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FAQs about Trachyphylliid Coral Disease/Health,
Parasites, Pests 3 Related
Articles:
Coral Pests and Disease;
pests, predators, diseases and conditions by Sara Mavinkurve,
Trachyphylliid Corals,
Trachyphyllia Reproduction Report,
Related FAQs: Trachyphyllia
Disease 1, Trachyphyllia
Disease 2, Trachyphyllia Disease 4,
Trachyphyllia Disease 5, &
Open Brain Coral 1,
Open Brain Coral 2,
Trachyphylliid Identification,
Trachyphylliid Behavior,
Trachyphylliid Selection,
Trachyphylliid Compatibility,
Trachyphylliid Feeding,
Trachyphylliid Systems,
Trachyphylliid Reproduction,
Stony Corals,
Stonies 2,
Stonies 3,
LPS Stony Corals,
Coral System Set-Up,
Coral System Lighting,
Stony Coral Selection,
Coral Placement,
Foods/Feeding/Nutrition,
Disease/Health,
Propagation, Stony
Coral Behavior,
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Bubbles in
Open Brain 1/3/08
Hello WWM Crew,
<Paul>
I recently purchased an open brain from my LFS. I acclimated and placed
it in QT, temperature is 80 degrees and salinity is 1.026.
<Good>
During QT I spot fed with Mysid, one piece of which had a small air
bubble attached. A few days later I noticed what looked like 2 small
air bubbles under the tissue near one of the mouths of the open brain.
<Mmmm>
However, it disappeared a few days later, upon which I placed into a
separate stand alone refugium. This is lit with a 100W daylight CLF
bulb. It expanded normally and was doing fine until I did a large 50%
water change. The NSW was at a salinity of 1.026 at approx 80 Degrees F.
However, during the water change I thoroughly covered the open brain in
sand.
<Yikes>
I then forgot to plug the heater back in and the temperature dropped to
about 70 Degrees F before I noticed. The next morning the "bubbles" had
reappeared so I quickly removed it, did an Iodine dip (10 drops to 1
gallon), and reacclimated it into the QT tank.
<Very good>
It still goes through regular expansion and shrinkage, but there appear
to be more and more bubbles under it's tissue. Please advise? I have
attached pictures.
Thank you!
Paul
<I think you'll be okay here... as will the specimen. Sometimes such gas
accumulation does occur... in moved specimens under "boosted" conditions
(mainly lighting), and rapid metabolism following challenges. Bob
Fenner>
Re: Bubbles in Open Brain
1/3/08
Mr. Fenner,
<Pablo>
Thanks! The open brain is indeed slowly recovering and the bubbles are
receding. Another coral making it safely from LFS to my tank.
Paul
<Ah, congrats! BobF> |
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Pink Brain
Coral -12/29/2007
Hello,
I have my first huge problem, by huge I mean the life safety of one of
my inhabitants. I'm really struggling on what the cause could be and was
hoping you guys may have an answer, or some direction on how to correct
the issue!
I have included a photo of my pink brain coral that was taken on Dec.
19th, it shows the coral nice and fleshy and with some of the feeding
tentacles out, and to what I have taken to be a healthy specimen. I may
have been fooling myself though. Christmas morning (of all mornings) I
woke up and did my normal check on my animals and noticed some bleaching
on the rim of the brain.
<Looks worse than bleaching... looks like tissue recession.>
I thought that maybe it had gotten blasted by sand or irritated by a
crab or something and decided to keep a close eye on it for the next few
days and see what happened. One thing that comes to mind that happened a
few days ago is that my cleaner shrimp molted over night and my fiancé
found the molt inside the brain corals mouth the next morning.
<This sounds normal. The coral was likely eating it (or trying to eat
it).>
(This happened before any of the bleaching appeared). Other than that
the only other thing that comes to mind is that one of my power heads
came loose and dropped into the sand and I awoke to the results of a
sandstorm and a big "hole" in my sand bed. (My tank did not have a good
Christmas season.) This powerhead was on the opposite side of the
aquarium though and I'm not sure that it would have had a significant
effect except for maybe a sand flurry or two onto the brain coral.
