Acropora Tissue Recession... need experts here plz.

[markalot]

@markalot Thanks for the advice. I keep my kh around 7.3-7.5. I don't use any nutrient export besides chaeto and run carbon once every few months.

As Bulk Reef Supply has shown, cheato grown under good lights is strong stuff. I suggest backing off, let the water "dirty" up a bit.

 

[sensei]

I was cleaning out my frag rack of dying corals and noticed this! Are these what I think they are?

do you still have the frag in the pic??

in 2ndo photo I can see bite marks and some dots that look like eggs.
in the 4th photo you can also see 4 little dots that look like eggs
to confirm take the frags and or colonies that are not doing well and blow them a little hard with turkey baster in a container filled with tank water outside your tank.
DO NOT PANIC I was able to save most acros with the guidance of a friend.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I think those bite marks are just areas where the skin is loosing its flesh slowly. The other could be eggs but its so out of focus and I really don't see any bite marks. If it was aefw causing all the damage you would certainly see evidence by now.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

If you are dealing with aefw and they are just hiding really well, which they do act like magic evil little worms, you will see them in a dip of revive or another clear dip or like stated above and baste the affected acros and you will see them fly off. I would do this if you haven't already. Also like stated on the previous page, tissue necrosis will bring out all sorts of small bugs that are mostly just feeding off of the dying flesh and fresh skeleton.

 

[Syntax1235]

I don't see any evidence of bite marks and can't seem to see any flat worms on the corals, it seems aefw symptoms are fairly obvious. I'm leaning towards removing all corals that are showing signs of recession, fragging them, and then bringing them to my lfs for store credit.

I also have bottles of the UWC aefw treatment that I could try. I don't see the worms, but maybe this is a good first step? I'm always very hesitant in adding stuff to the tank; however, the reviews are mostly positive.

Thoughts?

 

[ihavecrabs]

I don't see any evidence of bite marks and can't seem to see any flat worms on the corals, it seems aefw symptoms are fairly obvious. I'm leaning towards removing all corals that are showing signs of recession, fragging them, and then bringing them to my lfs for store credit.

I also have bottles of the UWC aefw treatment that I could try. I don't see the worms, but maybe this is a good first step? I'm always very hesitant in adding stuff to the tank; however, the reviews are mostly positive.

Thoughts?

Take one of the corals out and put it into a separate container and then dose a small amount of the UWC AEFW treatment into that separate container.. That'll show you if there is anything there to be worried about.

Their dip would be better to use, but I am assuming you only have the treatment.. so I'd go that route if that is the case.

Let us know what you find

 

[Syntax1235]

I took several corals out that were on the frag rack (the one in the latest picture with the bugs was one of those), cut off the recession and dipped them in bayer for 20 minutes or so. I did not see anything concerning at the bottom of the bowl. Maybe the cut off parts were the only parts with bugs?

I do not have their dip, but I'm thinking of ordering a bottle or getting some revive from my lfs. I typically use bayer for dips. I have some Seachem reef dip on hand as well.

I'll dip an entire coral this weekend and see what I find.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Use revive for this situation, its easier to see whats in your dip afterwards and dip the whole coral before you clip the ends off since your trying to find out what going on.

 

[Ldballoon4]

oh boy

 

[KrisReef]

I don't see any evidence of bite marks and can't seem to see any flat worms on the corals, it seems aefw symptoms are fairly obvious. I'm leaning towards removing all corals that are showing signs of recession, fragging them, and then bringing them to my lfs for store credit.

I also have bottles of the UWC aefw treatment that I could try. I don't see the worms, but maybe this is a good first step? I'm always very hesitant in adding stuff to the tank; however, the reviews are mostly positive.

Thoughts?

Holy Crap! If you have an unknown pest that is eating your corals do not take frags to the LFS and possibly spread this problem further!

Do the Purge? treatments, the stuff in the bottle improves the slime coats and may help you out, and if you do have some micro-aefw hopefully it will exterminate that problem.

What your photos look like to me is a bacterial infection, (or something similar). If I was going to declare ware on the problem I would first frag all the damaged coral and remove all the dead bases. I would put a UV sterilizer on the tank, and maybe even start OZ in my skimmer if I wanted to try and purify the water column.

If I had a frag tank, I would put the new frags in there and watch to see them encrust ( and if none of the frags in the tank are showing signs of white death then I might take those to the LFS.

Sorry for the explosion, but I got AEFW from my lfs when they knew they had a problem and didn't let me know. I dipped, but missed the eggs and you know what happened next...

Good luck and sorry you are dealing with this. Nice thread documentation. Raise your nitrates.

 

[Syntax1235]

Holy Crap! If you have an unknown pest that is eating your corals do not take frags to the LFS and possibly spread this problem further!

Agree with you 100%

 

[Syntax1235]

So, my wife took lots of pictures this afternoon and I have a couple pictures that have me stumped. I did find a few red bugs on some of the acros, not many and I don't think it is possible that they are causing all these issues. The other things are more perplexing. Those two worm like things on the bottom of the acro are the only two that I can find on any of them. I've taken at least 50 pictures.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Looks like some baby vermi. snails or something along thoes lines, I would not contribute it to the damage. Especially if they do not move.

 

[Syntax1235]

Looks like some baby vermi. snails or something along thoes lines, I would not contribute it to the damage. Especially if they do not move.

Makes sense, they even have the tube near them.

 

[Syntax1235]

If what I'm dealing with is bacterial, why is it not seen on the monti and stylo's?

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Well you are having the same problem as me but I only with some new frags. The new frags seem to have been doing well three weeks, then one lost flesh from base up over night. Then I had another one do that over the next night and then again and again until there were 4 acro frags all dead. When I say over night they looked okay when I went to bed then they were missing some flesh at base in the morning and by noon it was all most all gone. I even got up and other than pods could see nothing abnormal. Never had this happen before could see no bugs. Since I had been using a good skimmer and an ATS before and what corals I already had were doing ok I did not think about low nutrients especially since I had completely removed my skimmer. Well my ATS was growing well best it ever did. I did testing when I lost first one. my Nitrates were zero and phosphates were .003 ppm. I cleaned the ATS and turned it off. I fed heavier but nitrates were not going up so I started dosing potassium nitrate. I am now at 2 on nitrate test and it appears no more frags are dying but got to give it more time. Right now everything is looking ok and Nitrates are at 2 phosphates .04, what was weird was all my lps, were looking ok old ones and new ones, I would have thought they would show signs of low nutrients. If this has it fixed then I have learned something new.

 

[Syntax1235]

Having considered all the options that are available at this point, I've decided to take the least intrusive measures to see if I see positive results. If I saw bite marks or worms moving around I would dose the tank with Purge or interceptor for the red bugs. Once the tank turns around I can deal with the red bugs. I dipped several corals in Revive and didn't see a single pest. Here's my plan:

1) Run carbon and change it every two weeks
2) Took the phosban 660 full of matrix offline
3) Moved pumps around and changed programming to increase flow/turbulence
4) Feed more and use coral food at night
5) wait

 

[Syntax1235]

Does this seem like a bacteria or fungus? I see this type of recession on just a couple of my acros. I wonder if there are a couple things going on here.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

That just looks like detritus stuck to the area that has started to show skeleton.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I am glad you didn't find anything in the dips, I am pretty sure you don't have an aefw infestation. I don't see anything in the pics. Bacterial issues can be hard to fix too though. I got through mine by dosing kalk which was to help keep the ph up, and cutting any new death from the tank while dipping the good parts of what was left in a few drops of iodine in a gallon of water. I read that higher ph helps slow bacterial issues in acropora or something but I can't for the life of me find the article now.