Emergency Torch corals melting away

[Koty]

Thread 'Euphyllia (especially torch coral) buying help' https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/euphyllia-especially-torch-coral-buying-help.885184/

I only partially agree with the text. IMO I am not sure that euphylia are so sensitive to anything but stability. In nature, stability of parameters is probably close to absolute, but the corals are exposed to various elements... It's the sea guys! In our tanks, my take is that besides parameter stability, water quality is critical. That spells that the tank should be clean so that the bacteria in the water column will not proliferate too much and increase the population of the "bad" pathogenic bacterial population. The nitrate that we measure is only a final product reporting on a long trail of organic matter. So if it is too high, consider that your water quality may challenges the coral's immune system.

 

[blaxsun]

Bacterial infections are common with euphyllia (especially hammers). One question (not sure if it was already answered) - are your torches all Indo or all Aussie?

 

[Koty]

Bellow is kind of a sum of my experience. These were on their way to die. Most heads are lost. However as I added a dosing pump my parameters got really stable and the surviving heads look better. This is taken in the morning. In mid day they even look better with all the Aptasia' Valonia and v. Snails around.

This is a torch that came back from the dead:

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I only partially agree with the text. IMO I am not sure that euphylia are so sensitive to anything but stability. In nature, stability of parameters is probably close to absolute, but the corals are exposed to various elements... It's the sea guys! In our tanks, my take is that besides parameter stability, water quality is critical. That spells that the tank should be clean so that the bacteria in the water column will not proliferate too much and increase the population of the "bad" pathogenic bacterial population. The nitrate that we measure is only a final product reporting on a long trail of organic matter. So if it is too high, consider that your water quality may challenges the coral's immune system.

Did you actually read the article? It talks about coral being injured prior to getting to our tanks...

 

[Koty]

My bad. I guess I had to be more specific:
This is the part I thought was an overkill on their sensitivity:
"A slight change in flow, causing a microscopic nick, a bit of algae or stuck food, where flesh meets the skeleton, a drop in nutrient or starvation which caused flesh to retract a bit and cut on its sharp septa etc etc.. followed by an unseen bacterial infection and the slow spread through the coral over months. All hidden from the proud owner's eye."
The rest is very enlightening.

 

[Jaelowen]

Did you actually read the article? It talks about coral being injured prior to getting to our tanks...

I too feel like this "article" (let's get real, it's a just someone's opinion on an internet forum) is extremely hyperbolic. Many euphyllia are EXTREMELY easy. I have witnessed euphyllia survive and thrive in water conditions that one wouldn't expect ANYYHING to live in.

I say many because I don't feel that all of them have this level of hardiness. My theory on this is that it relates to the differences between some of the established "strains" within the hoby as compared to wild or maricultured pieces. In my experience, aquacultured and hobbyist grown euphyllia tend to be danged near bulletproof while maricultured and wild pieces can be a bit more of a toss up.

Some of the maricultured/wild pieces seem to be just as hardy as their tank raised counterparts, while others can be more delicate. When I have an "oops moment" in any of my systems the euphyllia that show signs of stress first are almost invariably the ones that were collected more recently, regardless of how long they have been in the system relative to others.

There could be several reasons for this. On one hand, the hobby itself is selecting for the fittest coral over time (the hardier corals of a given species live longer and thus reintroduce more frags back into the hobby), but on the other we are seeing shifts in collection locations alongside high demand and it is possible that this is a factor in hardiness. Either way, I would hardly classify euphyllia as anything but easy. Even the more sensitive euphyllia tend to be hardier than many if not most other stony corals. Personally there are extremely few stony corals that I would consider easier than euphyllia.


As far as advice for OP goes, I personally would do an iodine dip on the effected colonies. This has remedied 75% of the issues I have had with euphyllia over the years. In the case of communicable disease, I also like to isolate to prevent any potential spreading from happening.

 

[Koty]

I too feel like this "article" (let's get real, it's a just someone's opinion on an internet forum) is extremely hyperbolic. Many euphyllia are EXTREMELY easy. I have witnessed euphyllia survive and thrive in water conditions that one wouldn't expect ANYYHING to live in.

I say many because I don't feel that all of them have this level of hardiness. My theory on this is that it relates to the differences between some of the established "strains" within the hoby as compared to wild or maricultured pieces. In my experience, aquacultured and hobbyist grown euphyllia tend to be danged near bulletproof while maricultured and wild pieces can be a bit more of a toss up.

Some of the maricultured/wild pieces seem to be just as hardy as their tank raised counterparts, while others can be more delicate. When I have an "oops moment" in any of my systems the euphyllia that show signs of stress first are almost invariably the ones that were collected more recently, regardless of how long they have been in the system relative to others.

There could be several reasons for this. On one hand, the hobby itself is selecting for the fittest coral over time (the hardier corals of a given species live longer and thus reintroduce more frags back into the hobby), but on the other we are seeing shifts in collection locations alongside high demand and it is possible that this is a factor in hardiness. Either way, I would hardly classify euphyllia as anything but easy. Even the more sensitive euphyllia tend to be hardier than many if not most other stony corals. Personally there are extremely few stony corals that I would consider easier than euphyllia.


As far as advice for OP goes, I personally would do an iodine dip on the effected colonies. This has remedied 75% of the issues I have had with euphyllia over the years. In the case of communicable disease, I also like to isolate to prevent any potential spreading from happening.

Interesting but not my experience. I guess that most of my euphilias are from the wild as I have killed many including a few relatives such butt elegance and others such as cinarinas. The major issue IME is that both my tank and myself were not mature enough to keep them alive. Now, the few that barely survived are looking good which is true for all my corals. As I mentioned before stable alkalinity values are a prerequisite but not the only one. Consider that some accidental conditions may mimic what the corals face in nature but most do not