anthelia melting?

[johns]

I have had small colony of anthelia for about 6-7 weeks. I dont know the actual species but it looks very much like the 2 right-most pictures on pg. 147 of Borneman's Corals book, maybe more like the bottom one - it was sort of a pink/beige-like color. This was among the first corals i added to the tank, along with some very small frags of pulsing xenia, zoanthids, star polyps. Since then I have added additonal small frags montipora digitata, candy cane (caulastrea), green nepthea tree leather, colt coral, and a colony of frogspawn, hammer, galaxea and more zoanthids. The last thing I added was a bicolor blenny (my only fish) and yellow polyps, about 11 days ago.

Everything was dong fine for this short time. Out of all of the corals, the anthelia was actually the only one with some real obvious growth going on. A couple of days ago, I noticed the anthelia colony lettting go of one of it's 'hands' - a large one, it just blew off from the colony. The rest of the colony looked fine, so I didn't think much of it. But today when I got home from work, I noticed the colony looking rather white, stringy and deflated. Many more 'hands' and additional pieces were lying around it and more were blowing around the tank. Also, it smells - like that weird xenia smell (inteseting note, since when i added the anthelia and xenia, I noticed that weird smell in the xenia, but not so much in the anthelia)

I tested parameters yesterday as part of normal scheduled maintenance and everything was relatively normal:

Temp 80
SG 1.025
pH 8.38
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0.2
Ca 380
Alk 12.0
Phos 0.3

I'll be testing parameters again tonight to see if anything has changed.

I have a 75G tank, with ~20G of water in the sump. The tank has been set up for about 3 months. Lighting is 6x54W T5. My only additives have been 25ml of ESV B-ionic daily. I only started feeding the tank when I got the blenny - I've been adding cyclopeeze, baby brine, and tiny bits of mysis, but only every 3 or 4 days. So, I think I've only added food 3 times since this happened. The nearest corals to this colony are some zoanthids (3-4 inches), candy cane (6-7 inches), hammer (6-7 inches)

For now, I stuck the colony down in my refugium in the sump. But it doesn;t look so good. I was just wondering if anyone has any potential explanation for what happened. Should I keep it for a while just in case it might bounce back. Or does this risk hurting the rest of my corals. And then there is the issue with the smell. The water is developing that weird xenia-like smell.

I'll try to poat a picture later if I can.

thanks in advance

[johns]

picture of anthelia in fuge. Not doing too well.

Unfortunately, I dont have a 'before' picture.

[johns]

One other thing-

ABout 2 weeks ago, when i got the bicolor blenny. I removed the carbon and polyfilter from the fuge that i had been running pretty much continually for the past couple months. I was thinking maybe it was time to start getting a bit more nutrients going in the tank.

I started running both the carbon and polyfilter again tonight just in case.

[EricHugo]

It looks bad, looks like the typical "melting" and I would not be surprised if it was either a shut-down reaction or an infection, but there is no way to know which. I would remove the colony, put it in quarantine, and perhaps try a Lugol's dip at 20 drops /liter for 30-60 minutes and keep it isolated. See how it goes, but I am concerned it won;t make it...maybe some residula tissue will stay and grow into a new colony in time.

[johns]

Eric:

Thanks for responding. I did my own makeshift treatment yesterday evening. Similar to what you said, but I used 6 drops of Lugols in about 2G of buffered/tempered (is that a word?) FRESHwater. And only for about 5 minutes.

But in spite of (or maybe because of) this treatment, the colony continued to look worse throught the evening. And this morning it looked completely white and completely deflated.

I must admit, I'm not too concerned about this colony per se (it was among the first pieces of coral added to the tank for that reason, and even as an experiment of sorts). But I am obviously concerned about the health of the rest of the tank. Everything else in the tank SEEMS normal. Parameters were tested again last night and look the same as what I posted earlier.

Is there any chance of this sort of thing spreading to other corals. As I said, the colony is in the refugium right now. Is it safe to keep it in there a little longer? I dont have a quarantine setup right now. I could quick put one together in an old unused sump tank tonight. But I dont know how worthwhile it will be. What are the chances of residual tissue growing a new colony? I'd like to weigh that with the chances of the problem spreading.

[pat_man_ta]

I am also having strikingly similar issues:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=2982905#post2982905
I have been on the sister thread.

At least whatever DOES happen, we will have documented it.

[EricHugo]

I don't know what the cause is, so I don't know if it will spread, but I doubt it. Chances are pretty good that if tissue remains it will regrow - stump regeneration is common in Xeniidae

[johns]

Originally posted by EricHugo
I don't know what the cause is, so I don't know if it will spread, but I doubt it. Chances are pretty good that if tissue remains it will regrow - stump regeneration is common in Xeniidae

So it sounds like it's probably safe to leave it in the fuge. Let it die back as much as it will. And then place it back in the main tank to see if it regenerates.

For what it's worth, even the mat-like tissue covering the rock looks white and dead now. Regeneration still a possibility?

[pat_man_ta]

Today mine looks worse. It appears some more buds let go and there are signs of rot or predation now. I think the pods are eating the dead tissue (they are crawling all over it). I am considering doing a reef dip on it and quarantining it in a bottle with an airline (i have kept an anemone alive in this before).

[pat_man_ta]

johns, any news?

i moved mine to my 3g, it has reopened and is changing color back to tan slowly. I am not shure if this is a sign of life or a stage of death yet.

[johns]

Not so good here. A couple days after giving the anthelia the freshwater/lugols bath and placing in the fuge, it kept looking worse and worse. I finally blew a turket baster on it lightly and it practically blew apart. So I just decided to cut my losses and siphoned up as much loose tissue as I could. There still a wee bit of tissue that didnt blow off stuck to the rock, and it's still in the fuge. I guess time will tell.

Wouldn't mind hearing an update on yours again later. Maybe I will be more apt to leave things alone next time. I'm still not sure if the freshwater/lugols finished it off. The way it was looking though, I kinda doubt it would have made it anyway. Good thing it only cost me about $10.

[pat_man_ta]

I will definately keep you posted, let me know what that tissue does as well.

I dipped mine in a solution of Seachem Reef Dip and put it in a low flow system with a decent amount of light.

I am beginning to suspect this whole thing could have also resulted from stinging by one of my tulip anemones.

[pat_man_ta]

My little colony looks better again today, it has open polyps and seems to have ejected the dead ones. the fingers are opening but the small comblike appendages on them are still dark and unextended. There are more open polyps today than yesterday when I last reported. It appears that these are what were previously just little buds that are turning into these open polyps rapidly. I have left it pretty much unharassed except to gently blow away some dead tissue.

you?

[jerryb]

If the anthelia was in your fuge, what kind of lighting did it have?

My anthelia is spreading to almost plague proportions. There is the occasional die-off but only when it is trying to take root in a shaded area. Also, what do you have with it? I have been watching some star polyps spreading close to a clump of anthelia with the anthelia gradually growing smaller.

I run polyfilter and carbon about 25% of the time.

[pat_man_ta]

Mine was briefly between a little tulip anemone and a star colony.
I moved it off on its own and it then began to die off. I use NO 14w 50/50 and 38w (2x "75w") of "daylight" in my nano. I have it under a high power household "100w" bulb at home now in my 3g.

[jerryb]

Sounds like a combination of light and mostly the star ployps. The stars are very agressive. Mine are spreaing like crazy.

[pat_man_ta]

my stars are not really taking off yet and are mostly brown.