I'm at a loss to what could be going on and don't want to see anything
die under my care.
<What do you feed this coral? How much? when? and how often? These
corals are voracious eaters. It might be starving to death.>
(Not to mention my fiancé would kill me if her favorite coral didn't
make it. It's funny how she doesn't lay a finger onto the aquarium but
she lays claim to the fish and coral and has VERY outgoing opinions
about things when they go the slightest bit wrong... lol) If you guys
can think of what may have caused the problem and how I can correct it
it would greatly be appreciated. I began last night feeding the brain
heavily with E.S.V. spray dried phytoplankton
<No good... they don't eat this.>
and frozen Mysis and brine shrimp. (I have listed my tank specs, as of
this morning below)
<Meaty foods like this are good (be sure to defrost first though).>
55 Gallon tank with about 60 lbs of live rock. and a 3-4 inch sand bed.
(up and running since May)55 gallon sump (1/2 dedicated to a refugium
half to filtration, used to be a trickle wet dry, but I have began to
slowly take the bio balls out and just go with a prefilter and VERY
aggressive Skimming) ASM G-3 Protein Skimmer Refugium has Grape
Caulerpa, a 2-3 inch sand bed and about 25 lbs of live rock rubble. ( I
plan to replace the Caulerpa with Gracilaria and green Ulva and maybe
some Chaetomorpha soon) The circulation in the tank is provided through
a Mag 7 return pump fed into a SCWD that comes out at opposite ends of
the tank. I have a Tunze Stream 6101 that stays on its lowest setting
except when the Cyanobacteria starts to show on the sand and I turn it
up for a few hours. The Tunze is accompanied by a Maxi Jet 1200 (with
the 1600 upgrade kit.. claims to put out 1600GPH of turbulent
circulation) the maxi jet is on the opposite side of the tank blowing
water across the back glass and back side of the rocks.
Tank Parameters
Salinity 1.021
<Salinity should be closer to 1.025 to 1.026>
Nitrites 0.00
Nitrates 0.00
Ammonia 0.00
PH 8.0
Calcium 310ppm
Alkalinity 110 mg/L
Inhabitants
1 yellow tang
1 zebra goby
2 green Chromis
1 pink and blue watchman goby paired with a tiger pistol shrimp
1 lawnmower blenny (that I now have a hard time keeping well fed because
there is no algae in the tank, I feed dried algae strips daily. Any
suggestions?)
1 Cleaner shrimp
A huge clean up crew ( 3 Mithrax crabs, 20 scarlet hermits, 20-30 blue
hermits, 5 Nassarius snails, lots of Astrea and cap snails, other creepy
crawlies that go bump in the night (bristle worms etc. .))
Green star polyps
a large pink leather (not sure the species. It can be seen in the
photos)
a huge xenia colony (THAT WONT STOP GROWING!!!)
two green Ricordea polyps
a frogspawn
and a piece of moon coral?, The LFS sold it to me as pineapple brain
coral?
The tank has 4 55 watt T5 (two actinic and two 10K, as well as an
Actinic VHO) (lights set on a 12 hour cycle)
Also I recently scraped off about half of the coralline algae covering
the side of the tank, about a week and a half ago. I didn't want to
scrape all of it at once but both sides are covered and I'd like to be
able to see in. I also attached a picture of the coralline growth in the
tank without any of the aquarium lights on (flash only) does this look
normal, I almost feel as though it may be bleaching out also.
<Looks normal to me...>
Again you guys have been a HUGE help to me thus far and I am taking in
as much information from you guys as I can as I begin plans for the 280
gallon that is going into my basement!
<cool>
Thanks,
Adam
<De nada,
Sara>
Re: Pink Brain Coral
12/30/07
I feed the brain 2 - 3 times a week. Mostly the Spray dried
phytoplankton, that's what the LFS told me it needed.
<Well, they were/are wrong.>
I guess as I and a friend are finding out they provide A LOT of bad
information despite their good reputation.
<::sigh:: This seems to be a common phenomenon, unfortunately...>
Every once in a while I would feed it 'shrimp' pellets, and chopped bits
of frozen shelled shrimp (thawed first), last night was the first time I
had directly fed it the Brine and Mysis shrimp. So should I up my
feeding with the shrimp?
