Scoly problem!!

[Wheelman76]

My scoly has looked a little deflated for the last few days and one of the sides has been curled up a little bit. It's not showing the skeleton or anything , but last night I tried feeding it and it did not have its feeders out which is not normal. Today I noticed underneath I could see some white strings so I lifted it up and took a pic. I'm assuming they are mesenterial filaments? I have seen something similar from a coral when they "spit out there guts" so to speak ,but usually from the mouth, never around the edge on the bottom like this. I also noticed a small bristle worm inside the bottom of the skeleton when I flipped it over. If anyone has any ideas why its doing this that would be much appreciated , thanks. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/8ezusyha.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/yby4urer.jpg

[Craigdillman]

Sometimes my Acan war coral has those same things come out of it and "I believe" they are stingers that sting and digest other corals if they "sense" them. any chance that it got moved closer to another thing or something fell beside it?

Also sometimes my brain coral will be deflated and not eat for a few days and looks kinda sick but after like 2 days its inflated and healthy

The coral you have looks healthy still so i wouldn't do anything drastic maybe dip it if your worried in like coral Rx

[Wheelman76]

No other coral has moved close to it recently , I have been battling cyano on the sandbed for the past few weeks, which could possibly be irritating it.

My open brain does the same thing as well , looks shrivelled up for a couple days and then opens up better than ever , but have never seen my scoly do this , and I've had it for over a year.

[Craigdillman]

Hrm weird idk then

[Wheelman76]

Now I just noticed a small tear in the flesh on the top of the scoly about 2 or 3 mm. Not sure whats going on

[Wheelman76]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/anubaha7.jpg

[MitchM]

That last picture looks to me like someone is nipping at it.
What kind of fish or shrimp are you keeping in there?

[Wheelman76]

Update :

Looks like its starting to just disintegrate , has a bunch of holes all over the place. Dipped in coral rx and two worms came out of the skeleton , looked like bristle worms but there are so many different types of worms who knows.

Nothing nipping at it because I put a 2 litre bottle top over it to protect it from the flow a little bit. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/16/by2e6apa.jpg

[JohnnyReeftank]

I've had this happen to my premium acans before.....these fat deep orange/red bristle worms seemed to be the culprit but I didn't understand why considering I hadn't introduced anything new to my tank for months before the sudden attacks. Like I mentioned they only took out my brightest, most colourful colonies and left me with 3 dull colonies even though they were scattered amongst the infected ones. They receded for a few days, then holes appeared, then one morning they receded and showed their skeletons a bit...the next morning the tissues were white and jellylike....the next morning only skeletons left.
Someone please help this guy because this sucks! Especially to such a nice Scoly!

[lastlight]

i had peppermint shrimp eat an acan in a similar way. do you have any and would they fit through those slits?

[gregzz4]

Jess is there enough base to break it up with something ? Not to destroy it, but enough to dig around inside the skeleton from the bottom and look for imbedded worms
This was how I saved my Acans
I busted the base up and then dipped it

[Wheelman76]

I don't have any shrimps in my tank , I might be able to chip away at the bottom of the skeleton with bone cutters. There are so many holes in the flesh now that I'm scared to move it too much , especially flip it upside down to chip away at the skeleton. I'm hoping the dip in coral rx got rid of all the worms , but I guess I can't be sure without busting into the skeleton.

[Wheelman76]

The strangest thing is that the scoly looks fairly happy other than the holes everywhere. Definitely not as expanded as normal but it doesn't look rotten or too upset. But last night there was only one hole and by this morning the holes were everywhere so its getting worse quick.

[gregzz4]

I wasn't thinking about using bone cutters
Just turn it over and dig around with a very small screwdriver
Dig/twist some small holes here and there, and then dip it
This will allow the dip to penetrate to anyone who may be inside

Just my thoughts and do so at your own risk :wink:

[Wheelman76]

I might try that , thanks Greg

[MitchM]

Regular bristle worms are scavengers, not predators.
If there were regular bristle worms present, then they would be consuming flesh that was already dying.
Double check all your water parameters and that the coral is not in an area of too much flow.

If you do happen to observe any more worms, try to identify them with this page:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

I suspect that this scoly is a goner, hopefully you can identify what or who is causing this and prevent any further losses.

[gregzz4]

I suspect that this scoly is a goner
Is this based on experience ?

[MitchM]

The rate of deterioration, mainly. Years ago I may have lost a large LPS in a similar manner. I don't remember exactly.

