hammer coral - brown jelly!

[FollyFish]

I hope its just dividing and its not sick but some of the lower heads have died and the rest is not looking healthy. Its the only coral in my tank that looks unhealthy. I did a major 20G (out of 50G) water change 1 day ago could that be the reason?

[Tired]

Oh, that doesn't look so good.

 

The water change wouldn't have done this unless something was very wrong with your water. A 40% water change isn't that big, anyway.

 

Is it possible anything is stinging it? Some corals have long sweepers- what all is anywhere near it? 

[FollyFish]

10 minutes ago, Tired said:

Oh, that doesn't look so good.

 

The water change wouldn't have done this unless something was very wrong with your water. A 40% water change isn't that big, anyway.

 

Is it possible anything is stinging it? Some corals have long sweepers- what all is anywhere near it? 

I don't think so, the only thing close thats semi aggressive is a torch. My emerald crab and cleaner shrimp like to hang out in or under it. I could move the hammer to a new spot, if you think it would help. But it had been in the same spot since Jan of this year.

[sublunary]

Hammers can't always deal with the stings from torches, and that looks well within the blast radius of the torch.  I'm not sure that's what is causing the problem, but moving it away is a good plan no matter what. 

[Tired]

Oh, yeah, definitely looks close enough to sting. Torches can be nasty. It may be worth moving one or the other, to see if that helps. And, agreed, they should be separated anyway. Even if that's not the issue. Try to move the hammer to somewhere with similar lighting and flow, so as not to stress it worse.

 

You may see the shrimp picking at the coral. That's not because it attacked the coral in the first place, it's just because shrimp pick at decay. 

[FollyFish]

Ok. I will move him tomorrow, i need to get some glue as he is very top heavy. I think I have a good spot for him to go to. I will have to move a goni as well to make room. 

[Tired]

I'd honestly be inclined to put it on the sandbed for today, then put it in its new place tomorrow. You don't want the torch to make things worse before you can move the hammer, and most stinging happens overnight. 

[FollyFish]

I have moved the hammer to a new spot with the same amount of light but less flow. I also gave him a bath in coral RX. I also moved an Australian gold torch to the spot where the hammer once was as if I left it where it was then it would be too close to the hammers new spot. I had to move a purple goni and a freak hair pavlona as well to make room for the hammer. 

 

It looks like most of the heads on the hammer are dead or dying do you think I should frag it to try to save the ones that are left?

[FollyFish]

O think he has brown jelly. I got up this morning and this is what I saw!. 

[Reefer-begginer]

Normally that means the coral is dying 

[FollyFish]

5 minutes ago, Reefer-begginer said:

Normally that means the coral is dying 

Yes, but I can still try to save some of the heads. 

[sublunary]

Oof sorry. I just lost duncans to BJD. :(. I found a lot of suggestions on what to do, but nothing definitive. Let us know what you try and how it goes.

[FollyFish]

Saving what I can from my peach hammer. It had 10 heads, I think I might be able to save 2 of them. I cut the 2 heads off from the rest of the colony and dipped them in a antibacterial solution then in iodine and placed it back into the tank. I think I will every-other-day iodine dips to see if I can save it. This was the first coral that I got when I started my tank. I really want to save it. 

[FollyFish]

17 minutes ago, sublunary said:

Oof sorry. I just lost duncans to BJD. :(. I found a lot of suggestions on what to do, but nothing definitive. Let us know what you try and how it goes.

My tank is a major LPS tank, other then trying to save the hammer coral my concern is stopping the brown jelly from spreading to the other LPS corals. 

[Reefer-begginer]

1 hour ago, FollyFish said:

Saving what I can from my peach hammer. It had 10 heads, I think I might be able to save 2 of them. I cut the 2 heads off from the rest of the colony and dipped them in a antibacterial solution then in iodine and placed it back into the tank. I think I will every-other-day iodine dips to see if I can save it. This was the first coral that I got when I started my tank. I really want to save it. 

