RTN Diagnosis?

[GMGQ]

Before (3 weeks ago):

Current:

The base is SLOWLY turning a beige/white colour. I had slowly acclimated the lighting and moved it all way to the top, but I wasnt getting any polyp extension, so I slowly moved it back down. I wonder if the base could be 'bleaching' due to insufficient light?

Or is this indeed RTN?? If so, should I start fragging the top? TIA

 

[KevinFJB]

It's not RTN, if it was the coral would have been dead after a day or two. No doubt there is tissue missing from those bare patches that has been either eaten by flatworms or is slowly receding due to something in the water. Without knowing the exact cause, the best thing to do would be to check for flatworms and hopefully there are none. If this is the case then get a decent water change done and monitor the coral health over the next week. The tissue wonââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t regrow over the areas of exposed skeleton but you'll check to see that the tissue loss has stopped.

 

[coralnut99]

Are the flatworms referred to here, planaria? I've never heard of, nor seen planaria consuming viable coral tissue. Judgiing from the before and after pic's there's also a significant shift in color too. Is this the only acro in your system behaving this way? To answer your last question, I would frag it. I think water parameters would be helpful too, as well as anything that may have changed in your system during the timeframe.

 

[GMGQ]

I havent seen any of those little red things anywhere. The only thing I've recently noticed are those shrimpy looking pods hanging around the base in the mornings...

Water conditions appear ok:
Nitrate 0.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
pH 8.3
Phosphates 0
Calcium 470
KH 8.4
Alk 2.98

This Acro was 1 of 4 that I bought at the same time. The other 3 are all flourishing. Awesome polyp extension from them. This one had ok polyp extension the first week or so, then not so much.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6630778#post6630778 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KevinFJB
It's not RTN, if it was the coral would have been dead after a day or two. No doubt there is tissue missing from those bare patches that has been either eaten by flatworms or is slowly receding due to something in the water. Without knowing the exact cause, the best thing to do would be to check for flatworms and hopefully there are none. If this is the case then get a decent water change done and monitor the coral health over the next week. The tissue wonââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t regrow over the areas of exposed skeleton but you'll check to see that the tissue loss has stopped.

 

[GMGQ]

The colour shift is not as significant as in the picture. The first picture was under actinics, so the dark purple tips really came through.

Having said that, the purple tips Have lessened though. The base of the branches is still a similar brown hue. I'm starting to see those tiny, feathery, 'hand' thingies that come out, wave around, then retract every now and then after they grab something. I'm hoping this is a good sign?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6630842#post6630842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
Are the flatworms referred to here, planaria? I've never heard of, nor seen planaria consuming viable coral tissue. Judgiing from the before and after pic's there's also a significant shift in color too. Is this the only acro in your system behaving this way? To answer your last question, I would frag it. I think water parameters would be helpful too, as well as anything that may have changed in your system during the timeframe.

 

[coralnut99]

Though I can't see them in the pic I'm betting that what you're referring to are fanworms that have been encrusted by the acro over time. These guys aren't a problem. Somewhat related to the common featherdusters in the background of your pic. Encrusting montipora species can have lots of them over their surface. If nothing else is displaying such a problem, and your water parameters have been pretty consistant at what you've listed, I would remove it and frag it. Make sure you take only healthy sections of tissue, and I would quarantine the frags for a time to be sure. You should keep a close watch on the rest of your acros in the meantime. You may also want to give some thought to removing the leather corals.

 

[coralnut99]

Just another thought. You should keep your acros a good distance from your LPS. Some species send out nocturnal sweepers that are astonishingly long, stinging and damaging sps nearby. But from the bottom-up progress of the rtn, I don't this is the cause here.

 

[KevinM]

Another suggestion.....sometimes those aquacultured specimens need to get more flow into the base than what most systems can provide.

K

 

[KevinFJB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6631561#post6631561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GMGQ
I havent seen any of those little red things anywhere. The only thing I've recently noticed are those shrimpy looking pods hanging around the base in the mornings...

Water conditions appear ok:
Nitrate 0.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
pH 8.3
Phosphates 0
Calcium 470
KH 8.4
Alk 2.98

This Acro was 1 of 4 that I bought at the same time. The other 3 are all flourishing. Awesome polyp extension from them. This one had ok polyp extension the first week or so, then not so much.

Sorry, should have been clearer. The flatworms that eat acros are not red planaria (which aside from being a nuisance, are not really hazardous to your tank). These acro eating flatworms are whitish, almost translucent and much larger that the red planaria. I found the acro eating type on one colony that had been in my tank for months, but thankfully, not another on any of the other 90 or so acro pieces in the tank.

Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m not trying to ring the alarm bells with the acro eating flatworm idea, but IME, the colony on which I found a bunch of eggs and Ã"šÃ‚¼Ã¢â"šÂ¬Ã‚ flatworms looked very similar to that of the picture you posted ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ a curving line, below which the tissue was missing, starting from the coral bottom. There are a few good threads on RC about detecting and removing the acro eating flatworms ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ you can tell quickly id they are there, assuming you can remove the coral from your tank. Otherwise, get a water change ready and keep an eye on it. Your water parameters are generally OK, but for SPS, you want your nitrates zero.

 

[mikeguerrero]

I'm trying so hard to get my trates to zero, they had elevated to 20 ppm when I lost my largest Acro to RTN.

The polyps just stopped comming out and it went in just a matter of two days. I didn't try to frag this one since it was way too late.

My other SPS were okay and I started the process of bringing down trates; which has been a battle as I only got them to 8-10 ppm.

About 4 days ago I started to lose my pink milli and I this time tried fragging it and did a coral dip; I might be too late since some of the side branches polyps look really recessed but not bleached.

All my other water parameters are at acceptable levels except for trates.

My other corals LPS and SPS are fine with polyp extensions; I did pull two small crab eating sps off two of my corals and they are doing so much better.

The crabs had been attacking some branches on the opposite side of the aquarium so I couldn't see the branch starting to turn white untill one day I saw the small crab move.

I have posted pictures of the milli as I fragged it, here is the link:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=766717