HELP! Coral Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

[threebuoys]

This is a plea to the coral experts on R2R and to the Reef2Reef staff.

This forum is outstanding in the information and platform it provides for thousands of aquarists worldwide.

That said, I find that a weakness in the forum (at least for me) is the difficulty in researching coral diseases and treatments.

Perhaps the issue is poor search techniques on my part, or perhaps the issue is lack of scientific information in the first place.

What is the possibility of finding "experts" in the area of coral diseases who could moderate a new sub-forum that could be as successful as the "Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis" sub-forum?

Over the past few years, I have experienced several "kill" events in my tank. Most seem to have been "RTN" (looks like Brown Jelly disease in many cases), some have been slower deaths. In most of my kill events, whole colonies die in a matter of days, if not hours, with little opportunity to reverse the situation. While one colony dies completely, other nearby colonies are not even touched or affected.

Certainly, water quality issues are the starting point for diagnosis and treatment in almost all cases, and that's the first line of response by board members when a die off occurs. Unfortunately, information or suggestions beyond water quality are either hard to find in searches, or perhaps not available at all.

I suspect the challenges of dealing with coral diseases diagnosis and treatment is a major reason some hobbyists abandon reef tanks after a year or two.

Maybe you don't agree this is a problem area. If not, what advice can you give to help the poor souls that, as hard as they try, continue to have issues with coral deaths?

 

[fishguy242]

Great idea, #MODS , @Jay Hemdal @F i s h y @MERKEY ?? anyone else come to mind ?

 

[threebuoys]

Even a thoroughly researched Article on the topic of "Coral Diseases in Reef Aquariums" would be helpful.

 

[MERKEY]

I think its a great idea!

Coral disease is a broad subject.

There are a couple threads on in tank BJD and STN treatment, that get some good traction here.

There is also the some vets on IG that do diagnosis on what they can find with their scopes and fancy tools.

The hardest part for the normal hobbiest is access to equipment to properly test and confirm exactly what we are dealing with.

So we sludge through what we can as you know with the limited info that is available.

With our microscopes and do our diligence to identify what we can by what others have told us it is.

And most is redundant and follow 1 or 2 reefers who have had success with their own personal tanks. Or everyone uses the KFC dip now, without really knowing why or what they are doing.

When in reality you need to solve the isuues and not have to dose your tank with meds every month. Having a specific coral disease group to pull up and just ask would be helpful.

I think the word "expert" in this category can define a lot of people.

For me, in this hobby, now an expert means a much different thing to me than it did even just 5 years ago.

I think a group of reefers who have been around long enough and that have collectively gone through enough issues with coral disease could really pull their minds together and help some people.

There are so many that each issue is unique, and what works for some may not work for all.

There's just not a 1 and done for anything.

I'm always down to help fellow reefers if it's something I have knowledge about!

 

[MERKEY]

Even a thoroughly researched Article on the topic of "Coral Diseases in Reef Aquariums" would be helpful.

It's too broad of a topic.

I think your original idea is spot on.

A group of experienced reefers with enough knowledge from personal experience.

Articles and who we call professionals are great forms of information but they don't always have the tricks and tips we need for our home tanks. And they aren't always available for what we are searching.

Long time reefers here have dealt with diseases and overcome them. It would be nice to have a spot to just pull up and anyone who has dealt with a certain disease can implement their knowledge or ask questions for the more experienced of the group.

 

[threebuoys]

Any volunteers?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Maybe you can get Sara Stevens to do it. She just had a great talk at Aquashella about coral disease. It is worth a watch.

 

[MERKEY]

Maybe you can get Sara Stevens to do it. She just had a great talk at Aquashella about coral disease. It is worth a watch.

I think they mean people "active" on this forum.

Which we have no actual experts.

There are lots who considered to be fish "experts" like Jay.

And we have the fish medics group.

But no coral disease group that people can hashtag for help.

#coralmedic

You have to go through this stuff to be aware on how to deal with it.

And to have been able to have a processes to help our corals and tanks battle it.

I would consider this so called group to be called "experts" in this uncharted area.

There are protocol that reefers have accumulated for specific coral to deal with...such as rtn and bjd.

But who are these reefers and how do new reefers find them and what they have done easily?

#coralmedic

Rev a d the mods would of course have to decifer and decide who is in said group....just like the fishmedic group.

 

[MERKEY]

Any volunteers?

Yes I would help who needs it.

You are part of the fish medics group.

The coral disease group should be like that.

Just reefers who help those who are new.

Not everyone in the fishmedic group when it started was an experienced reefer and knew all fish disease and they still dont, yet everyone has helped those who have asked.

