New plate coral recession

[Brian1f1]

This short tentacle fungia plate was shipped to me yesterday. Upon arrival it had some very minor but likely fresh recession on an edge and some very minimal on the ridges above the mouth. It was enough that I notified the seller I was concerned.

30 hours later, it’s still relatively minimal but substantially worse and quickly. Anyone have experience with these after shipping? Any chance of saving it? I feel a sense of impending doom but here’s trying.

 

[Brian1f1]

I should add it does have a small bit of food on the mouth, that isn’t bone in the very middle. It’s strange, for as big as it is it isn’t nearly as predatory and mouth is much smaller than my other much smaller plates.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

What are your parameters? In case of infection I'd give it an iodine dip to hopefully stop any further recession

 

[shakacuz]

What are your parameters? In case of infection I'd give it an iodine dip to hopefully stop any further recession

and place it in a shaded area to avoid algae growing on those areas

 

[Brian1f1]

What are your parameters? In case of infection I'd give it an iodine dip to hopefully stop any further recession

35ppm salt
480 ca
12 alk (and bringing it down gradually, was using reef crystals, which mixes to 13!)
5 nitrate (dosing to keep it there)
.25 phos (and just added some gfo)
78 temp

I don’t have iodine on hand. What kind of physical store has what I need, a drug store? If so I can get it tomorrow!

 

[vetteguy53081]

This short tentacle fungia plate was shipped to me yesterday. Upon arrival it had some very minor but likely fresh recession on an edge and some very minimal on the ridges above the mouth. It was enough that I notified the seller I was concerned.

30 hours later, it’s still relatively minimal but substantially worse and quickly. Anyone have experience with these after shipping? Any chance of saving it? I feel a sense of impending doom but here’s trying.

Occasionally a change in alk and calcium as well as flow will cause this. Also irritation from sand by a fish stirring sand will cause this and also elevated Phosphate. Good news is that I have seen a few of these come back from the state of dead to become a beautiful plate once again

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

35ppm salt
480 ca
12 alk (and bringing it down gradually, was using reef crystals, which mixes to 13!)
5 nitrate (dosing to keep it there)
.25 phos (and just added some gfo)
78 temp

I don’t have iodine on hand. What kind of physical store has what I need, a drug store? If so I can get it tomorrow!

Most LFS have a iodine dip for sale, but there are probably some threads discussing if you can use pharmacy lugols solution but I'm unsure if that would work

 

[Brian1f1]

Occasionally a change in alk and calcium as well as flow will cause this. Also irritation from sand by a fish stirring sand will cause this and also elevated Phosphate. Good news is that I have seen a few of these come back from the state of dead to become a beautiful plate once again

Yeah, it was doing it in the shipping bag to start though. I hope it doesn’t die but we will see.

 

[KrisReef]

If it does "die", keep the skeleton in the water because sometimes these will sprout baby plates all over the "dead" skeleton. It's pretty neat to see when they do.

I wouldn't try and feed it before the flesh recovers, if ever.

 

[Brian1f1]

If it does "die", keep the skeleton in the water because sometimes these will sprout baby plates all over the "dead" skeleton. It's pretty neat to see when they do.

I wouldn't try and feed it before the flesh recovers, if ever.

Is that for just this type of plate? My other ones love to eat.

 

[Brian1f1]

If it does "die", keep the skeleton in the water because sometimes these will sprout baby plates all over the "dead" skeleton. It's pretty neat to see when they do.

I wouldn't try and feed it before the flesh recovers, if ever.

Over the last 25 years or so I’ve probably lost a half dozen plates along the way, never been fortunate enough to have this happen tho!

 

[KrisReef]

I don't feed corals when they look that down, just me.

I had a plate get attacked by a clownfish and soon afterwards there were tiny plates popping up everywhere, and of course she ate those too. No, it wasn't a "helmet".

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is that for just this type of plate? My other ones love to eat.

applies to this and Fungii

 

[Auto-pilot]

Just throwing my opinion into the mix. I would say its probobly infected. Sand can host a variety of bacteria and protozoa that can be opportunistic to coral that becomes damaged from something (shipping stress and damage). I have a tank with sand and from time to time the coral that I place on the sand has become infected. I like to do antibiotic dips and have had good success bringing corals back from the dead. That one is receding from the bottom leading me to believe the infection started from the sand and now its covered in bacteria. I would keep a close eye on the others and inspect them closely as a bacterial/protozoa infection can spread to health corals. For this very reason I now do my best to keep all coral off of the sand and haven't had this issue since. I have never had any success with iodine and stopping disease before, IMO its better as a preventative. I have had better success with 30second - 1min peroxide dip with 50/50 tank water and 3% peroxide, then a dip that KFC corals shared that they call the KFC dip. sometimes just a peroxide dip works for me.

 

[Brian1f1]

Just throwing my opinion into the mix. I would say its probobly infected. Sand can host a variety of bacteria and protozoa that can be opportunistic to coral that becomes damaged from something (shipping stress and damage). I have a tank with sand and from time to time the coral that I place on the sand has become infected. I like to do antibiotic dips and have had good success bringing corals back from the dead. That one is receding from the bottom leading me to believe the infection started from the sand and now its covered in bacteria. I would keep a close eye on the others and inspect them closely as a bacterial/protozoa infection can spread to health corals. For this very reason I now do my best to keep all coral off of the sand and haven't had this issue since. I have never had any success with iodine and stopping disease before, IMO its better as a preventative. I have had better success with 30second - 1min peroxide dip with 50/50 tank water and 3% peroxide, then a dip that KFC corals shared that they call the KFC dip. sometimes just a peroxide dip works for me.

That's possible. I will give that a try. It did come in already receding just yesterday, but it could have been damaged and got infected, or it could just be a continuation of whatever process was already happening!

 

[Brian1f1]

It did die.

 

[Katrina71]

Did you keep the skeleton in the tank?

 

[encrustingacro]

This is the first time I've seen a solitary Lithophyllon (L. repanda, concinna, scabra, spinifer) in captivity. This one looks to be repanda/concinna.
Batangas, Philippines | Credit: Ingo Rogalla

 

[Brian1f1]

Did you keep the skeleton in the tank?

I pulled it on advice from Eric at lucky corals, did not think this species would bud, concerned about infection/bateria spreading if left to rot.

 

[Brian1f1]

This is the first time I've seen a solitary Lithophyllon (L. repanda, concinna, scabra, spinifer) in captivity. This one looks to be repanda/concinna.
Batangas, Philippines | Credit: Ingo Rogalla

This is the first time I've seen a solitary Lithophyllon (L. repanda, concinna, scabra, spinifer) in captivity. This one looks to be repanda/concinna.
Batangas, Philippines | Credit: Ingo Rogalla

Yes, was very unusual. Unfortunately I was told they often don't ship too well because of how sharp they are. It was quite large too. Here is what it looked like under blues when healthy.