Zoanthid Bacterial Infection- Culture and Sensitivity

[Crabb]

Anyone can weigh in on this. I recently had an experience with one of my Zoanthid colonies where they were closed for months, Vitamin C and RO FW dips did nothing except temporary reprieves for some. Palys unaffected.

Then I dipped in Furan 2. A full recovery for most, except for the sickest polyps. I suspect a bacterial culprit.

I work at a hospital, and have a couple of friends in the lab and pathology departments. Also I may have access to the local college biology department incubators,etc. What kind of agar plate would be needed for a saltwater bacteria culture? I want to find out what this sucker is. And kill it with extreme prejudice. And I do mean extreme. :blown:

Of course I would also do a sensitivity once I've isolated the culprit. I could only wish for a strain that would be so easy to kill it'd spare the beneficial bacteria, but I doubt it... Any feedback welcome if this has been done before.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Talk to the micro dept. you'd need salt plates. You can find recipes to make your own salt agar at home, since using the stuff from the lab hospital is stealing.
No need to add mannitol to your batch. Once you have some isolate, take it to some friends at the micro depot. They are usually friendly folks who will work for food.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Clarification:
No need to add mannitol to your batch, but I'd add beef broth to mine if it were me.
By "isolate", I mean a pure, isolated colony of the bacteria you are trying to investigate.
By food I mean homemade cookies. I usually made sugar cookies iced to look like streaked bacterial colonies. They are always a big hit for lab week. Most techs are up for who for an interesting challenge most any time though, as long as they aren't swamped.
So If I were you I would avoid taking it to the day shift crew. See someone on late evenings or weekends as your best bet. And get them involved in your project ASAP. If you don't you'll be chasing down wrong roads for weeks.

Again, just to be clear, agar plates from the hospital lab are for isolating human pathogen bacteria, and taking them is stealing. Get your own off of eBay is very cheap and pouring your own is a useful skill.
Good luck

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You'll likely want to culture from healthy ones in a different tank to distinguish pathogenic bacteria from "normal" bacteria on zooanthids.

Otherwise, I can't see how you'd know which types may be a problem.

 

[billsreef]

A basic marine agar is a good place to start. However, keep in mind marine bacteria on the whole are very poorly documented and understood in a large part due to difficulties growing them in the lab. There are some that are well know, such as Vibrio sp., but there has also been much DNA based work shows there are quite a few more bacterial species that are as yet unidentified and not been sucessfully grown in labs, from the same field samples that showed the myriad species via DNA analysis. So, while you will certainly get some bacteria to grow, no guarantee the one you do grow will the be the culprit. Be sure and document it all well, as you also just might make a good discovery as well

 

[Crabb]

Thanks guys for the help and suggestions. Especially the avoidance of misdemeanor crime. Lol.

I will let you know what I find. I have a buddy who has some healthy colonies of Zoas at his store. I will try to get swabs from sick as well as healthy (as randy mentioned) so as to hopefully avoid pegging the wrong bacteria/fungus.

Something tells me this will be a thread that won't be revisited for some time. But I hope to have an answer eventually. What I can say is that Furan 2 seems to have worked in my case, so I may already know what kills "it". But isolating a type/strain of bacteria (and hopefully a bad one that is specific to Zoanthids and not Palythoas which seem to avoid this type of plague), may reveal a specific treatment that could be tantamount to a smart bomb.

If I have any interesting findings or questions I will post again. Thanks again for the input. I will revisit these suggestions later in the week.

 

[Crabb]

http://ijs.sgmjournals.org/content/60/12/2843.full.pdf


Guys, if you find any other info like this article please forward so that it may help in identification of species already known. Thanks!