great pics of a sad subject. Man that just bites! I love colonies like that. It was beautiful.