The coraledic group should be the same to help people the same.

 

[fishguy242]

I want in, I Make a good tagger,lol... corals i do know ,when the mind is working well...
whatcha think @Daniel@R2R @revhtree ??

 

[UMALUM]

Sounds like a great idea but here's the problems I see with it....

I think anyone who's successfully beat a bacterial issue would consider themselves more likely lucky over adept. ( if not they should )

The guys I learned from and followed 25 years ago who I would consider expert level would never except the title. Seems at least in my experience that some of the most brilliant minds in the hobby can be extremely reserved individuals.

There's alot of very skilled keepers on here but there's no experts. Maybe it's that word in general that should be expelled from the conversation? (makes me giggle like a school girl every time I see someone on here use it)

Unfortunately I don't see even some of our best standing up to this challenge as these days someone always thinks they know more and way to often great advice gets lost in translation to debate.

Who wants the headache?

 

[MERKEY]

Sounds like a great idea but here's the problems I see with it....

I think anyone who's successfully beat a bacterial issue would consider themselves more likely lucky over adept. ( if not they should )

The guys I learned from and followed 25 years ago who I would consider expert level would never except the title. Seems at least in my experience that some of the most brilliant minds in the hobby can be extremely reserved individuals.

There's alot of very skilled keepers on here but there's no experts. Maybe it's that word in general that should be expelled from the conversation? (makes me giggle like a school girl every time I see someone on here use it)

Unfortunately I don't see even some of our best standing up to this challenge as these days someone always thinks they know more and way to often great advice gets lost in translation to debate.

Who wants the headache?

That's the main issue.

Everyone thinks they are experts and has 10 ways to do it.

No offense to the fish medics group but most don't know more than the average reefer.

And why I suggested the #coralmedic

Just a group of those same reefers can tag themselves and help other in similar situations.

and I agree with you...no one here is an expert.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I think they mean people "active" on this forum.

Which we have no actual experts.

There are lots who considered to be fish "experts" like Jay.

And we have the fish medics group.

But no coral disease group that people can hashtag for help.

#coralmedic

You have to go through this stuff to be aware on how to deal with it.

And to have been able to have a processes to help our corals and tanks battle it.

I would consider this so called group to be called "experts" in this uncharted area.

There are protocol that reefers have accumulated for specific coral to deal with...such as rtn and bjd.

But who are these reefers and how do new reefers find them and what they have done easily?

#coralmedic

Rev a d the mods would of course have to decifer and decide who is in said group....just like the fishmedic group.

Well it wouldn’t hurt if @revhtree could reach out. I have her email if he needs it. Probably could give her a stipend for her time. She is the first person I ever heard of that discussed what BJD actually was, not saying she discovered what it was, but usually people are just like its a mystery. I respect her efforts in saving Caribbean corals.

 

[threebuoys]

That's the main issue.

Everyone thinks they are experts and has 10 ways to do it.

No offense to the fish medics group but most don't know more than the average reefer.

And why I suggested the #coralmedic

Just a group of those same reefers can tag themselves and help other in similar situations.

and I agree with you...no one here is an expert.

I guess the definition of expert can be debated. On the other hand, I assume some of the curators of large scale, public reef installations must have more experience than the average hobbyist in dealing with issues affecting coral health. In the case of water chemistry, we have Randy Holmes-Farley who is certainly an expert. In the case of Fish disease, we have Jay Hemdal who is also an expert. In both of these disciplines, other forum members have developed either good or bad reputations as contributors; some forum members disagree with what the experts say. That's the nature of a forum. At the very least, the existence of these sub forums helps concentrate questions and answers that help readers navigate thousands of threads to gain a better understanding of a multitude of topics.

My hope is that @revhtree and other forum leaders can identify candidates for being the moderator and the members of a #coralmedic team. I would expect that group to attempt to share what they know, admit what they don't know, and give measured advice as questions arise from the forum members.

As it is now, if someone wants to raise a question about ,say, Brown Jelly Disease, they must first decide where to post it. If they post in the "reef aquarium forum" (as I did to start this thread), they must hope someone reads the message in the first 30 minutes it's posted before it quickly drops to the 2nd or 3rd or 4th, etc page where no one will read it. Then they have to hope that the person that reads it knows what brown Jelly disease is. Then they have to hope that the person can say more than "Yep, that's brown jelly disease".

No doubt, finding the right people to form a coral medic team will be challenging. Is the only alternative to do nothing?

 

[threebuoys]

Still hoping this topic will catch the attention of management.

 

[threebuoys]

Still no interest?
@Peace River
@redfishbluefish
@revhtree
@Daniel@R2R