Need more acan help! (pics)

[vessxpress1]

I am having problems with a particular acan lord and am looking for any advice to try with it. I know there's only so much you can do but it's nice to see ideas put out there on this forum.

I'm VERY nervous about this acan lord right now because it is the most expensive one I've ever purchased and it is simply awesome when fully expanded.

Here's a before pic when I first got it, under PCs in this pico tank. I had it for a few days under this light. It is on the bottom shelf in this pic, all the way to the left next to the thermometer and it's fully expanded:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/MACNA%20XIX/MACNAXIX2002.jpg

And here it is today, after being in my tank for a couple weeks. It is very re-tracted and appears to be irritated. There's even some minor tissue loss:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/misc2/randompics006.jpg


It was in the top third of the tank because I figured it would need good light for how much color it has, but then it started going down hill. I didn't know if it was getting too much light or flow or what. So I moved it down to the bottom where it is now.

Here is what's around it. Nothing around it is bothered at all. Notice the acans on the left and right are fully expanded:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/misc2/randompics007.jpg


I don't know where this particular acan would have came from but it's bright turquoise with pink stripes. I've never seen one identical to it. My other new acquisitions have not been bothered by the light and were higher. I just moved it to this location yesterday.

[vessxpress1]

I also run carbon and rowaphos 24/7. Just changed a couple weeks ago.

[All Delight]

You may have shocked it with too much light. But, I don't think the t-5's would've been to much. If it was getting too much flow you would've known if the polyps were getting "pulled" when they were expanding.

If the tissue is receeding maybe there is some kind of infection.

I collect acans and micros. Whenever there is tissue receeding a fellow reefer told me to try Tropic Marin Coral Cure. After I lost a few colonies I tried it.

http://www.aquabuys.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=tms_coral_cure_200ml&Category_Code=n1&Product_Count=17

Everytime I've used it so far, and I caught the recession early its stopped right where it was and after a couple of weeks the tissue grew back. I use 1 squirt in a container of tank water, about 1/2 gallon mix well. Let the coral soak for 30-60mins. Place the coral back in the tank.

Hope that helps.

[vessxpress1]

Thanks AD! I just ordered some and will give it a try. I'm also leaving my lights off this weekend and I'll see how it reacts.

[vessxpress1]

I don't know if the coral cure is going to make it here in time. In the middle pic, the polyp all the way to the left is almost all gone now. It's in bad shape.


Would it be worth trying to make my own dip with some lugols? I have it available now. How many drops for a half gallon? If I should try it that is.

[monkeydude]

Unfortunately alot of these Aussie acans coming in are dying. After having a few colonys for a 4 months now with no problems i have recently experienced the same thing. Watched a friends 3 colonys all die after slow tissue recession with all attempts made to save. Think they might be permanently damaging these nice corals in their hasty attempts to make money. Hopefully the coral cure will work for you.

[vessxpress1]

Thanks monkey. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Some I have are doing great and have been growing polyps. Some have had problems and are better now and I have two with problems presently.

This frag, as you can see in my first pic, was well healed and doing great. It wasn't chopped and sold immediately. It just came down with something after I put it in my tank.

I just tried the Lugol's dip while I still have something to save. I followed the directions on the bottle. 40 drops in one gallon of water and let it sit in that for 15 minutes.

Here's how it looks a few minutes after the dip:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/misc2/acanlord.jpg

Figure there's nothing to lose. Maybe it will at least slow down the infection until the coral cure gets here to try.

[Chads29]

I have not had one loss with any of the 15 or so diffferent Aussie Lord/Micro color morphs I have. I dip every coral with TMPCC and ReVive from two little fishies. I can not say that it has helped but I can say I have not had any problems since I started doing these dips.

[gary faulkner]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10913144#post10913144 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by All Delight
You may have shocked it with too much light. But, I don't think the t-5's would've been to much. If it was getting too much flow you would've known if the polyps were getting "pulled" when they were expanding.

If the tissue is receeding maybe there is some kind of infection.

I collect acans and micros. Whenever there is tissue receeding a fellow reefer told me to try Tropic Marin Coral Cure. After I lost a few colonies I tried it.

http://www.aquabuys.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=tms_coral_cure_200ml&Category_Code=n1&Product_Count=17

Everytime I've used it so far, and I caught the recession early its stopped right where it was and after a couple of weeks the tissue grew back. I use 1 squirt in a container of tank water, about 1/2 gallon mix well. Let the coral soak for 30-60mins. Place the coral back in the tank.

Hope that helps.


I have some Lugols on hand, do you think it would work as well?