<If I were you, I'd feed it at least 4 to 5 times a week until the
tissue recession stops. After that, you could feed it only every other
day or so. But you should target feed it good foods such as well-chopped
fresh seafood, scallops, shrimp, squid, clams, oysters, etc. (this might
help: http://www.asira.org/feedingyourtanks)>
are the shrimp pellets going to be digested?
<Maybe to some extent, but they're certainly not ideal. I personally
would not feed them to any of my corals.>
Is there any other foods I should try?
<Yes, food you make yourself (please see the above link). From your LFS;
frozen Mysis, krill, chopped mussels are good. Don't use stuff that has
seaweed in it (corals won't digest it). Also avoid products with a lot
of fillers and preservatives, etc. Have you heard of Rod's Food? This is
good stuff too.>
The coral seems to take them in as food. but it also seemed to take in
the phytoplankton.
<This doesn't mean anything. It likely just spits it out later. And this
isn't good for the coral. There's a net metabolic loss when it takes in
food it doesn't derive much nutritional value from.>
Is there a chance for this guy to make it?
<Yes, of course... just be patient and feed it properly. Things may get
a little worse before they get better, but corals can be tough animals.
Raising your salinity should also help.>
How often should I be feeding him now that he is wasting away, I am
guessing several times a day ?
<I'd say about once a day (at night--after lights out, or whenever you
notice the tentacles peeking out). Just be careful not to spoil your
water (effective target feeding small amounts of food is the best way to
go).>
If he pulls out what kind of feeding regime should he be on?
<Quality, target fed food 3 to 4 times a week (or about every other day)
is ideal (IMO).>
I was also told that the lighting in my tank may not be adequate is this
true?
<I doubt it. They don't need intense light.>
I don't want this guy to waste away at my care! It especially bothers me
to now know that I haven't been taking proper care of him in the first
place.
<No worries, you know now. It's a learning process. Just keep at it,
keep reading, etc. You'll get the hang of it. ;-)>
Thanks for all your help,
Adam
<De nada,
Sara M.> |
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Re: Pink
Brain Coral 1/5/08
Sara,
I am displeased to say I think this will be my last email
re-guarding my pink brain coral. It has deteriorated much more
than the first few pictures I sent you a week ago depicted.
Despite my desperate attempts to feed it and keep it alive.
Several nights I woke up in the night to get a drink or
something and traveled into the living room to check on it and
would try to feed it.
<::sigh:: Been there myself... >
I even went as far as to try to very gently squirt pieces of
chopped shrimp and squid into the few mouths that were left.
None of which worked. One night it appeared as though the tissue
was regrowing and I was ecstatic, but alas, I went by the tank
on one of my late night strolls and noticed hermits devouring
what appeared to be the corals desperate attempt at regrowth. I
gently pulled the hermits from the coral and placed a plastic
jug I cut out over top of the brain to allow it to be left
alone. I fear this decision was too late. I have attached an
updated picture taken a few moments ago. My question is: Should
I still be trying to help this animal pull through... or is it
too late?
<It's not too late. As I warned (or should have if I didn't),
things would get much worse before they got better. If I were
you, I would 1) use a powerhead and/or turkey baster to blow off
any dead tissue and opportunistic diatoms and such, 2) use the
plastic jug to help with target feeding, 3) don't be too
aggressive, don't try to inject the food into the coral. I
forget, do you have a lit refugium? In my experience, sometimes
moving a coral to a refugium can really help. I noticed this
after several times I would give up on a coral and toss it into
my refugium, thinking it would soon die. Much too my
surprise/delight some of these corals no only recovered but
became much healthier than they ever were in the display. I'm
not sure why this is (though I have some theories). It's worth a
try at least (IMO).>
If it is too late, should I remove the animal from the tank? I
know it is polluting my water due to the outbreak of
Cyanobacteria. My parameters are still in check, and I would
like to see the animal pull through but my gut feeling is that
it probably wont make it. Please advise.
