At what point do you frag an acro colony that is STNing?

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:30 pm

I have this nice colony that i traded some rock in for probably 7 months ago. It has been brown ever since I got it but thats beside the point. After the red bug issue this coral hasn't gotten better. I no long have red bugs but this one is just slowly bleaching or stning from the inside out, but at the same time the tips are growing. How far would you let it go before you frag it up. I just put in some of those reeflux 10k bulbs and in 3 days I'm noticing that it wants to color up. I'd hate to bust it up into little pieces if it could maybe pull through as a full colony. It was a nice blue colony that I got from Aquaworks. What are your opinions. I have had mixed results with trying to frag something up to save it.

Drew

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:57 pm

Me personally, I would make sure I cut some of it off and super glued it to other rocks.

If it is growing on the tips but dying on the inside, I highly suspect a wild coral that is not getting anywhere near enough flow.

You saw that wild coral I have that refuses to turn blue except at the edges. The only way it survives in the middle is in super high flow. If I move it, it immediately begins to die in the middle.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:17 pm

Redfish wrote:If it is growing on the tips but dying on the inside, I highly suspect a wild coral that is not getting anywhere near enough flow.

I sencond that. If it is dying from the bottom I would frag it all. No matter what I would at least take one frag and put it on the other side of the tank.
Can you get any superglue on the dying portions to try and stop the recession?

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:02 pm

I third that.

Definately at least cut a peice or two just give it a better chance of at least a part of it living. Sometimes, especially with the wild ones, there's just not much you can do. Good luck!

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 8:07 pm

After i posted i went and looked at it some more. It looks like i have some new growth on part of the base, but the center is still dead. Its basically been through hell in that it is a wild colony and got hit with red bugs. Then I had an alk problem. I guess I could try to cut it up a bit this weekend. I'll put one or two around the tank. Phil, I'll bring you a frag or two also to see if one of us can keep it.

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 8:31 pm

Sounds good to me.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:26 pm

Scott wrote:
Redfish wrote:If it is growing on the tips but dying on the inside, I highly suspect a wild coral that is not getting anywhere near enough flow.
I sencond that. If it is dying from the bottom I would frag it all. No matter what I would at least take one frag and put it on the other side of the tank.
Can you get any superglue on the dying portions to try and stop the recession?

I'd need a lot of superglue.. There are about a dozen branches that I'll be able to frag off.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:45 pm

well i got antsy and decided to chop it up tonight.. That thing slimmed more then my green slimmer. It made my skimmer go out of wack. Hopefully I salvaged some of it becuase from what I recall it was a good looking coral. I noticed that I might have had a flat worm on one of the chunks I broke off. I didn't see more then one though. I have been treating all my frags and corals with interceptor when I get them. I haven't been treating with anything else though, and I went through 2 treatments of flatworm exit about 4 or 5 months ago. Its one thing after another with these saltwater tanks.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:04 pm

So I went to RC to look at the Acro flatworm thread and now I'm a little worried. They say they are clear. The one I saw was a red one. My coral however was really slimeing up bad after dropping it in the lugols. I just might try the one FW exit dose I have left to see what I can kill.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:23 pm

So I don't know what to do with my tank. I've checked everything and tested everything and all seems good. Well my calcium is a little high, just above 500, but everything else I tested seems to be in check. I'm not sure whats happening with any of the acros. My LPS are taking off and look better then ever as do all other corals except the SPS. Almost 90% are losing their flesh from the inside out and now the tips in. The only two that don't seem to be affected at this point are my two millipora. I think I'm just going to let things run their course and see what happens. If I lose all the acros then so be it. If i have these acro flatworms that I've read about then I don't even want to try removing them. That would take more time then I have to try to clean up the tank. I'll see how things look when i get back on monday. I may end up having a reactor for sale depending on how things go.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:11 pm

That really sucks. Hate to hear it for you, I know the worst thing is when everything looks ok and tests ok yet you still have losses. You said SPS were affected, did you mean only Acropora? Do you have any others, Montiporas, stylophora, pocillipora, etc. and are they doing ok?
You had flatworms before, if I remember correctly...are the corals acting the same as they did then?
They say that RTN is extremely contagious amongst acros, I've never had it happen like that, where one starts to RTN and a chain reaction occurs. It's always been just that one. I would also think this would be much more of a problem with wild corals than ones grown in tanks. But it's something to think on if you can find nothing else as the cause, an extreme longshot, maybe. Good Luck, it's tough. But we can always get you started again if you have to do that. Keep us updated..

Sue

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:46 pm

well i guess it isn' 90% but its a lot of them. I don't even know if its the acro flatworms.. they are clear and you can't really see them from what I was told. Fortionatly most of my stuff was frags, no major colonies. I'll see what things look like when i get back on monday. And my caps look good but my digi's look bad also. I'm just not in a mood to mess with this tank much anymore. I didn't think i had the tank set up the way I wanted it for acros, sps, anyway and with knowing i might only be in this house for 2 or 3 more yrs and end up moving across the country or at least the state I might just go with the easy stuff.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 8:48 am

Take a look at this thread....scary.

http://www.zeovit.com/forums/showthread ... +flatworms

Might not hurt to try the levamisole dip, I'm gonna try and get some from the vet. Guess I'll add that to do along with the interceptor treatment, but I think no more acros for awhile, will just be happy with letting the ones I have grow. Hopefully they arent already on any.

Sue

Each 20.17g bottle contains 18.15g of Levamisole hydrochloride. So 18.15g/20.17g=.899 or 90% active ingrediant. So......

40ppm x 132.3L (35gal)/900mg/g = 5.88g

So you treat 35gal of water w/ 5.88g for 5 hours. Treat once a week for 4 or 5 weeks. During the treatments I would bleach your quarantine tank in case any are off the coral or laid eggs on the glass. I would also brush off any eggs I find during the dip. I would also pray.

And remember, do as the directions on the bottle say: Don't feed your pigs any food or water before the treatment and wait 72 hours before you slaughter them.

Mitch
So your saying 0.84 grams with Levaminsole HCI @ 90% for 5 gals. That will give me the 40ppm we all desire to treat incoming corals for the AFW.

sb1227 · Post by **sb1227** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:42 am

Personally I would NOT use this stuff as an in tank treatment, it kills everything and stays in the sand bed. At least according to the RC gurus.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:48 pm

I read that stuff a few weeks back. I just don't want to treat everything like that. I don't have the time to take everything out every week and dip it. It more of a hassle then I feel like going through at this point, plus I haven't seen an actual fw yet, just what the symptoms. Granted I havent taken anything out to look at it either so they could be there. I just don't know why everything else is doing so great other then the sps.