Official Acanthophyllia, Cynarina, and Indophyllia show off (and appreciation) thread!

[jp_75]

Often feeding?

 

[Tcook]

Often feeding?

I rarely directly feed any corals. I do broadcast SF Bay eggs and they may get some of that or stray piecs of mysis.

 

[VintageReefer]

I just ditched a 24k acantho. It was great then rapidly declined for unknown reasons. Lost all color in mouth area and receded showing skeleton. I tried iodine dip, revive, h202 bath. Nothing helped. Mouth always open. Tried target feeding and not feeding at all. Tried basting the inside of the mouth in case sand was in it. Lowering lights. Lower flow. Couldn’t figure it out

Last Inflated few weeks ago and I could tell it was bleaching

Elevated out of sand - bleached and 1 skeletal ridge showing

Tried lowering lights, feeding, dips…then two skeletal ridges showed plus mouth gaping. The eroding flesh by the skeletal ridges spread to the mouth

Dipped and found bristle worms + mini brittle stars living in the skeletal ridges

Then did kfc dip as last resort
Flesh would blow off in chunks with a baster. I isolated in a bag after the 5 hour dip. This was brand new water. It was murky by next day

Multiple skeletal ridges. Just kept declining. I didn’t feel comfortable putting back in the tank…I never saw any improvement in any way. Decided to toss it

All other corals were fine including scoly and Cynarina and other acantho

Now a few weeks later my green acantho is receding. I just don’t get it. All other corals fine

I also see similar bleaching in the mouth area. I have no idea what’s going on when acantho have these symptoms but the rest of my tank…

Whatever it is, only acantho are affected.

Only thing I can identify is my phosphates are elevated and at .38

It got spiked after trying some new foods and not knowing the impact they would have on my system. Once I realized what was happening I stopped using them, and worked on slowing bringing the phosphate down.

 

[Koty]

The death of my Canaria as well as other corals during the last two years is associated with me turning off the UV. My line of thinking that at a certain load of opportunistic bacteria the corals immune system cannot cope anymore. This is just an hypothesis I have no direct proof for.

 

[VintageReefer]

The death of my Canaria as well as other corals during the last two years is associated with me turning off the UV. My line of thinking that at a certain load of opportunistic bacteria the corals immune system cannot cope anymore. This is just an hypothesis I have no direct proof for.

I’ve seen your posts about it and have no idea also. Whatever caused my acantho issues, has no effect on my 4 Cynarina at all, nor any other coral.

I do not run uv

I talked with a vendor and they told me you’ll never figure it out. There is no reason. It just sometimes happens with acantho and meat corals

 

[Koty]

Based on the fact that the level of initial pathogenic bacteria is a key factor for the ability of the immune system to win. A UV system is the only item that reduces the bacterial count in the water column. Without it we are a kind of gambling: one event of overfeeding or an unseen critter that dies and decomposes releasing organics to the water can cause a surge in bacteria that will occasionally kill a coral in our tank.

 

[VintageReefer]

Based on the fact that the level of initial pathogenic bacteria is a key factor for the ability of the immune system to win. A UV system is the only item that reduces the bacterial count in the water column. Without it we are a kind of gambling: one event of overfeeding or an unseen critter that dies and decomposes releasing organics to the water can cause a surge in bacteria that will occasionally kill a coral in our tank.

I do agree with you and it’s an interesting discussion that’s been had many times and probably has a current thread dedicated but the issue with uv is:

It’s non selective and can kill good bacteria as well as bad

The exposure time for bacteria to be effective varies, and the flow through the uv rays needs to be shorter for some things and longer for others, it’s difficult to decide how best to use it

All water will not make it through the uv.

I just thought of this as I am typing. We should invent a drop in uv for overflows. That might be better than a pump in the overflow where some water will make it’s way by without being sucked into the pump, and is a solution for people that don’t want to hard plumb one in.

I’m not against UV, I just dont know how much good stuff it would be killing and would hate to make things worse trying to solve a problem.

But a similar argument can be made for dumping cipro and chemiclean in my tank. Which I also am hesitant to do, but have done once before.

