THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD

[albertthiel]

It was actually a bottom rock with no coral on it.

 

Well maybe you can start by getting that rock out and when you do make sure that the worm is actually in it.

 

When you have the rock if that is what you are going to do, make sure you can "see" the worm so you are sure it is out of the tank.

 

Now as to the reason for your fish losses, unless it is a Eunice worm I am not sure that the worm is really the reason four your losses Martin. It is not a "Eunice" worm then I doubt that whatever kind it is is the reason for the disappearance of the fish, and if it is not then I have no idea what caused it unless it is the chasing by the clown.

 

Check for the worm, get it out, and take a picture of it so we can see what worm it was and let's go from there and decide if the worm is the cause or not. If not then it may have been the chasing by the clown

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

In that case, if you are willing to tackle this tonight while you know the worm is still in that rock & hasn't moved somewhere else, I would suggest taking the rock out and placing it in a pail or something & cover it w/distilled water. That'll get the worm out. If all you saw was 5" or so, it might be a lot bigger & longer than you thought.

 

Yes, that would IMO be the first thing to do indeed, as I pointed out in my reply to Martin. I think we need to figure out what kind of worm it is because, as I wrote, if it is not a Eunice/Bobbit then the reason for his fish losses are IMO not due to the worm.

 

I am sure Weetabix7 that you agree with that right, and that a Bristle or even Fireworm would not account for his fish losses. Even if that worm was larger than the 5 or 6 inches, I do not believe that it would have captured and consumed his fish (since apparently he did not find cadavers, but then may some of his CUC crew may have consumed those ... that is a possibility as well.

 

Martin read my response and this one and get the worm out and show us some pics of it ... thanks

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Hey Albert. Here is a picture of some type of filter feeder that is prevalent in my tank. They comprise of a very hard and brittle "stem" or tube that you can see sticking up here and there on my rocks.

 

I turn my sand now once a week to keep a healthy sandbed, and whenever I do these little guys (about a quarter inch in length, tube wise) send out long long sticky tendrils to capture the particles that get stirred up.

 

I assume they are beneficial as most filter feeders are but do you know what kind they are? Definitely fan worms.

 

The only problem I have with them is they are kinda ugly and whenever I pick up a rock to move it or clean it im always breaking one or two tubes off or poking my fingers on them.

 

And ID would be awesome and also a reassurance that they wont harm my tank if that's the case. I can get rid of them easy enough if that's not the case though, as they are easily broken off.

 

Also... Nothing ever comes out of the tube unless there are clouds of detritus in the water. They are not awaken by normal fish feedings.

 

Thanks!!

 

It is a harmless filter feeder and will not do any harm to anything in your tank, it just catches food or other particles with its tentacles

 

Here is a link to a video on it :

 

Eupolymnia crassicornis are maybe unsightly but usually IME a sign that your tank is doing well and can support that kind of life form and that there is enough particulate matter in the water to support them.

 

Not sure how many you have but yes it may not look appealing but then we all often have organisms in our tanks that do not.

 

If you wanted to rid the tank of them you would have to remove rocks and bathe them in freshwater to get the worms to come out of their holes in the rocks ... or take the rock and run carbonated water over it as that will usually make them come out as well.

 

OTOH, their numbers will stabilize by themselves as there is only so much food stuff available for them in the tank so their population is in a way self-limiting based on the amount of food they can trap and get them to survive. Less food = less worms.

 

Personally I would just leave them alone and wait for their numbers to diminish if you think you have too many and on your general question as to do they harm anything : no they do not

 

You can read up some more on them here ( an article on research done on them by the "thecephalopodpage.org" authors Julian Lim and Dr. James B. Wood Editor :

 

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/marineinv...assicornis.html

 

And if you do a Bing or other search engine search for Spaghetti worm you will find many more articles that discuss them including links to posts on other forums.

 

But as I said they are harmless so if you don't have too many just let them be since they are not doing any harm to anything in your tank.

 

Here is another picture of one that has real large feeders out :

 

 

And if you want to see a whole series of them on images.G here is the link :

 

http://tinyurl.com/99rp6fz that will show you a large number and in various views ..

 

Hope this helps but if you have more questions feel free of course to post them tiepilot68

 

Albert

[Kfmmartin19]

Yes, that would IMO be the first thing to do indeed, as I pointed out in my reply to Martin. I think we need to figure out what kind of worm it is because, as I wrote, if it is not a Eunice/Bobbit then the reason for his fish losses are IMO not due to the worm.

