Band Disease on Favia

[Myka]

Hmmm...trouble in brain land. :lol:

In November I purchased a really nice Australian Maze Brain (Platygyra sp) that had receded in the store about 50%. They had found stray voltage in the tank, and suggested that as the cause of the recession. That seemed and looked like a reasonable cause to me. I dipped the coral in Coral Rx before I introduced it to the tank. It was doing quite well right away, and did so for about a month. After a month it started receding again very quickly...gooey around the edges, and is now all gone. :sad:

At that time I also noticed my Favia appears to have Band Disease. I think the Maze brought it in. The Favia is receding in a line very slowly around the bottom edge, all the way around it. The edges of the recession are gooey, and the bits of remaining tissue on the bad side of the line is black. I believe it is band disease, but I'm not sure if it is black band disease or white band disease. The healthy parts of the Favia look great, good color, good polyp extension, produces feeder tentacles, etc. I have had this Favia for several years.

Anyone have any other ideas on disease ID or know of a reliable cure? There is little info available about this disease.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/Myka82/Jan142011.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/Myka82/Jan1420112.jpg

[MitchM]

If that was my coral, I would probably do an iodine dip and relocate the coral to an area of flow that would provide more water movement to the affected area of the coral.
In the meantime I would probably keep researching .
Too bad. It has some nice colouring.

I noticed you might have some Valonia developing near it in the second picture.
Any chance you have some H2S accumulating underneath the coral?

[Myka]

If that was my coral, I would probably do an iodine dip and relocate the coral to an area of flow that would provide more water movement to the affected area of the coral.
In the meantime I would probably keep researching .
Too bad. It has some nice colouring.

I noticed you might have some Valonia developing near it in the second picture.
Any chance you have some H2S accumulating underneath the coral?

Thanks for posting. :) I'm considering an iodine dip, but I'm not sure it will help. It might just weaken the coral, and make it more susceptible to the disease. I'm considering a drastic cutting of the coral to remove the diseased tissue. There is some Valonia in the tank, and loose bubbles collect here and there where I siphon them off during waterchanges. I doubt there is H2S beneath the coral because there is a rock under one end so water can flow under it.

After speaking with Colby at Bayside Corals we discussed how Black Band Disease is a dinoflagellate as is Brown Jelly Disease. The only reliable cure for Brown Jelly Disease is cutting away of diseased tissue. :(

[Borderjumper]

I would cut off all the bad at least 1/2" into the good tissue. I know it's drastic, but it beats loosing the whole coral and you don't want any of that decaying stuff left in your tank.

I had a favia do that once, but I think mine was brown jelly.. Boy did it stink when I cut the edge off. I gave it a soak in Revive, and today you would never know it had been cut.

[Myka]

Ya, I think that's what I'm going to do, but it will have to wait until next time I'm home. I knew I should have bought that wet tile saw at Crappy Tire when it was on sale!

[whatcaneyedo]

I think Princess Auto has their wet tile saw on sale again. $60 for a 7" saw that comes with four diamond blades.

Minimally I'd cut off a small healthy section so that you don't loose all of it if you cant stop the spread. What has occasionally worked for me is to just siphon off the infected area at least twice a day until the recession stops. However if you're not going to be able to access the coral until the next time you're home there may not be anything left.

For instance this coral spent too long in transit in a bag that was too small with too little water in it. I was able to stop the die-off without cutting the coral by removing the tissue that was dead with a turkey baster.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh109/whatcaneyedo/Picture2022.jpg

[Myka]

I think Princess Auto has their wet tile saw on sale again. $60 for a 7" saw that comes with four diamond blades.

What has occasionally worked for me is to just siphon off the infected area at least twice a day until the recession stops. However if you're not going to be able to access the coral until the next time you're home there may not be anything left.

Dangit, too late to go get the saw from Princess Auto. The few days after Christmas Canadian Tire had their $149.99 Craftsman wet tile saw on sale for $45.99, but I talked myself out of buying it. I didn't even have corals on my mind otherwise I would have talked myself into buying it!

Ya, I'm not going to be around to siphon off the coral otherwise that's what I was wanting to try doing. Thankfully this disease is slow moving. It only moved about 1/4" in two weeks. I first noticed it in the first week of December I think it was, and in that whole time it hasn't even reached an inch of recession.

Anyway, I decided to take my rotary tool to the coral with a diamond wheel on it. It cut easier than I expected, and I used a chisel to pop each cut section off. I took off the dead tissue plus about 3/8" of healthy tissue. I hope that's enough. I noticed green on the skeleton where I cut, and I worry that the problem is actually a parasitic algae (other than dinos, which aren't alga anyway). Hopefully when I come back again in two weeks I will see healthy tissue on the cut edges.

Sorry Favia, I wish I didn't have to do it to you... :(

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/Myka82/Jan1520112.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/Myka82/Jan152011.jpg