I’m just not sure what’s going on and feel with healthy conditions, amino soaked feedings, and addition of dips (which one? It’s a trial and error) the acantho’s should be able to recover on their own

 

[VintageReefer]

Did my gold one get ticked off from bristleworms, they moved in to crevices, and stressed it to death? Did it ingest a bristleworm or sand? Who knows.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I just ditched a 24k acantho. It was great then rapidly declined for unknown reasons. Lost all color in mouth area and receded showing skeleton. I tried iodine dip, revive, h202 bath. Nothing helped. Mouth always open. Tried target feeding and not feeding at all. Tried basting the inside of the mouth in case sand was in it. Lowering lights. Lower flow. Couldn’t figure it out

Last Inflated few weeks ago and I could tell it was bleaching

Elevated out of sand - bleached and 1 skeletal ridge showing

Tried lowering lights, feeding, dips…then two skeletal ridges showed plus mouth gaping. The eroding flesh by the skeletal ridges spread to the mouth

Dipped and found bristle worms + mini brittle stars living in the skeletal ridges

Then did kfc dip as last resort
Flesh would blow off in chunks with a baster. I isolated in a bag after the 5 hour dip. This was brand new water. It was murky by next day

Multiple skeletal ridges. Just kept declining. I didn’t feel comfortable putting back in the tank…I never saw any improvement in any way. Decided to toss it

All other corals were fine including scoly and Cynarina and other acantho

Now a few weeks later my green acantho is receding. I just don’t get it. All other corals fine

I also see similar bleaching in the mouth area. I have no idea what’s going on when acantho have these symptoms but the rest of my tank…

Whatever it is, only acantho are affected.

Only thing I can identify is my phosphates are elevated and at .38

It got spiked after trying some new foods and not knowing the impact they would have on my system. Once I realized what was happening I stopped using them, and worked on slowing bringing the phosphate down.

I have now brought two acanthos back from the brim. What did I do you ask? Placed them in a different tank, same water chemistry, same routine. Both had elevate phosphates. In my case, I can only suppose that one of my fish was irritating them and that led to them starting a slow but marked decline. The fish in the new system don’t bother them and slowly they’ve regained their tissue. I was about to throw in the towel for all acantho is my systems.

 

[Koty]

The imperfections of the UV system are IMO its strength. I have a strong UV with the smallest pump, so I assume the all bacteria that pass through do not survive based on their size. My pump passes less than a liter per min so 50 liter pass through per hour mixing with the sump water. A very rough estimation is that it takes more than a day for all the water to pass through. That spells IMO that the collateral damage of good bacteria is negligible.
Also, Not sure what defines a good bacteria. Maybe too much of any good bacteria is bad. Bottom line: UV is the only indiscriminate water purifyer. Think of it as replacing the full blown sun UV hitting the water surface in a coral reef. Only that the potential of out tank to turn into a bacterial soup is around the corner.

 

[VintageReefer]

I have now brought two acanthos back from the brim. What did I do you ask? Placed them in a different tank, same water chemistry, same routine. Both had elevate phosphates. In my case, I can only suppose that one of my fish was irritating them and that led to them starting a slow but marked decline. The fish in the new system don’t bother them and slowly they’ve regained their tissue. I was about to throw in the towel for all acantho is my systems.

I have never seen a fish bother mine but I do have bristleworm issues.

I have dipped Cynarina and seen a giant one come right out of a skeletal hole

I have a trap and have been catching the worms at night to try and reduce population

 

[VintageReefer]

I have now brought two acanthos back from the brim. What did I do you ask? Placed them in a different tank, same water chemistry, same routine. Both had elevate phosphates. In my case, I can only suppose that one of my fish was irritating them and that led to them starting a slow but marked decline. The fish in the new system don’t bother them and slowly they’ve regained their tissue. I was about to throw in the towel for all acantho is my systems.

Very interesting. I know @Mr_Knightley had a Cynarina pathogen in his tank before. It makes me wonder if you had something similar in one system but not the other

For me only acantho are affected. The 24k one was bleaching, then receding. This progressed quickly and the coral perished

My green one is showing a little skeletal ridge and has very slight bleaching in the mouth area

My red one definitly has lost pigment and has become translucent like a Cynarina, but the flesh looks good and it inflates - see below. Pic from today, just gave some pellets to see if he’s interested.