 

I am sure Weetabix7 that you agree with that right, and that a Bristle or even Fireworm would not account for his fish losses. Even if that worm was larger than the 5 or 6 inches, I do not believe that it would have captured and consumed his fish (since apparently he did not find cadavers, but then may some of his CUC crew may have consumed those ... that is a possibility as well.

 

Martin read my response and this one and get the worm out and show us some pics of it ... thanks

 

Albert

Hey thanks for the all the advice Albert and Weetabix! Someone in my other thread recommended taking all the rocks out and putting them in RO/DI water. This would get out all hitch hikers (worms and crabs alike!) and then I could choose what to put back in my tank. Does this sound like a good idea? Would this affect the bacteria in any way so that I would have to worry about a mini-cycle after putting all the rock back?

 

Once I get the worms and/or whatever is in the rocks out, I will get pics.

[albertthiel]

Nice pictures Albert. Looks like their doing fine. I do wish we had a better camera.

 

Thanks David, and yes they appear to be doing well, especially since those pics were taken not too long after I added them to the aquarium.

 

I like the way that little piece of Pavona coral that broke off, and that I glued on a small fragment of rock, is doing, with nice polyp extension as you may have seen in the picture I posted.

 

On the note you sent me about that encrusting growth on the larger rock : you said a granulosa type coral, that would be Acropora granulosa I suppose ...

 

I think that is where you too the frag off, and so there is a white spot where that piece was, but there is growth around that area (right now very small knobs that I can only see when I use a magnifying glass) but they are there so there is more growth of it.

 

Unfortunately I do not have the kind of lighting that is needed to support that growth IMO, as I do not use LED's but 2 100 watt equivalent CFT bulbs, and I am not sure that their 6500K spectrum and intensity is enough to get Acropora to grow, but we'll see what happens.

 

The Cabbage coral is still teed off, even this morning, but the lights are not on yet so I don't quite know yet what it will look like in a few hours but I'll post some pics (and yes I wish I had a real good camera, and not have to use my iPhone).

 

Thanks again for the corals .... I really appreciate it.

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Good morning Albert,

I have had a very busy weekend and it seems set to continue over the next few days new car searching at the mo.

I found the following posted on another forum which looks interesting.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/G24-11W-44-LED-S...=item3a7b08f4aa

They only do up to 6500k at the moment however.

 

Les.

 

Not to worry Les, we all get busy and have to take care of things ... and finding a new car can indeed take up quite a bit of time ... that and in your case work of course too (not in mine since I am in semiretirement although I would love to find a job in our Hobby and really get my hands wet as they say).

 

I looked at the light you posted the link to but I don't think that would be the right one based on the specs they give as they state that it has a mix of "incandescent and daylight" types of spectrum. If I made a change a this point I would add another CFT but one of those that has white and either blue or actinic in it ... not sure I have to look it up, but they are not sold at Home Depot or similar, so I may need to order online if I go with one, or look at one of the larger Lighting only stores here (Progressive Lighting).

 

I guess you have heard about the very nasty storm in the North East here (GA is not affected) but as I am watching the news as I write this, it looks like it is going to get worse than it already is and bad it is in quite a few areas already ... and the newscasters keep stressing that the worst is yet to come.

 

Anyway, enjoy the car hunting .... and keep us posted

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

To update the huricain a little, all the subways, railroads, bridges and tunnels in New York City are shut down for the first time in my life, maybe in history.

The streets are starting to flood on the south shore in whats called the Nautical Mile with the water expected to rise another 6' by high tide tonight. Tomorrow the storm is supposed to get worse as it is still over 600 miles away from here.

I still have power and all seems well so far.

Have a great day.

 

Thanks for the update Paul ... looks like it is going to get worse indeed based on what I am hearing on the News this morning ... Amazing that it can do that much damage already when it is still that far away but apparently it is such a large storm that it covers hundreds of miles in width.

 

Not sure if people are losing power yet but if what I hear on the news is going to happen then I think that loss of power is unavoidable ... and of course in NC that has already happened.

 

Wish you the best and keep us posted will you and if you take picture for posterity of what you see do post some here will you. Thanks.

 

I hope all goes well for you and all others in the affected areas ... and that no one suffers any losses.

 

As I posted, for those who do not have generators, using battery powered air pumps (one or more depending on the size of the tank) may help in creating water movement and aeration/oxygenation and that should help although the tank will still suffer from the power losses of course but maybe not nearly as much is some flow is maintained and some oxygenation of the water takes place.

