What is wrong with this acro?

[Flobajob]

Hi,

I was inspecting my corals and I saw this on one of my acros:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/flobajob/IMGP1952.jpg

Does anyone know what is wrong with it, and whether it is serious and how it should be dealt with?

My params are:

salinity: 35ppt
Temp: 29 degrees Celcius (a little high)
Ca: 420
Alk: 9dkh
NO2: undetectable
NO3: undetectable
NH4: undetectable
PO3: undetectable with salifert kit
pH: 8.5

Thanks,

Michael.

[FoothillCorals]

AEFWs? I would dip it in some TMPCC to see what comes off.

[GSMguy]

i was thinking AEFW???

[Flobajob]

Excuse my ignorance, but being based in the UK I have never heard of TMPCC and I don't know where I could buy some. Is there something else I could use instead?

BTW, how fast to AEFW spread? I have two other acros in my tank which I don't want to lose!! Is it worthwhile fragging the healthy looking parts of the colony and chucking the rest of it away?

[glassbox-design]

how long have you had it? that coral looks pretty stressed.

are you very low nutrient? the tissue looks paper thin.

[Flobajob]

The pic is a bad pic - the tissue is fine on the undamaged part of the coral, and is a lot darker and more purple.

I have had the coral around a month now, and I am not using an ULNS.

Do you think the high temp might be the cause??

[Lobster]

The area you have circled looks like an area of necrosis (possibly due to poor flow). It looks like the coral has been receding at the base for some time, and the dark green coloration of the skeleton at the base is not good either. I would guess its a basic flow or water quality issue, but its impossible to say from the information given.

[Flobajob]

Thanks everyone for the input. I am still unsure of what is wrong, and perhaps if you could specify what extra info would help I may be able to supply it.

The pic of the coral is, unfortunately, not an accurate picture with respect to the colour, I have another one (an older pic) which is more accurate:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/flobajob/IMGP1882.jpg

Thanks,

Michael.

[Philwd]

I'm pretty sure I see several small circular missing areas of tissue in that pic. Tell tale sign of the acro flat worms. A close up macro shot of that area and surrounding areas would help. I think I see right below your red circle 4 bite marks in a row. But it's hard to tell without a sharp macro shot.

[Flobajob]

I'm afraid that I can't get any better close-up shot than the one above. There are some small circular patches missing though.

The only thing is that I haven't added any sps in the last fortnight, and I inspect my corals daily, so I think I would have noticed the problem earlier if it was there then. That makes me think that the stripped area has been stripped overnight. Do the aefw tend to appear all of a sudden overnight - in other words if it is aefw, why have I only seen the effects now, and why have they happened so quickly?

Also, can you tell me what I should use to get rid of aefw (tmpcc has been mentioned, but I haven't heard of it before, and don't know where in the uK I can get it).

[Philwd]

There have been people that didn't add corals for 2 years find them. They can stay small after hatching so until they get big and you can actually see the bite areas they are nearly impossible to find. I may have had mine for a year before I found them.

TMPCC= Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. I'd be surprised if it wasn't available in the UK. Other remedies include Betadine, Levamisole and fluke tabs. Read up and decide what is best for you. Melev's, hobagato's, fishdoc's and Sean T's threads are a good place to start. None are in tank treatments and they all seem to have thier limitations. All methods essentially require a qt setup and leaving your tank acro-less for several weeks.

Except for 1 notable possibility: before meds were available these were fought with a combination of manual removal and fish predators. Blow off the corals every night with a PH or turkey baster and let wrasses or butterflies eat the flat worms that come off. Eventually there are no more eggs.

Here's what I am going to do. I am going to take as many healthy frags(defined as zero bite marks or eggs) as I can from each acro colony. Evey frag will have both a magnifying glass as well as a macro photgraphy inspection of the full frag to determine health. Dip in either TMPCC or Levamisole; haven't decided which yet. Mount multiple frags on LR rubble to jump start new mini-colonies. Trash bases(too tough to make sure you've gotten every egg). Put in qt tank for 2-3 weeks and re-treat/inspect. If still look clean place in frag tank for 5-6 weeks. Display will remain acroless for 2 full months starting from when I get the last bit of encrustation out.