I only know of Wheelman's tank based on these pictures, but I see that he has a fairly coarse substrate.
Maybe the coral was rocking back and forth with water movement which irritated the flesh that wrapped under the skeleton. That flesh decayed, bristle worms started eating and wound up eating the coral from the inside out.
Maybe that's why we're seeing holes in the flesh even though it's in a protective cage.
Maybe it's a predatory worm, too.

[JohnnyReeftank]

That strange jelly underneath the scoly in the first pic of this thread must be some sort of indicator of what's going on.....too much coincidence for that stuff to randomly show up and then the holes...anyone seen that stuff before?

[Borderjumper]

I've lost a couple over the years. Mine did exactly as yours is doing. I wasn't able to save them. Sucks loosing one as they aren't cheap. I guess thats the risk with basically one big polyp..

[MitchM]

That strange jelly underneath the scoly in the first pic of this thread must be some sort of indicator of what's going on.....too much coincidence for that stuff to randomly show up and then the holes...anyone seen that stuff before?

It's decaying flesh of the coral. An entry point for scavengers.

[gregzz4]

If the concensus is that it's a gonner, I'd start digging

Maybe you'll even find something under the flesh on the top side

Good luck Jess

[MitchM]

As a last resort, you could try removing it and placing it in an iodine bath then in a separate tank with no substrate.
As long as it's on the sand the scavengers still have free access to it.

[Wheelman76]

The rate of deterioration, mainly. Years ago I may have lost a large LPS in a similar manner. I don't remember exactly.

I only know of Wheelman's tank based on these pictures, but I see that he has a fairly coarse substrate.
Maybe the coral was rocking back and forth with water movement which irritated the flesh that wrapped under the skeleton. That flesh decayed, bristle worms started eating and wound up eating the coral from the inside out.
Maybe that's why we're seeing holes in the flesh even though it's in a protective cage.
Maybe it's a predatory worm, too.

That could be possible , I'm using caribsea seafloor special grade , this tank has been set up for two months and was transferred from my 90 which had sugar fine sand which was a much finer sand.

The scoly is not looking good , the holes are getting bigger and the skin is just falling off now.

[GoFish]

Your beautiful red and green scolymia! Must be the Grinch trying to steal your Christmas :(

Just seeing this now, that's terrible Jess! I realllllly hope this pulls through, it's very unfortunate that these are unable to be fragged
Must be some sort of worm or parasite that was eating the flesh and caused an infection boring its way through. I think of this as like a flesh eating disease, unless the dead flesh is taken out of the equation, it would seem probable that it will continue to spread.

Do you have a syringe capable of blasting tank water with some sort of dip at decent pressure to blast away any loose dead flesh and hopefully also chase the problem out of its burrow? I can bring you one if not

[Wheelman76]

Final result its a goner ! http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/16/tu5y5a8a.jpg

[Wheelman76]

It's sitting in a dip of coral rx and I'll tear it apart in the morning to see what I can find as my son just woke up and started throwing up so I have to look after him. I did find a few more small worms that came out when I first dipped it and pulled the loose flesh off.

[Ryanerickson]

Sorry for your loss Jess such a nice piece hope everything else in the tank is doing good Ryan

[Wheelman76]

Sorry for your loss Jess such a nice piece hope everything else in the tank is doing good Ryan

Thanks Ryan

[GoFish]

Sorry for the loss too Jess :(
Don't throw it away just yet!.. If you're thinking of tearing it apart tomorrow, at least leave the center around the mouth in tact. Place it in a shaded are of your tank and give it a week or 2 and see if there is ANY sign of life around the mouth. If so, there may be a chance for it yet...

[Wheelman76]

I was thinking about that however it will have sat all night long in a coral rx dip in cold water so I don't know if that will work.

[gregzz4]

Such a shame
Sorry Jess

[Wheelman76]

Just thought I would do a quick update on what I found. The skeleton has been sitting in a dip of coral rx for the last four days , so the water is pretty cold. I just checked on it and found three more worms sitting on the top of the skeleton. I grabbed some tweezers to take one of the worms out so I could get a picture , and it was still ALIVE!!! Four days in a dip and the water was cloudy and smelled really really bad. I can't really tell what kind of worms they are ,but they sure are resilient. I tried taking the worm out but it broke in half as it tried to bury itself in the skeleton as soon as I tried to grab it. Here's a crappy pic of what it looked like.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/19/3ebyjuqu.jpg