What are you? And what's wrong?

[BlueMoonFox]

So I got this guy and it was happy as can be. I noticed a couple smaller heads had turned white but I associated it with too much light or sand. Less than a week later I've lost over 7 heads. I'm not even sure what it is, but I want to save it. I'm about to CoralRx it and remove the dead heads. Any help identifying the coral and/or the illness would be appreciated. Don't mind the rock anemone, unless he's this issue.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Looks like it could be a Blastomusa Which is an LPS coral. remember that any coral that has a skeleton is not a softie, it's either LPS or SPS.

I would cut all of the dead skeleton off and just keep the live heads and do an iodine dip http://www.athiel.com/lib/bacterial.html that link will give you everything you need to know. You can buy the iodine at any drug store or even in the meds isle at most larger grocery stores.

For grins and giggles I would dip the dead skeleton and put it somewhere in your tank it will get some light and see if some of it comes back. GL

 

[firefly73]

mmmm looks like a acan to me as the depth of the skeleton seems to shallow to me for a mussa or wellsi.

regardless head death generally either stressed and bacterial infection. (fragged with iodine dip can work sometimes)

or acclimation issues causing stn.

have you been feeding it? blasto or acan both love a good feed and helps to strenghing the imune system.. mysis small bits of krill etc

 

[Dkuhlmann]

At first I thought acan too but the more I looked at it I thought the polyps more resembled the Blasto. But either way the treatment will be the same.

 

[BlueMoonFox]

I don't think that the rock it is on is the same as the coral. I looked at blastos but thought the same thing about the depth. It does look more like acans. I do feed occasionally and for the first month and a half it was generally puffed up and happy. I did some intensive cutting but not sure yet how effective. How do you distinguish stn from rtn? Thanks for the id!

 

[firefly73]

rtn it would be all gone by now (rapid tissue necrossis)
stn = slow t n

 

[BlueMoonFox]

Awesome, thanks for the help!

 

[Patwa]

it's an acan lordhowensis coral ...100% not blastomussa.

 

[BlueMoonFox]

Unfortunately there's a very real possibility it is an ex-acan. After the iodine dip, which halted the whitening and dying off, the coral looms as though it has taken a turn for the worse. Hopefully it makes a comeback. It's such a wonderful coral.

 

[Esage]

Unfortunately there's a very real possibility it is an ex-acan. After the iodine dip, which halted the whitening and dying off, the coral looms as though it has taken a turn for the worse. Hopefully it makes a comeback. It's such a wonderful coral.

I've been looking for answers to this same issue for months. I had a tank full of LPS for years, then one day I noticed one head on a hammer colony had a gapping mouth and kind of covered in white fuzz. Every day that went by it would show up on another head. I pulled the coral, cut the dead off and dipped, the remaining heads would look good for about a week and the issue would start up again. Long story short I lost every LPS in the tank, easily a $1000+. I can only guess in was a bacteria that was in the water and there was no way of getting it out until all the LPS were gone. This never effect softies or the couple of SPS in the tank.

 

[BlueMoonFox]

Ouch! That is really sorrowful! It seems like this hobby has a steep curve and more 'it worked for me's than you can shake a stick at. I can still see glow in blue light. That means the zooxanthellae is still there right?