Please help ID infection

[Andrews_aquarium]

My Anacropora has recently started RTN in the last 36 hours. It is my oldest and largest colony in the tank. All other SPS are doing fine, growing with good color. Im assuming its a type of Bacteria infection but hard to tell. Ive included some microscope pics and video of where the tissue is receding.

https://youtu.be/zll6DW8BgMk

If you watch the video you can see movement on top of the Skelton of what I'm assuming is eating the tissue.

Parameters:
Alk:8.5
CA:420
MG:1310
NO3:8ppm
PO4: .05

I took the coral out as it was somewhat easy to remove luckily and dipped it in RTN-X from Triton for 5 minutes as its the only dip I have.

Any recommendations would be great.
Thanks for your help

 

[i cant think]

It may be an unwelcome animal such as nudibranchs that are annoying it but it does look like an infection, I can’t make out what infection though

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

It may be an unwelcome animal such as nudibranchs that are annoying it but it does look like an infection, I can’t make out what infection though

Haven't found any Nudis, you can see a lot of movement in the video of what I'm assuming is eating the tissue.

 

[i cant think]

Haven't found any Nudis, you can see a lot of movement in the video of what I'm assuming is eating the tissue.

The only things I can think of are:
- monti eating nudis,
- Red bug infestation

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

No red bugs and no Monti eating nudis as this is an anacropora, Im now starting to get burnt tips on half of my acroporas. I took another video through the microscope here:



My friend Henson who has a coral farm sent me this article by John Sweet on Ciliates:

https://coralrtn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/SweetandSr2015.pdf

A quote:
"This has led to the general belief that many if not all these coral associ- ated ciliates are opportunistic, eating the dead and dying tissue caused by another as yet unknown pathogenic agent. In fact, two recent studies have highlighted that this is actually likely the case, at least for WBD in the Caribbean and WS in the Indo-Pacific"


Looks Like mine might be Philaster Lucinda.

So to sum up the article it hasn't been proven that they cause the RTN for certain coral, its possible they are the "maggots" of the coral world and are consuming the rest of the flesh as its dying. But they are not always present on some RTN cases.

My friend also said when he has found them on RTN corals and he has done multiple things to see how they would die, including leaving the coral skeleton in RO/DI waste water over night, dipping in iodine, bayer, and revive dips and they have still survived.

Im at a loss, Ive sent out ICP, N-DOC, and even Aquabiomics test. So maybe some red flags there but other than that nothing that I've tested have found anything wrong with my parameters

 

[Pistondog]

My Anacropora has recently started RTN in the last 36 hours. It is my oldest and largest colony in the tank. All other SPS are doing fine, growing with good color. Im assuming its a type of Bacteria infection but hard to tell. Ive included some microscope pics and video of where the tissue is receding.

https://youtu.be/zll6DW8BgMk

If you watch the video you can see movement on top of the Skelton of what I'm assuming is eating the tissue.

Parameters:
Alk:8.5
CA:420
MG:1310
NO3:8ppm
PO4: .05

I took the coral out as it was somewhat easy to remove luckily and dipped it in RTN-X from Triton for 5 minutes as its the only dip I have.

Any recommendations would be great.
Thanks for your help

What are you feeding?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like eggs of red bugs but unsure viewing on a phone screen. Have you tried dipping this ?

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

What are you feeding?

I don't feed the corals, I never had an issue with growth or color.

For fish food I do Reef Nutrition-ROE, Mysis, Oyster feast and phyto. Occasionally some TDO pellets, and I've recently gotten a leopard wrasse and the only thing its eating is blood worms, so been feeding some live blood worms to get the leopard to eat.

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

Looks like eggs of red bugs but unsure viewing on a phone screen. Have you tried dipping this ?

If you watch the video you can see them clearly moving around and active. definitely not eggs

 

[i cant think]

If you watch the video you can see them clearly moving around and active. definitely not eggs

Eggs don’t always stay still. They will move around however when you mention ‘burnt tips’ it sounds like they’re too close to the light or there’s too much light.
I’d still recommend being safe and assuming red bugs aswel as P. lucinda