 

Godspeed ! and if you can let us know what goes on but if you lose power you may not have DSL working, or DSL may go out if the providers loose power themselves.

 

All the best

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

I am glad that they have decided to take those measures. I have several friends in the NYC & New Jersey area and have been following developments closely. I know that in NYC there were concerns that the schools would stay open.

 

Looks like right now all schools will be closed and so will all public transportation (already has it seems), and so many people have been evacuated that this is definitely one of the most severe set of measures I have ever seen taken in the affected areas ... and what the weather channel is showing just a while ago is that the affected area is enormous.

 

What a natural disaster that is going to be .. unbelievable !

 

All the best to those in all those areas. Be safe !

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Hey thanks for the all the advice Albert and Weetabix! Someone in my other thread recommended taking all the rocks out and putting them in RO/DI water. This would get out all hitch hikers (worms and crabs alike!) and then I could choose what to put back in my tank. Does this sound like a good idea? Would this affect the bacteria in any way so that I would have to worry about a mini-cycle after putting all the rock back?

 

Once I get the worms and/or whatever is in the rocks out, I will get pics.

 

Yes that is of course an option, which has been suggested here as well Martin, and yes if you dip the rocks in RO/DI or other water, it will kill of the beneficial bacteria as well, but it will get any HH's out of the rocks, and anything undesirable.

 

Depending on how many rocks you have to do this to, your bio filters may take a beating and you may indeed see a mini cycle again, but it depends on what bacteria level remains in the tank e.g. in the substrate and in rocks that you did not have to remove.

 

Testing for ammonia and nitrite will tell you what is going on after you put the rocks back in and if needed you may need to do some water changes to keep the levels in check, and you can add some Poly-Filters from Poly Bio Marine as they absorb ammonia and will lessen their impact, if any.

 

You said you know which rock the worm is in so if that is the only rock you need to get out then your bio filter should still be fine, as there will be plenty of beneficial bacteria left in the thank.

 

It all depends on how many rocks you have to treat that way IME.

 

Albert

[Paul.b]

If I lost power, which looks like may happen soon, I don't think I can post, even with my generator running as my internet comes in on FIOS on overhead wires.

There are tropical force winds extending out 1,000 miles in diameter, hundreds of miles larger than anything in recorded history. Apparently these hurricanes usually head east out to sea but there is another storm out there pushing this one to shore. This is very unusual and we will see what happens. If my house and car does not flood I will try to get out and take some pictures.

Take care.

Paul

[NanoTopia]

Hello Albert,

 

Have you come across Green Boring Algae on SPS, like so http://aquariumcoraldiseases.weebly.com/gr...ring-algae.html ?

 

I have yet to find information on it, and your experience would be invaluable.

 

Thanks!

 

Bello/Albert,

 

I have always found algae and cyanobacteria opportunistic in nature. I may have experienced this or something like this not to long ago. When one of my corals, green A.prostrata was hit hard by AEFW, I noticed tissue regrowth in some areas that had RTN'd. Being a green coral, it took a while for me to notice that the tissue regrowth was not tissue regrowth at all. Upon closer inspection I noticed the skeleton had been colonized, for lack of a better term, by a fairly light green algae. The colour was similar to the original tissue colour of the coral, the reason I did not notice it at first. It was like the algae had moved into the pores of the skeleton and was living symbiotically, something like described in the article. It did differ from more familiar algae in that this algae was not sitting on top the coral structure, but rather within it.

 

In this photo I took of the above mentioned coral, you can clearly see the green algae off to the upper left side, the surrounding tissue, and the skeleton exposed with some algae already forming. Disregard the oval, this was marking the location of AEFW egg sacks found and removed from the coral, and the only area showing white skeleton.

 

 

The coral was deemed impossible to save and was discarded after the picture was taken. I have no idea if this algae is related to the green boring algae described in the article, but there seems to be similarities. The algae in my case seemed to be opportunistic and not the reason for the tissue necrosis.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Christine

[Weetabix7]

Hey thanks for the all the advice Albert and Weetabix! Someone in my other thread recommended taking all the rocks out and putting them in RO/DI water. This would get out all hitch hikers (worms and crabs alike!) and then I could choose what to put back in my tank. Does this sound like a good idea? Would this affect the bacteria in any way so that I would have to worry about a mini-cycle after putting all the rock back?

 

Once I get the worms and/or whatever is in the rocks out, I will get pics.

