Hi, Ive had a decent sized acan colony for about 3 months now, going on 20 heads. I had some problems with my pygmy angel in my 24 NC, so I moved all of my acans over into my newer 29 bowfront. A few days ago, I noticed the rear few heads on the acan looking very wrong. They were wispy, some pieces of the polyps were missing, and the skeleton was very visible, also the skeleton was very white, seems like it was newly exposed. When I picked it up to examine, all other heads are fine. I placed it back on the sand but now the problem area is more visible. After placing it, I saw a brown bristleworm swimming along the glass! I removed it immediately. Im wondering if the bristleworms will eat acans, from what Ive read they eat corals, but cant find specifically which ones. I also have no known acan predators in the tank, normal CUC, and 2 picasso clowns. All parameters are fine, all of my other acans are fine and inflating fully, along with all of the other heads on the damaged acan. I know pics will help, Im working now so Ill try to post them later. Id like to say that it was the bristleworm doing the harm, mostly because all others are fine. Has anyone seen anything like this? Thanks in advance

Give the acan and iodine and furan dip if you have some and put it under good flow asap. Chances are that your angel picking on it gave it an infection and it's going to spread very quickly. If there's any way to frag off the infected parts do so asap as well. The most important thing is flow, give it good flow towards the peeling flesh after the dip and hope for the best.

There are many types of bristle worms. Not all are coral predators. It may be just eating the dead/dying flesh off of the acan. I have seen many bristle worms and they don't bother my acan. My guess is that the bristle worm is not the primary cause of the problem.

Just got home, and now looks like I lost half of it. I moved it up higher in the light, and better flow. Im going ot have to run to the LFS and get some brightwell coral dip. The angel hasnt been able to nip on it in a few weeks, still possible for ann infection?? Im very upet about it, It cost me 120! Should I frag it or wait it out?

Yep. Very possible. Use both Furan and Iodine to treat it. Good news is that if you feed the bejeus out of it it will grow back pretty quickly.

You want it in as little light as possible, higher light will stress and kill it even quicker. Frag off the dead sections asap if possible. Sometimes infections just come out of nowhere though, it's weird but does happen...

Sounds like a bacterial infection, dip it and frag it. I doubt the bristle worm had any thing to do with it other than just cleaning up. Moving probably was the last straw as it was already under stress from the angel. I know how you feel, I have a nice acans that I got for free and I know how expensive they are. My 110
dollar blue spotted jaw fish jumped the day after I got him and the tank had a lid on it, how he got out I will never new, but now I rarely buy anything really expensive.

It's weird my small acan frags can get ruffed up time and time again yet they always survive, but a large acan colony I had melted away from a small tear that occurred in the center of it. I wonder if large colonies are more prone to infections?

ReVive!!!!!!

+2 Young Jedi

Just dipped with brightwell coral med. Well see how it goes from here on out. Heres what Im dealing with, and this is the good side:

And the bad side

Please note that only one head was fully exposed when I went to sleep last night.

possibly brown jelly? just a guess,might be wrong..

Just home from work, looks alot worse, I think I can only see 1 green mouth on the rear. Preparing another dip to try and save something, but looks like a goner... I feel terrible killing something that came from the ocean.

We all feel bad when we lose livestock... another reason to buy aquacultured for a higher "chance" to succeed in captively raising a healthy specimen. Sorry for the loss!

Corals in the wild are found dead often too. Doesn't justify collecting them. Anyway, blow the "jelly" infectious material off with higher flow. The dips should help. Perhaps, before the dip, you should frag off the infected area.

I would if there was really anything to save by fragging. There was a very small pea sized crumb of skeleton and polyp that was hanging off in the old tank, I was able to frag it off, but its not a mouth, its a piece of polyp. Well see what happens with it. So far its been expanding in the newer tank, so at least Ill have a small piece of it.
Im also wondering if I should be changing my filter pads? I just threw a bag of chemi pure in the first chamber of my AC110, think I should change that out too?

Well this is the final picture after 2 more dips. Ive had it in tupperware since the last dip. Im pretty sure its over for it, no more green mouths visible, flesh is badly deteriorating. Looks like he went to that great sea in the sky. Hope this never happens again!!!

Don't throw it away, you never know what might happen..

Yea, I know, Im very hesitant to put it back in the tank though, especially after I saw my Picassos staring at some of the flesh coming off like it was food! Thats why Ive had it in tupperwear all night, doing 1 cup water changes. Not sure what to do. Also should I change out my filter pad and chemi pure?

I'm sure that can't hurt.. And I don't think leaving it in tupperwear will help. I would just put it back in and see what happens.