<In theory, so long as there is even just a "drop" of live coral
tissue left, the coral can recover. I won't lie to you, things
don't look so good. But I wouldn't say it's over just yet. The
coral appears to still has a fair amount of live tissue left and
I've seen even more "miraculous" saves than this. All in all, I
definitely think you should keep trying to save it. If it
doesn't make it, it will at least be a valuable learning
experience.>
Adam
<Good luck!>
If the animal is to be removed, what is the most humane thing to
do with it. I would like to keep the skeleton, it was one of my
first corals.
<Let's not give up on it just yet... if it does completely die,
do write back and I'll tell you what you can do with the
skeleton to preserve it. :-)
Best,
Sara M.>
Re: Pink
Brain Coral -01/04/07
I do have a refugium (or about half of my 55 gallon sump that is
being used for one. It has about 10 - 25 lbs of a mixture of
live rock, lava rock that the aquariums previous owner was
using, (one piece is covered in coralline), and dead coral
skeletons from yet another friends tank. (who gave up after a
tank disaster). It only has a 15 watt 6800K fluorescent bulb
over it. The grape Caulerpa thrives under it and I have even
seen some coralline algae start to grow on the glass (not much
due to the lack of lighting I'm sure). Will this amount of light
be ok for the brain!?
<Temporarily, yes, perhaps... I would give it a shot.>
Also this is normally where I pour in my supplements and My top
off water. After placing the brain in the refugium should I try
to top off and dose in the other half of the aquarium after
placing the brain in there? ( I would expect so, as to keep from
exposing it to concentrated chemicals and drastic salinity
changes)
<Yes, good idea. But I must tell you, moving the coral to one's
refugium as a "treatment" of sorts is not the "standard"
recommendation. This would be a more
"controversial/experimental" course of action coming from mostly
from me personally. So, it's up to you... it might help, it
might not. In any case, do keep target feeding it (delicately).>
Thanks for all your help,
Adam
<De nada and good luck... please do keep us updated! :-)
Best,
Sara M.>
Re: Pink
Brain Coral 1/5/08
Sara,
As I am still going over things in my head this came to mind:
The pink/blue brain that I have is a deep dwelling species
correct?
<Um, not necessarily. Usually the collectors stay more shallow I
believe.>
With this being said should it be in the shaded portions of my
tank? I ask this because it was in the "shaded" area of my tank,
Until about a month ago. It was expanding and got hung up on a
rock. Because of this I moved him to one of the few spaces on
the sand where he would fit which is directly under my lights
with no shade. Could this have been part of the problem?
<Possibly... the sudden change of light could have been
detrimental.>
I don't think he would have experienced photo shock because he
wasn't completely covered in the shade in his last spot. It was
under a huge Xenia colony that due to its movements in the
current, provided it with partial shade and light. So moving it
out shouldn't have induced photo-shock should it?
<It's hard to say for sure, but it's possible.>
I have placed him back under the Xenia for now and if conditions
become worse I am going to move him to the refugium as a last
ditch effort. (I hate to keep him from the light, but I guess
this could also be beneficial for short term?)
<If it was "happy" under the xenia, then that's where it should
be. I think one of the hardest things for reef aquarists to
learn/accept is that every coral is different and you shouldn't
try to "impose your will" on them. If a coral appears healthy
and growing in a spot that (according to your sources) is
totally wrong for it, so be it. I assure you that the animal
knows itself better than you do. So, maybe we need a "Zen of
Coral Care" article or something... lol :-)>
I hate sitting things out and waiting with things like this, but
it's all I can do.
<Haha, I know how you feel, but it's all you can do.>
My brain wanders too much in it's attempt to figure out things.
<No pun intended, right? j/k I really am sorry for your struggle
and I know how it feels. I've even slept on the couch next to
one of my corals when I thought there was something wrong with
it (I was that worried/obsessed over it). But I've come to learn
that this hobby is just so uncertain. Even if we read all we
possibly can, it's still a lot of trial and error (and may
always be so). It does help for our trials and errors to be well
educated/informed though... so please do keep
reading/learning/sharing. :-)>
Adam
<Good luck,
Sara M.> |
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Re: Pink Brain
Coral... death 1/10/08
Sara,
<Hi, sorry for the late response...>
My brain is now completely white and most of the tissue is gone.