 

I agree w/Albert, if you do it to all of your rocks you will likely affect your bio filter & get a mini cycle.

I think you should try just doing it to the one rock you saw the worm in ASAP. Once it comes out you will know if it is a Eunice Worm and can go from there.

[albertthiel]

If I lost power, which looks like may happen soon, I don't think I can post, even with my generator running as my internet comes in on FIOS on overhead wires.

There are tropical force winds extending out 1,000 miles in diameter, hundreds of miles larger than anything in recorded history. Apparently these hurricanes usually head east out to sea but there is another storm out there pushing this one to shore. This is very unusual and we will see what happens. If my house and car does not flood I will try to get out and take some pictures.

Take care.

Paul

 

Thanks Paul and yes what you state is what the weather people keep indicating and showing pictures of. This is a "massive" one for sure and I think that this may be a one of a kind one that is going to affect a very large number of people in a lot of Coastal NE States from what it appears (and some already have).

 

All the best to you and yes if you can take some shots ... and indeed if the DSL goes out your generator is not going to help as the issue will be with the Provider and not you.

 

With those two storms merging the forecasters say that Sandy is going to pick up even more strength and bring in more rain and for longer than was originally forecasted. Some say that people in certain areas may be out of power for over a week, but not knowing where you are located that will hopefully not apply to you.

 

I saw some pics of what is going on around Atlantic City, and it is scary to look at for sure.

 

Hopefully it will not be as bad as they keep saying but then one never knows as it seems that even the weather forecasters are not too sure what the merging of the two storms is really going to bring about.

 

Thanks for your update and if we don't see any posts from you and others in the affected area we'll know why and just hope that no one gets injured ...

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Bello/Albert,

I have always found algae and cyanobacteria opportunistic in nature. I may have experienced this or something like this not to long ago. When one of my corals, green A.prostrata was hit hard by AEFW, I noticed tissue regrowth in some areas that had RTN'd.

Being a green coral, it took a while for me to notice that the tissue regrowth was not tissue regrowth at all. Upon closer inspection I noticed the skeleton had been colonized, for lack of a better term, by a fairly light green algae.

The colour was similar to the original tissue colour of the coral, the reason I did not notice it at first. It was like the algae had moved into the pores of the skeleton and was living symbiotically, something like described in the article. It did differ from more familiar algae in that this algae was not sitting on top the coral structure, but rather within it.

 

In this photo I took of the above mentioned coral, you can clearly see the green algae off to the upper left side, the surrounding tissue, and the skeleton exposed with some algae already forming. Disregard the oval, this was marking the location of AEFW egg sacks found and removed from the coral, and the only area showing white skeleton.

 

The coral was deemed impossible to save and was discarded after the picture was taken. I have no idea if this algae is related to the green boring algae described in the article, but there seems to be similarities. The algae in my case seemed to be opportunistic and not the reason for the tissue necrosis.

 

Hope this helps,

Christine

 

Thanks Christine for the input on this Boring Green Algae topic, and I think you are right that this may have been an opportunistic algae, and not the Green Boring one.

 

I was reading something about Ostreobium yesterday, and what you experienced "may" have been an instance of that, although not for sure.

 

This may just have been an unidentified green algae growing on a dead area of the coral and colonizing it.

 

Here is a link on Ostreobium for your info, that describes how and where it grows and gives a good amount of detail, but does not allow me to determine whether that is what you had although it does show some resemblance to it :

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/1n01023515100515/

 

Let us know what you think after you get a chance to read that article. Thanks

 

Albert

[jedimasterben]

I agree w/Albert, if you do it to all of your rocks you will likely affect your bio filter & get a mini cycle.

That's one reason I have so much biomedia in my tank, a full liter each of Seachem Matrix and deNitrate. If I removed all of my live rock, I'd still have a sufficient biofilter to limp things along.

[NanoTopia]

Thanks Christine for the input on this Boring Green Algae topic, and I think you are right that this may have been an opportunistic algae, and not the Green Boring one.

 

I was reading something about Ostreobium yesterday, and what you experienced "may" have been an instance of that, although not for sure.

 

This may just have been an unidentified green algae growing on a dead area of the coral and colonizing it.