This is what the color should be

 

[Tcook]

It may be multiple compounding issues that we don’t know about in addition to abrupt phosphate elevation. My phosphate is a bit higher than I would like but everything is doing well- tolerant of the level. I recently added a nice (small) red cynarina that had been doing great at the lfs. It disintegrated over a week’s time. Frustrating.

 

[jonray]

Maybe check your test kits. I purchased a Hanna Nitrate high range kit and was shocked at the results. My nyos nitrate kit showed under 5pmm whereas the Hanna showed 20ppm. Subsequent testing showed the Hanna to be correct. I don’t lose anything it the meat corals weren’t as happy as they should be.

I also keep the meaty corals raised off of the sand bed. The sand bed is, as Ryan from BRS says, the tank toilet. Any minor wound in the coral is a wonderful opportunity for any bacteria to invade. I place mine on egg crate but rock does the job.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I just bought this beautiful piece but havent picked it up yet since im in The Philippines atm. Really excited to get back though and add it to the tank! Look at how many beautiful pieces the vendor got in the shipment a few days ago. The one circled I bought. I was tempted tk get 2!

 

[VintageReefer]

Maybe check your test kits. I purchased a Hanna Nitrate high range kit and was shocked at the results. My nyos nitrate kit showed under 5pmm whereas the Hanna showed 20ppm. Subsequent testing showed the Hanna to be correct. I don’t lose anything it the meat corals weren’t as happy as they should be.

I also keep the meaty corals raised off of the sand bed. The sand bed is, as Ryan from BRS says, the tank toilet. Any minor wound in the coral is a wonderful opportunity for any bacteria to invade. I place mine on egg crate but rock does the job.

I use all Hanna digital testers and have unnecessarily replaced reagents just in case. I elevated the acantho’s 2” off the sandbed on coral stands made for meat corals, and has not helped so far.

I have 4 Cynarina on the sand, and a scoly, all doing great

These pics are all from the last few days. In full tank shots my green acantho is far left, the red/orange bleaching one is center tank on the coral riser.

The Cynarina are in a trio to the right of the acantho. Another Cynarina is in a hard to photograph location so I didn’t include it.

Last night I dipped the two acantho with coral rx. Couple baby bristle worms came off. Approx 1/4 - 1/2”. I am target feeding both acantho every 2-3 days. And using aminos (reef energy ab+ and tropic Marin amino organic ) every 2-3 days

 

[jonray]

Forgive me if you have already stated this but are you placing the acanthos on the stands from day one? I have lost corals where they have been placed on the sand, suffered a scrape of some sort and then suddenly gone downhill. It’s very hard to recover one afterwards.

Other than that you are covering all bases. I think we have all lost corals to idiopathic disease. Sometimes when corals are imported I suppose they may already have their card marked. Maybe they already contain pests that lead to a slow at first then subsequent quick demise. This hobby is so infuriating and I’m not sure that will change until we are able to detect “things” on a cellular level and that is unlikely to happen as it’s too small a hobby.

 

[VintageReefer]

Forgive me if you have already stated this but are you placing the acanthos on the stands from day one? I have lost corals where they have been placed on the sand, suffered a scrape of some sort and then suddenly gone downhill. It’s very hard to recover one afterwards.

Other than that you are covering all bases. I think we have all lost corals to idiopathic disease. Sometimes when corals are imported I suppose they may already have their card marked. Maybe they already contain pests that lead to a slow at first then subsequent quick demise. This hobby is so infuriating and I’m not sure that will change until we are able to detect “things” on a cellular level and that is unlikely to happen as it’s too small a hobby.

The acantho’s were all on the sand from the start and did fine. I got the stands after they started declining while troubleshooting, and fearing sand irritation, bristleworms, etc

They are 2” risers

Everyone I see with acantho has them on the sand, so that’s what I did. I question if they all randomly got scrapes or injuries then infected.

 

[Lowsingle]

Beautiful specimen!

I just bought this beautiful piece but havent picked it up yet since im in The Philippines atm. Really excited to get back though and add it to the tank! Look at how many beautiful pieces the vendor got in the shipment a few days ago. The one circled I bought. I was tempted tk get 2!

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Beautiful specimen!

Thanks!