<:-( Sorry to hear that. At least you did all you could do.)
I have had a Cyano bloom on the sand. (nothing that the powerheads can't
clear up with a little adjusting but it is a nuisance) The coral is
still in the refugium. The reason I said most of the tissue is gone is
that two nights ago I figured it was probably over for the little guy
(it was completely bleached and smelled like sulfur), so I pulled it out
of the tank to notice that there was still white fleshy tissue on the
skeleton. I placed the coral back into the refugium and blew some of the
necrotic tissue of with a turkey baster as well as removed some of the
algae accumulation off the skeleton. While doing this I notice I sucked
some of the white tissue off the skeleton. To my surprise tonight while
I was looking at it I noticed the white "tissue" was back. Is this coral
tissue or something else?
<I can't think of anything else it could be. But I don't know if this
tissue is still alive enough to be saved. When you're ready to pull it
out and clean/preserve the skeleton, you should boil it for a half our
or so, then soak it in 50/50 bleach/water.
Best,
Sara M.>
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Sick
Elegance, Rose Brain health, & possible Lithophyllum sp. ID 10/18/07
Hi Folks,
I have been searching your site for answers and with all the information
I've read I am less sure than I was before I started.
<It happens to all of us. :-)>
I have a few questions and I am a recent student of this hobby so please
bear with me.
I am running a 265 gallon, 32in x 32in x 5ft, with a 29 gallon sump with
skimmer, we don't do anything small in this house. Currently, I am in
the process of slowly filling my tank, so I have started at one end with
a 400W MH and 4-40W fluorescent actinic. I will be adding another 400W
MH at the other end when I have life to put under it.
First, I have enclosed a few photos of my rose brain, elegance and an
unknown. The unknown was a skeleton covered in mushrooms that had a
great shape. When I got it in my tank a tiny portion of the skeleton was
still alive and started to regrow, recovering the skeleton with life,
any idea what this could be?
<Very nice recovery. It looks like some kind of Lithophyllum sp.>
Under actinic only this glows green, but with MH it looks a tan colour.
The other 4 pics are of my formerly healthy elegance and brain and their
now sick images. The elegance from what I read on your site looks like
the virus that Julian Sprung describes. Over the course of about a week
parts of it started to shrivel. Now it's been like this for about 3
weeks. I am hoping for the best and just looking for suggestions.
<There's been some recent promising investigation into the cause of (and
possibly cure for) Elegance coral disease. Please see here:
http://www.elegancecoral.org/Page_4.html>
My brain on the other hand had almost tripled in size from this healthy
photo(daytime) and now for about 5 days has continued to shrink. The
colour is still good but there is no puffiness to it at all.
<Actually, it looks a little bleached. You should move it to an area of
less intense light or raise your light. For general care of these
corals, please see here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/trachyphlliidae.htm>
I have done a partial water change and then today I noticed that the
little sponges that hitchhike on live rock, the one that look like
cotton balls, have all started to die off. I can't figure out what has
happened. My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all at 0 and the ph is
8.4.
<I think you probably have too much light over your tank. Some sponges
don't like a lot of light.>
Also in this tank,
130lbs live rock,
Rhodactis mushrooms,
2 Fungia - green and orange
Platygyra,
Blastomussa,
lg coral covered in Christmas tree worms,
a Purple, a blue and a yellow tang,
2 small clownfish,
a lg orange and green BTA and a small rose BTA,
a sm Xenia,
a frogspawn,
chili sponge
3 cleaner shrimp,
a debelius lobster,
multiple mushrooms,
candy coral,
green star polyp,
a red and yellow feather duster,
many snails and hermit crabs,
and of course anything that hitch hiked in on the live rock.
Everything else in this tank appears healthy, eats normally and seems to
be thriving. The only thing that has changed since just before the brain
started to recede is the addition of 5 lbs of live rock, and the
Rhodactis mushrooms and a move of the purple tang in from the QT.
Should I just leave it or is there any suggestions about intervention?
<I don't think the new additions are causing your coral troubles.>
Thanks in advance for your help, us newbies really appreciate your time
and consideration.
Christine
<De nada,
Sara M.> |
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