 

Here is a link on Ostreobium for your info, that describes how and where it grows and gives a good amount of detail, but does not allow me to determine whether that is what you had although it does show some resemblance to it :

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/1n01023515100515/

 

Let us know what you think after you get a chance to read that article. Thanks

 

Albert

 

Albert, it does appear from one of the pictures in the above article that this algae bores quite deeply into the skeleton structure. I have no way of knowing if this was the case with my coral since I did not break the coral at the area containing the algae, exposing a cross section of the skeleton. I am unclear, from what I have read thus far, if this algae is the cause of the tissue necrosis on the coral (the disease) or it is opportunistic and simply bores deep into the skeleton structure. The fact that it may be symbiotic with the coral, providing energy for growth, is the interesting part. The article states, "The endolithic flora is of great importance due to its dual role as a potential donator of energy to the coral host (Schlichter et al. 1997) and as an agent of erosion of the coral skeleton (Tribollet et al. 2002; Tribollet and Golubic 2005)." (2011, Genotypic diversity and distribution of Ostreobium quekettii within scleractinian corals

Eldad Gutner-Hoch • Maoz Fine).

 

I have not read the full text and likely will not as it does not generally relate to hobby reefkeeping, although it might.

 

EDIT: I see just now Post #5434. Please disregard the following. "I do wonder why the OP is posting this condition, has he/she experienced this in their aquarium? I would be more interested to hear about that specific experience with it. Maybe the OP (Bello) could elaborate a little further as to the interest in green boring algae."

 

If the Bello could post some pictures it may help eliminate several commonly known conditions involving algae.

 

 

 

Christine

Edited October 29, 2012 by NanoTopia

[albertthiel]

I agree w/Albert, if you do it to all of your rocks you will likely affect your bio filter & get a mini cycle.

I think you should try just doing it to the one rock you saw the worm in ASAP. Once it comes out you will know if it is a Eunice Worm and can go from there.

 

Yes that would indeed be the first step ... and if you locate the worm and since you know what Rock it is in/on Martin you may not have to take all of the other ones out of the tank.

 

Go for it and find that worm and take some pics

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Albert, it does appear from one of the pictures in the above article that this algae bores quite deeply into the skeleton structure. I have no way of knowing if this was the case with my coral since I did not break the coral at the area containing the algae, exposing a cross section of the skeleton. I am unclear, from what I have read thus far, if this algae is the cause of the tissue necrosis on the coral (the disease) or it is opportunistic and simply bores deep into the skeleton structure. The fact that it may be symbiotic with the coral, providing energy for growth, is the interesting part. The article states, "The endolithic flora is of great importance due to its dual role as a potential donator of energy to the coral host (Schlichter et al. 1997) and as an agent of erosion of the coral skeleton (Tribollet et al. 2002; Tribollet and Golubic 2005)." (2011, Genotypic diversity and distribution of Ostreobium quekettii within scleractinian corals

Eldad Gutner-Hoch • Maoz Fine).

 

I have not read the full text and likely will not as it does not generally relate to hobby reefkeeping, although it might.

 

EDIT: I see just now Post #5434. Please disregard the following. "I do wonder why the OP is posting this condition, has he/she experienced this in their aquarium? I would be more interested to hear about that specific experience with it. Maybe the OP (Bello) could elaborate a little further as to the interest in green boring algae."

 

If the Bello could post some pictures it may help eliminate several commonly known conditions involving algae.

 

Christine

 

I agree Christine that in your case it could have been an after fact occurrence because of the STN that had already happened, and the algae found an area where it could settle down and propagate, or whether it was the cause .. but based on what you related it sounds like it is the former indeed.

 

And yes, I agree, that if we could get some more info from Bello as to why he posted his message that doing so would be helpful.

 

It may, however, very well be that it was an 'informational" posting pointing out that this was a possible pest algae that some may encounter in their tanks, although the article referenced points out that it is/has been found in public aquariums, but does not mention occurrences of it in reef tanks.

 

So Bello if you do read this post can you clarify why you did post that message and the link ( a good one as it deals with other invasive algae beside the Green Boring one).

 

Thanks

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Informational article on Spaghetti Worms with details on their Profile and More

 

© thecephalopodpage and the Authors

 

The information is somewhat based on finding in Bermuda but the details apply to Sphagetti worms in general not just the ones found in Bermuda

 

Link : http://tinyurl.com/8mlr2q3

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Peanut Worms - - Sipunculans

 

© Ron L. Shimek, Ph. D. and reefkeeping.com

 

Sipunculans are worms found throughout the world's oceans.

 

There are no representatives of the group from either fresh water or terrestrial environments.

 

There are an estimated 300 to 500 species of peanut worms.

 

However, many of them are small and as they tend to be found in environments, such as the insides of rocks, which are not easy to study, those estimates may be low.

