Brown Jelly Disease *sigh*

[Lorekeeper]

Okay, so I picked up a branching hammer frag about 2 weeks ago. It looked good, very colorful, and I got a good deal. 

 

Got home yesterday, and it was closed up tight with some "algae" on top of the flesh. I was too tired to investigate too much, so I put it off until this morning. I learned that it was probably brown jelly disease. So, I siphoned out as much of the jelly as I could, and was left with 5-7 healthy polyps, and maybe 10-15 sick ones. This was a 30-40 polyp head, too.

 

I did a quick search online, and decided that I should take some pretty aggressive action. I decided to do a peroxide dip, followed by a Lugol's dip. One to kill the things causing the brown jelly, and one to act as an anti-septic.

 

I'm left with 4-5 healthy polyps on the head. The skeleton is VERY white, and it was throwing off a lot of mucus after being put back into the tank. I replaced carbon just in case. 

 

What should I do for my other LPS in my tank? I've only got 2 other LPS frags, an Aussie War Coral and a Candy Cane. The War Coral has shown nothing but good growth lately, and the Candy Cane is coming around after a few weeks of unhappiness with algae. Should I do a (much) less aggressive treatment? Leave em' alone?

 

Anything I can do to improve my chances with the hammer? I'm not too hopeful right now. I've seen corals come back from worse, but this is pretty bad.

 

Tank parameters:

Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 PPM

Nitrate: 4-5 PPM

Phosphate: 0.12 PPM (been working to get this down!)

Calcium: 420 PPM

KH: 9.4 dKH (stable)

 

Other than my phosphate, everything's been pretty good parameter-wise. 

 

Thanks!

[Aurortpa]

Uh no, sorry to hear about that—that poor hammer! I would just be vigilant about watching the hammer coral—retreat everyday if you suspect reinfection and frag what you can save. I would do a larger water change with matched params to help minimize number of pathogens in water column. 

[Lorekeeper]

37 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Uh no, sorry to hear about that—that poor hammer! I would just be vigilant about watching the hammer coral—retreat everyday if you suspect reinfection and frag what you can save. I would do a larger water change with matched params to help minimize number of pathogens in water column. 

Thanks.

 

I did my weekly 50% WC after I dipped the coral, so hopefully that'll help things out a little. The hammer seems to have stopped making so much mucus, and I can see a few polyps peeking out just a bit. Hopefully, I'll see some changes by tonight.

 

The problem with fragging is that it's a single head. You can't really frag a head, can you? 

[Aurortpa]

30 minutes ago, Lorekeeper said:

The problem with fragging is that it's a single head. You can't really frag a head, can you? 

You can frag heads off a branching...”single head” as in it’s still in process of splitting?...you can even frag a wall hammer but I haven’t done this myself. 

[Lorekeeper]

Single head as in it's a tiny frag.

 

Here's a pic the day that I got it

 

[Aurortpa]

Ahhh, a misunderstanding--I thought you said you had many heads on a branching coral...meaning many of what you just gave a picture of.  Each of those glowing ends is actually the "polyp tips" or tentacles, that actually appears to be one head...maybe in or was in process of splitting.  Once a polyp is affected by brown jelly it is typical that entire polyp will be infected.  It is debated how you can save a polyp infected by one, as it is so fast acting, typically sufficient treatment is difficult to execute.  I've heard peroxide and iodine dips can help stave off further spread once you frag off the good pieces but only broad spectrum antibiotics given in QT like erythromycin may actually give you a chance to cure it. Unfortunately, I do not have actual experience in that specific treatment.

[specore]

11 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Ahhh, a misunderstanding--I thought you said you had many heads on a branching coral...meaning many of what you just gave a picture of.  Each of those glowing ends is actually the "polyp tips" or tentacles, that actually appears to be one head...maybe in or was in process of splitting.  Once a polyp is affected by brown jelly it is typical that entire polyp will be infected.  It is debated how you can save a polyp infected by one, as it is so fast acting, typically sufficient treatment is difficult to execute.  I've heard peroxide and iodine dips can help stave off further spread once you frag off the good pieces but only broad spectrum antibiotics given in QT like erythromycin may actually give you a chance to cure it. Unfortunately, I do not have actual experience in that specific treatment.

I thought the same thing...40 polyps (or heads) would be a huge hammer 🙂  

[Lorekeeper]

Apparently I've been learning some wrong terminology, then.

 

There's been no change since I treated it, so I guess only time will tell.

