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dach · Jan 5, 2022

Hi,

i have had a Duncan in my tank for about 5 months now and my tank is 7 months old. At first it was 5 heads, expanded to about 10-11 very quickly. It has been fine for the last little while, but recently seems like it has been bothered. I added a peppermint shrimp about a month ago but i never see it near the Duncan. I did have a velvet breakout which caused me to lose most of my fish. Current stocking is a yasha goby with candy pistol, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, some hermit crabs

Older photo of Duncan in top left:

Recent pics of Duncan:

Nigel35 · Jan 5, 2022

Looks like you have a case of brown jelly disease. This is a deadly almost incurable disease in Euphyllia coral like your Duncan. Some believe it to be caused by a protozoan infection which attacks the coral when stressed. Likely what happened is that something was bothering the Duncan (water quality, to much flow etc.) which then opened the door for bacterial infection. Brown jelly disease is a brown mucus that appears in and out of the infected head of the coral. Which from the pictures it looks like you have

.

The only way to really "fix" this problem is to frag the infected heads and place them preferably in an observing tank or far away from any of your euphyllia. Remember this disease strikes very quickly so time is of the essence.

First Identify ALL the infected heads and shut off the pumps so that none of the BJD gets to any other coral. Remove the coral into a Tupperware of tank water. careful not to let any of the brown mucus on any other heads. Using bone cutters or a band saw cutaway the infected heads from the main skeleton. Put the BEST LOOKING fragged infected heads in a separate Tupperware of tank water, the ones that are to far gone aren't worth the time. If you have a revive or iodine based coral dip use it both on the main colony and the infected heads your saving for observation. Using a baster gently blow on the main colony to remove any possible sign of the jelly then also do an iodine/revive dip to ensure a smooth recovery. Using a 5/10 ml per gallon of water is using the Seachem iodine dip.

Please not this is not a full proof method and much of your colony will die as a result. The best advice I can give you is to be rigorous with ensuring excellent water quality, maintaining proper flow etc.