I found the best way atleast for my frogspawn was to get iodine and coral dip from saecham and let the coral sit for 20 minutes in that

[JP5785]

I’m in the same boat. I have seachem iodine and provodone iodine. Which is best?

[FollyFish]

I have the following. When I moved the coral yesterday I used the Seachem reef dip. Today I used the polyp lab reef primer it was recommended by someone I trust at a LFS for a last ditch "try to save". Then I did a 5min dip with Lugol solution. I will do the Lugol everyday for this week. 

 

My guy at the LFS told me that I have a very low chance of being able to save any of the heads on the coral. He suggested that I just get rid of the coral. 

[Reefer-begginer]

1 hour ago, JP5785 said:

I’m in the same boat. I have seachem iodine and provodone iodine. Which is best?

Provodone is better 

 

1 hour ago, FollyFish said:

I have the following. When I moved the coral yesterday I used the Seachem reef dip. Today I used the polyp lab reef primer it was recommended by someone I trust at a LFS for a last ditch "try to save". Then I did a 5min dip with Lugol solution. I will do the Lugol everyday for this week. 

 

My guy at the LFS told me that I have a very low chance of being able to save any of the heads on the coral. He suggested that I just get rid of the coral. 

just mix the reef dip and lugols solution together and see if that helps

[Tired]

I wouldn't mix them, you might dilute both. Better to do both dips, separately. 

 

But yeah, brown jelly is nasty and can potentially get your other corals. Keep a VERY close eye on your other LPS for any signs of infection, and do not put the infected coral upstream of anything.

[FollyFish]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

I wouldn't mix them, you might dilute both. Better to do both dips, separately. 

 

But yeah, brown jelly is nasty and can potentially get your other corals. Keep a VERY close eye on your other LPS for any signs of infection, and do not put the infected coral upstream of anything.

I did separate dips 5min for each following directions on the bottles. I will watch the other corals for infections. 

[FollyFish]

It didn't make it. I got up today and it was just a skeleton. The black torch that was the closest (higher placement and upstream) had the brown jelly on it as well. I pulled it and gave it a couple of dips but I could still smell the rot and I didn't want to take another chance so I got rid of both the dead peach hammer and the sick black torch. I still have 2 more torch colonies that I am going to keep an eye on.

[Tired]

Oh, that sucks. That stuff's nasty- once it gets ahold of a coral, it's in there. Might be worth giving the two seemingly healthy colonies a preventative dip apiece, in case any got on them.

[FollyFish]

Update. I just lost a 11 head duncan colony to brown jelly. I had fraged it when I saw the BJD on 1 of the heads thinking that I could save the rest. Today I noticed that the the BJD had infected 2 other heads and had killed 2 more heads. I gave up. Now my clownfish lost her sleeping quarters and is aimlessly swimming the tank. For the past 5yrs she had a duncan colony to sleep in. This really sucks. 

[mcarroll]

On 8/21/2020 at 2:55 PM, FollyFish said:

Its the only coral in my tank that looks unhealthy. I did a major 20G (out of 50G) water change 1 day ago could that be the reason?

No background or basics for us to go on.  Pics alone are hare to judge.  But no, my guess would be something else at work other than a water change.

 

How long has the coral been in this tank?

 

How old is this tank?

 

What are your test results for The Big 5?  (ca, alk, mg, po4, no3)

 

What has changed in this tank in the last few weeks?

[FollyFish]

I don't test. Haven't in years. I test for salinity when I do water changes but thats it. That is 1.026. I have an ammonia alert that show yellow and therfore safe, and the temp stays at 79 degrees. My test kits that I have here have long since expired so I would trust any readinga from them anyway.

 

The torch that died I've had for at since Dec of 2019, the hammer and duncan since 2016 as they were transferred from my old 25G tank. Unlike fish, I don't normally dont have a hard time keeping corals. The 50G has been up and running since Jan 2020.

 

The only major change was I sold 2 rocks from the tank neither of which had any of the sick/dead corals on them. I repace the sold rocks with new dead (white) rocks of approx same weight. Since I only sold the rocks so that I wouldn't have to try and get the incrusted zoas off them.