[specore]

I don't know if its technically correct, but I generally associate a polyp with having a mouth.  

[Lorekeeper]

Gotcha. I've always thought of euphylia tentacles as polyps, I guess since that's the only fleshy part. 

 

Love your tank, btw.

[Lorekeeper]

Candy Cane had some Jelly on it a few minutes ago. I took it out and dipped it in a 10:1 water:peroxide dip. Hoping that that treatment is gentle enough to not dissolve flesh, but aggressive enough to get rid of the jelly. This sucks!

 

There doesn't seem to be a cure, either. People post that they've had good luck with Iodine, or peroxide, or Bayer's, or this or that... but no one's come up with something that works for everyone. There's not even something that I've really seen any good studies done on. Peroxide on iodine seem to be the big 2, so I'll stick with those, I guess.

 

I'm actually guessing that there is no cure, and that all you can do is get the coral a leg up so that it has a chance on fighting the stuff off on it's own, especially since it's waterborne.

 

Wish me luck 😞

[Lorekeeper]

The hammer is 100% gone. The Candy cane looks better, but it definitely doesn't look good.

 

I also see a single clump of Brown Jelly on the war coral.

 

No one has any tips?

[Aurortpa]

At this point, I’d increase frequency and duration of the peroxide solution baths.

 

If it were me, had no delicate inverts or macro algae, and nothing else to lose—I’d consider trying to oxidize the entire tank. Oxidation is how peroxide kills pathogens. Typically the general treatment dose for in a reef is 1ml 3% peroxide per 10 gallons. With the other corals exhibiting symptoms, your chances are pretty questionable now tho.  

[Euphylin me]

i purchased a two head torch a couple months ago and would not recommend the action i took lol....i broke off the piece with brown jelly and tossed it (they have like a 2 percent chance of making it and i didnt want to risk killing off the rest of my euphyllia.... then i took out the torch, coral rx dip followed by a cold freshwater dip (rodi water that was about 60-65 degrees for about 1 or two minutes.....never saw the brown jelly again. Its a bit risky but i guess it worked

[Lorekeeper]

I've actually been treating the entire tank with peroxide for a few days now. Been trying to treat a few other things with it. No issues so far! Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

27 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

i purchased a two head torch a couple months ago and would not recommend the action i took lol....i broke off the piece with brown jelly and tossed it (they have like a 2 percent chance of making it and i didnt want to risk killing off the rest of my euphyllia.... then i took out the torch, coral rx dip followed by a cold freshwater dip (rodi water that was about 60-65 degrees for about 1 or two minutes.....never saw the brown jelly again. Its a bit risky but i guess it worked

Thanks, but it's just the one head. Can't be fragged. I'm currently dipping in Bayer's... wish me luck!

[Euphylin me]

yea bayer's may help, good luck!

[Lorekeeper]

8 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

yea bayer's may help, good luck!

Thanks!

 

The Bayer's seemed to do less damage than the peroxide did, surprisingly. Coral doesn't even seem too agitated, yet.

[Aurortpa]

Good luck, Let us know the results!  I never heard of bayer for brown jelly so very curious about the treatment!

[Lorekeeper]

4 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Good luck, Let us know the results!  I never heard of bayer for brown jelly so very curious about the treatment!

Will do! So far, it's only spewing some mucus out. I'll go ahead and replace carbon (again).

 

Think I should treat the Candy Cane as well? Or just see how it does?

[Aurortpa]

If it was already affected, I’d definitely treat, we can’t rely on visual cues alone, as the pathogen is microscopic. It could “look” better but be infected. 

[Lorekeeper]

I went ahead and treated the candy cane as well.

 

From here, I'll continue dosing peroxide, and keep up on water changes. Probably do 20-30% every 2-3 days. See if I can't turn things around!

[Lorekeeper]

War Coral is covered in brown jelly today. The Candy Cane doesn't look too good either.

 

Should I just take them out before they cause issues?

[Aurortpa]

1 hour ago, Lorekeeper said:

War Coral is covered in brown jelly today. The Candy Cane doesn't look too good either.

 

Should I just take them out before they cause issues?

I would probably do that, if you can’t frag and isolate. I’m not familiar with how long you need to go fallow until the disease dissapates, if it even does. Sorry about the coral 😔

[Aurortpa]

Any updates on the aftermath on this?  Had another reefer suspect brown jelly on their war coral, reminded me of you.

[Nano Nano Boo Boo]

This is terrible to hear. Euphyllia is so beautiful, but so fragile.