joe123987
03/23/2003, 09:37 AM
Hello All,
I was real excited to see how successful our last meeting was.
Congratulations to those of you who we were lucky enough to take home some frags. I know there was some concern about flat worms so I looked up this quote from reeffarmers.com. I know it's probably too late but it has some good advice for any future frags you might get.
This is an awesome sight for rare and unusual corals (look under "organisms for sale , then select "limited editions"). In fact, the "Blue Chalice" frag I talked about in the meeting is the one shown here and I reserved the bright green Montipora Aquituberculata - but won't get it until March 2004. (I guess nothing good ever comes fast in a reef aquarium). Anyway, here's some advice on acclimating and dipping new corals.
"When recieving farmed organisms, it is always best to assume that transportation stress has weakened the animal. One can also determine how bad the stress was by examining the bag water. Cloudy water and foul odor is usually an indication of heavy stress. It may be better to place heavily stressed animals into buckets with large quantities of clean fresh saltwater prior to acclimating them. The newly arrived animal should be observed for any signs of tissue loss or color fading. A animal that is losing tissue should be quarantined and you should assume that heavy stress has occurred. The best way to acclimate a moderately stressed animal is to float its bag or place it in a separate container where it will slowly be acclimated to the captive reefs water temperature and chemistry. Make sure that the temperature of the water does not cool below the captive reefs temperature. Once the organism is in water that is composed of at least 60 % of the captive reefs, you can then dip it to kill any disease pathogens that may have proliferated in the shipping container. Many species of bacteria and protozoan can usually be found in small numbers living on the surface slime of reef corals. Note - The coral blight problem in 1996 was due to a disease that was inside the coral. There really is no way to safely cure that disease without adding potentially lethal stress to the coral, considering typical transportation conditions. The coral dip procedure to kill surface disease is 20 minutes in 1 liter of 100 % captive reef water that has 10 drops of 5 % lugols solution (or 20 drops of the tincture of iodine found at local drug stores which is typically a 2.2 % solution). You can then place the coral or fragment into your reef.
If you have recieved unmounted coral fragments, it is always better to give them 24 hours in a good reef to recover from transportation stress. This should only be done if you have a safe flat surface where the fragment will not be bumped off by snails or blown off by water current. If you cannot provide safe haven then they should be mounted right after the iodine dip. I recommend using epoxy putty that comes in stick forms. Some have had good success with super glue. If using epoxy putty, stick the mixed putty to the rock out of water if possible. This makes the putty stick better. I also mount the fragment to the putty out of water, but quickly place it back underwater. I highly recommend you put the mounted fragment in a seperate container while the epoxy is hardening. Then discard this water when done. It is also a good idea to redip the fragment 48 hours after mounting. Use the iodine coral dip procedure above. This is to prevent secondary infections which can occur due to the tissue that dies from contact with the attachment epoxy or glue.
I was real excited to see how successful our last meeting was.
Congratulations to those of you who we were lucky enough to take home some frags. I know there was some concern about flat worms so I looked up this quote from reeffarmers.com. I know it's probably too late but it has some good advice for any future frags you might get.
This is an awesome sight for rare and unusual corals (look under "organisms for sale , then select "limited editions"). In fact, the "Blue Chalice" frag I talked about in the meeting is the one shown here and I reserved the bright green Montipora Aquituberculata - but won't get it until March 2004. (I guess nothing good ever comes fast in a reef aquarium). Anyway, here's some advice on acclimating and dipping new corals.
"When recieving farmed organisms, it is always best to assume that transportation stress has weakened the animal. One can also determine how bad the stress was by examining the bag water. Cloudy water and foul odor is usually an indication of heavy stress. It may be better to place heavily stressed animals into buckets with large quantities of clean fresh saltwater prior to acclimating them. The newly arrived animal should be observed for any signs of tissue loss or color fading. A animal that is losing tissue should be quarantined and you should assume that heavy stress has occurred. The best way to acclimate a moderately stressed animal is to float its bag or place it in a separate container where it will slowly be acclimated to the captive reefs water temperature and chemistry. Make sure that the temperature of the water does not cool below the captive reefs temperature. Once the organism is in water that is composed of at least 60 % of the captive reefs, you can then dip it to kill any disease pathogens that may have proliferated in the shipping container. Many species of bacteria and protozoan can usually be found in small numbers living on the surface slime of reef corals. Note - The coral blight problem in 1996 was due to a disease that was inside the coral. There really is no way to safely cure that disease without adding potentially lethal stress to the coral, considering typical transportation conditions. The coral dip procedure to kill surface disease is 20 minutes in 1 liter of 100 % captive reef water that has 10 drops of 5 % lugols solution (or 20 drops of the tincture of iodine found at local drug stores which is typically a 2.2 % solution). You can then place the coral or fragment into your reef.
If you have recieved unmounted coral fragments, it is always better to give them 24 hours in a good reef to recover from transportation stress. This should only be done if you have a safe flat surface where the fragment will not be bumped off by snails or blown off by water current. If you cannot provide safe haven then they should be mounted right after the iodine dip. I recommend using epoxy putty that comes in stick forms. Some have had good success with super glue. If using epoxy putty, stick the mixed putty to the rock out of water if possible. This makes the putty stick better. I also mount the fragment to the putty out of water, but quickly place it back underwater. I highly recommend you put the mounted fragment in a seperate container while the epoxy is hardening. Then discard this water when done. It is also a good idea to redip the fragment 48 hours after mounting. Use the iodine coral dip procedure above. This is to prevent secondary infections which can occur due to the tissue that dies from contact with the attachment epoxy or glue.