mFrame Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm still fighting a cyano outbreak in my tank after my trip last weekend, I think the neighbors kids overfed. I've done a water change after suctioning out the majority of it, but last night noticed something odd. One head of my torch coral is retracted and has a semi-transparent maroon/reddish film all over the skeleton. I assumed it was cyano last night and brushed it off, but in doing so it seemed a bit more mucousy than cyano. Am I disturbing the torch, or did I do the right thing removing it? This morning it was back, which seems way too quick for cyano to have grown. I'm thinking that it's actually the coral but previous growth of it never seemed to look like this unless I just wasn't paying attention. In the months I've had the torch it has been very happy and huge and after taking some frags from it 2 weeks ago the remaining heads had expanded even further. I'm trying to figure out whether to leave it be or brush it off again. As for the cyano, I turned off all the lights and plan to try the 3 days of darkness that Reef_Pug has done. I assume that I continue to feed my fish as normal? My next plan is to remove the rock with the cyano on it and scrub it off in a 5g bucket of tank water from my water change. Then place it back in the aquarium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm still fighting a cyano outbreak in my tank after my trip last weekend, I think the neighbors kids overfed. I've done a water change after suctioning out the majority of it, but last night noticed something odd. One head of my torch coral is retracted and has a semi-transparent maroon/reddish film all over the skeleton. I assumed it was cyano last night and brushed it off, but in doing so it seemed a bit more mucousy than cyano. Am I disturbing the torch, or did I do the right thing removing it? This morning it was back, which seems way too quick for cyano to have grown. I'm thinking that it's actually the coral but previous growth of it never seemed to look like this unless I just wasn't paying attention. In the months I've had the torch it has been very happy and huge and after taking some frags from it 2 weeks ago the remaining heads had expanded even further. I'm trying to figure out whether to leave it be or brush it off again. As for the cyano, I turned off all the lights and plan to try the 3 days of darkness that Reef_Pug has done. I assume that I continue to feed my fish as normal? My next plan is to remove the rock with the cyano on it and scrub it off in a 5g bucket of tank water from my water change. Then place it back in the aquarium. If it's not coming off that easy it could be the head is splitting (whether or not is from stress). Another thing, it might be brown jelly disease....frowgspawns, torches and branching/wall hammers tend to be prone to this disease. If it's brown jelly then I would suggest cutting off the infected area (as it can spread to the rest of colony). Then after that's done give it a dip of Lugol's iodine mix w/tank water---follow instructions on bottle. Any pics you can provide will help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Looking up brown jelly now because now that you mention it I noticed that my hammer frag had something similar on one of its heads last night. I assumed that was cyano as well since the frag is on the sand bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Yeah, looks like brown jelly as in these pics brown jelly . Thanks for the quick ID, hopefully it allows me to handle this in time. Does the dome sell Lugol's? If not, any advice on where to get a dip down south? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewT Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 give them a shout... i wanna say they do. but def get to it soon ive lost a torch and a hammer by not treating fast enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm stuck at work until 5. Will that be soon enough? Does it move that quickly? My wife Laura is home today, just had her check on it and she said the left torch head is completely covered again, and the one head next to it is retracting. That's pretty much where it was this morning so I'll have to treat it when I get home. I'm thinking of fraging off the damaged head, dipping the rest of the coral in lugol's, and putting vitamin c on the cut. She said the hammer is looking okay with no signs of brown, but I may proactively dip it as well. low-quality pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Aquadome carries Lugol's....just gave them a ring. It's best if you treated ASAP. Within a few days it can spread to the other heads. It won't hurt your corals and if your hammer seems to be reacting like your torch then I would just do it as well. Post for updates .....and we hope you're able to salvage what's left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 My wife was up by aquatek earlier and picked up some Lugol's and vitamin C. Headed home to operate.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 Surgery is complete. My hammer was clean when I got home, but I did a 10 min dip in the Lugol's. Then I dipped the torch, removed the infected head, rinsed in r/o and treated with vitamin c before putting back into the tank. That was all about an hour ago and the remaining torch heads are out. Will keep you updated ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 Got home from work Wed night and the torch head next to the one that I removed had the jelly as well, so I had to frag it off. Thursday it was still clean, but I think I lost the barnacle that had taken up residence in the torch. I loved that little guy (white spot in lower right of pic). Hoping he comes back out today, but I think he may be a goner. Crossing my fingers no additional heads get infected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted July 14, 2009 Author Share Posted July 14, 2009 Status update, the 2nd surgery seems to have been successful and the torch is doing well. My hammer is finally extending and seems clean too so I think I may be out of the woods. Sadly I did lose the single barnacle that had his home in one of the torch's skeletal branches. He was a cool little guy and I'll miss him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chark Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Sorry to hear the loss of the barnacle. I hop your hammer will make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 9, 2009 Author Share Posted August 9, 2009 So this afternoon two additional heads of the torch were covered with this same thing after being clear for a month. Is there any chance that this is some kind of process with the coral and not brown jelly? I've never seen the torch reproduce or grow, but if I clean this stuff off it's back in now time. It appears to be surround the whole head and tentacles where it is affecting, but actually starts on an inch or so below on the bony structure. Could really use some advice if I should just frag off these two heads, but hate to if I have another option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Why not frag them, dip them and put them in a QT? Then you get the advantages of possibly fixing it and if they pull through you get a nice 2 head frag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Had no choice but to frag them. main body, the obviously infected one, and 3 frags. Iodine dip and vitamin c treated as last time, separated by space in the tank (I don't have a QT setup) 4 hours later the obviously infected and 2 frags were covered with the jelly again so out they came and are disposed off. Crossing my fingers for the main body (now 2 head) and the 1 frag. My green torch has been next to these throughout, though it's much shorter. We'll see how things look tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Crossing my fingers for you. Went through the same thing with a hammer colony I had a while back. It's just heartbreaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Thanks, yeah, this was my prize coral when I got it. This morning the main stalk is still clear and extended. The frag is partially extended which means I can't tell if it has jelly in the center or just un-extended tentacles. The green torch remains clear as does my hammer. Originally it was so huge that I fragged it for the Maast frag trade and got lots of goodies. Now I'm just glad some of the colony exists outside my tank. Southside has a frag as well, so worst case I can get some back from him later on. As for diagnosis, it's definitely jelly. It is absolutely amazing how quickly this stuff grows. We're talking 2-3" growth from clean in a number of hours even if not exposed to light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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