 

Link : http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-04/rs/

 

Albert

[albertthiel]

Dr. R. Shimek wrote 3 Articles on Snails, Limpets,

 

Conchs, Columbellids and More

 

Below are the links to the various articles which all include a lot of information + a large number of pictures and photos.

 

Part 1: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/

 

Part 2: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rs/index.php

 

Part 3: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rs/index.php

 

Albert

[Bello]

Hello Albert & Christine,

 

Thanks for taking an interest at the problem.

 

From Christine's picture, if you notice at the green area, there are essentially 2 shades of green. In experience, when the coral has died off, the pale green skeleton is what's left behind.

 

Essentially, as I mentioned, the coral does not die immediately, but over a period of months. So some nutrition may perhaps be reaching the coral itself. However, the structure of the coral, especially the tips becomes brittle, powdery under slight pressure.

 

From what I understand, and from what I've seen, when the coral dies, you are left with a green skeleton, not white. It's also not the kind of algae that you could scrape off with a brush.

 

I first noticed this about 2 years ago, on a Green Slimer, and similar to Christine's experience, I thought that the coral was in fact recovering..... nope.

 

I don't have pics (should've taken them), and I just recently fragged the currently affected colony. If the algae returns, i will be sure to update.

 

My main concern was, would this be considered contagious? I've also noticed, that not all Acro's are affected by it. Other sps species, seem unaffected, at least so far.

 

Once again, thanks to both of you for taking the time

 

EDIT: Also, I've observed and agree that this is not itself, cause for tissue necrosis. But at the end of the day, an equally unfortunate way of losing a coral.

 

EDIT: 11/07/2012 picture

Edited November 7, 2012 by Bello

[albertthiel]

That's one reason I have so much biomedia in my tank, a full liter each of Seachem Matrix and deNitrate. If I removed all of my live rock, I'd still have a sufficient biofilter to limp things along.

 

That is indeed a lot of extra area for bacteria to populate, and they will of course, and is indeed, and thanks for pointing it out, a way to prevent losing all of one's biological filter when one has to treat the rocks in the tank and as a result of it loose the bacteria that had colonized them.

 

I have used Bio-Chem Stars which also seem to have a large amount of area that can be colonized. Here is a picture of those:

 

 

Albert

[eitallent]

If I lost power, which looks like may happen soon, I don't think I can post, even with my generator running as my internet comes in on FIOS on overhead wires.

There are tropical force winds extending out 1,000 miles in diameter, hundreds of miles larger than anything in recorded history. Apparently these hurricanes usually head east out to sea but there is another storm out there pushing this one to shore. This is very unusual and we will see what happens. If my house and car does not flood I will try to get out and take some pictures.

Take care.

Paul

Take care Paul. Best of luck to you and please be safe.

[albertthiel]

Hello Albert & Christine,

 

Thanks for taking an interest at the problem.

 

From Christine's picture, if you notice at the green area, there are essentially 2 shades of green. In experience, when the coral has died off, the pale green skeleton is what's left behind.

 

Essentially, as I mentioned, the coral does not die immediately, but over a period of months. So some nutrition may perhaps be reaching the coral itself. However, the structure of the coral, especially the tips becomes brittle, powdery under slight pressure.

 

From what I understand, and from what I've seen, when the coral dies, you are left with a green skeleton, not white. It's also not the kind of algae that you could scrape off with a brush.

 

I first noticed this about 2 years ago, on a Green Slimer, and similar to Christine's experience, I thought that the coral was in fact recovering..... nope.

 

I don't have pics (should've taken them), and I just recently fragged the currently affected colony. If the algae returns, i will be sure to update.

 

My main concern was, would this be considered contagious? I've also noticed, that not all Acro's are affected by it. Other sps species, seem unaffected, at least so far.

 

Once again, thanks to both of you for taking the time

 

EDIT: Also, I've observed and agree that this is not itself, cause for tissue necrosis. But at the end of the day, an equally unfortunate way of losing a coral.

 

Bello:

 

Thanks for the clarification and how it seems to develop on one piece of Acro. Did you happen to notice whether this started after the Acro got STN or RTN or did the algae colonize the base, as if I understand you correctly that is where it started, or was it the cause of the demise of the Acro and no STN or RTN was ever noticeable ?

 

I have done quite a few searches but have not been able to find any reference yet to whether it is "contagious" and spreads to other corals in a tank.

 

If I do find anything I will definitely post it here.

 

Albert