sick acro w/ tiny eggs, a little help please

[big t]

Hey Guys. I have this frag that I got in Jan, it was doing rather well up till a couple weeks ago and has at least doubled in size. It is a little pinkish acro, and I took a close look at it today and it has been bleaching out, but still has all its polyps. In a lot of spots I noticed that it dosn't really look like it has tissue anymore. Then there are some spots that are bare of tissue and polyps and there are thousands of teeny tiny yellow eggs, the size of about a quarter of a grain of salt. This is the only coral that is affected in this way in my tank, so what should I do?

 

[big t]

This is what it looked like when I first got it.

 

[mojoreef]

Hard to see Tom. I would say if the effected areas are directlyrelated to these egg like things, I would remove the coral and scrap the effected areas clean of the stuff.

Mike

 

[big t]

I found out the other day that this coral was killed by acro eating flatworms.

 

[Detri]

Dang! Thats a real shame! I hope you get it solved before you loose more. Keep us posted. Posts like this are good for me

 

[NaH2O]

Wow, Tom! I would do as Mike posted, and try to remove any of the coral with the eggs on it. Give the coral a good look over before putting it back in the tank. I'm not sure if a Lugol's dip or similar would help to remove any adults that might be present? There is another member on the board with a similar problem. I'm going to link him to this thread.

 

[NaH2O]

oops - hey - I just realized this thread is more than a year old. :lol: ROFL. Anyway - did you frag the coral up? Did the acro eating flatworms bother any other corals?

 

[big t]

Yes this is a very old thread that I dragged up. I did lose the entire coral no matter how much I fragged it. It was a real shame, because it was really pretty and was growing real nice. Next thing you know it was STN from the base and had those eggs all over. I scraped, superglued and fragged to no avail. I was looking at a thread in the SPS forum over @ RC the other day and they were talking about the acro eating flatworms. They are invisible, leave those eggs and slowly eat your favorite coral. They seem to mostly affect milli's which this coral was. It was said that you can see them if you remove the coral from the water and let it air dry for a short time, you can then see slimy blotches on your coral and that is them. People have been killing them w/ flatworm exit, lougals and some other dips. I hope that this thread will help someone in the future to identify what is taking out there corals.

 

[bmtpfgh]

Tom-
As far as I know, none of the treatments you mentioned above have worked.I think they are just methods people are trying.Flatworn Exit kills a different type of flatworm.The reason that they are invisible is that they seem to take on the color of the coral they are eating.
I have something going on in my tank,but I have yet to find anything.It is an overnight RTN type event.It selects random Acros and peels the flesh away,as if a powerhead was pointed direcly at them.I've tried Reef Dip and fragging with no positive results.Sometimes it is weeks between events,but millioporas seem to be most affected.