TIA

[vessxpress1]

Here it is today, continuing to decline. It now has the brown jelly stuff on it. The 40 drops in 1 gallon Lugol's dip for 15 minutes, did nothing :

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/misc2/acanlord2.jpg

UPS tried to deliver the TMPCC today and of course I needed to sign for it and couldn't be home. And it couldn't be left on my enclosed porch. So, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it out.

I don't know what the brown stuff is. I tried to pull some off with a tweezers so I could look at it under a microscope but it wouldn't come off the skeleton. Maybe it's just dead tissue?

I did pull a piece of tissue off to look at it under the microscope. I first sampled some regular aquarium water to see if I could see anything microscopic swimming around. Didn't see anything. Then I looked at the piece of dying acan tissue.

The piece was about as big around as a pencil eraser on the slide. I looked at it for a while at the highest power and didn't see anything. Then I spotted movement. There was some type of microscopic organisms crawling around in the tissue. They appeared to be see through. The largest ones were way to small to be seen with the naked eye. There were also some really tiny ones in there. At times, they almost looked to be eating the tissue, but couldn't tell for sure. They could move very quickly and eradically. They just look like a long thin blob that is microscopic.

They looked to be much too small to be any type of flatworm. I don't know what they are or if they'd even be the culprits but they're there. Whatever they are.

Well, in the mean time, I'll continue to watch a couple day's pay, rot away on the bottom of my tank. Yet another reason to not pay the high prices on these frags. They can be completely healthy then gone in a flash and you can't do anything.

[Hypertek99]

There was a thread about the deadly brown jelly. It seems to kill Acans. I have had one frag develop the brown jelly and it rapidly had tissue recession. The only way i have slowed it down was to feed it when i saw the feeding tenacles come out. It's starting to stop i just try to feed it every other day. But it does not look pretty like it use to. Hopefully it will recover someday. It's been like a few months now and the tissue recession stopped but it's not getting any improvements. I'll just continue to feed and see. I think feeding it helps recover their lost tissue faster.

[Hypertek99]

Oh i have over 30 different Acans and this one is the only one that i have problems with.

[vessxpress1]

Thanks for the advice but this thing really hasn't extended feeders in the short time I've had it. That's interesting to know though.

Does anybody think it would be worth trying to cut away the bad areas and maybe the unaffected areas would survive? Or does it look like it's too late?

Just found this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1180681&highlight=brown+jelly

This guy was also looking at some dying tissue under the microscope. He got some great shots of the microscopic parasites. These are exactly what I saw but there weren't that many on my sample.

[Hypertek99]

Keep us updated. Hopefully you can figure something out.

[Hogfish77]

Oh man one of my acans just lost a polyp! It all happened in a matter of 2 days!!:eek2: Man I feel so helpless. I'm afraid it's gonna keep spreading(recession). My acan is no longer puffy. :(

[Scythanith]

You could always try and frag off a polyp which hasn't been affected yet and keep it away from the original colony. It may be too far gone for that already.

Sucks to lose coral!

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10940020#post10940020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hypertek99
There was a thread about the deadly brown jelly. It seems to kill Acans. I have had one frag develop the brown jelly and it rapidly had tissue recession. The only way i have slowed it down was to feed it when i saw the feeding tenacles come out. It's starting to stop i just try to feed it every other day. But it does not look pretty like it use to. Hopefully it will recover someday. It's been like a few months now and the tissue recession stopped but it's not getting any improvements. I'll just continue to feed and see. I think feeding it helps recover their lost tissue faster.

what are you feeding?

[Hypertek99]

I feed Mysis shrimp.
When i first got it. The Orange is so bright i have never seen one like it. It's 10 times brighter than my Tangerines Micromussa i got from Doc. These pics were taken in May
http://i22.*******.com/2chromv.jpg
http://i21.*******.com/11h9q4o.jpg
http://i24.*******.com/2cei3og.jpg

Then it happened. And it was fast too. This was the beginning. It receeded super fast within just a couple of days then the brown jelly was on it and i scrubbed it off with a toothbrush. When it was looking real bad i fed it every night when the feeding tentacles come out. The best time to catch it is after the lights go out wait like 30mins that's when all my acans tentacles are out like crazy. These pics is taken in July
http://i24.*******.com/28tvztu.jpg
http://i20.*******.com/30bkyds.jpg

Just took this pic you can see it receeded a lot. It was actually more but it's starting to grow a little. The feeding really helped slow it down when it was real bad it actually got to the point where it grew back a lot of tissue it lost then i stopped feeding and it receeded again but now it's doing good again but i feed it every other day now instead of everyday. I'll get a better pic when the lights come on.
http://i23.*******.com/303e5bn.jpg

[vessxpress1]

I just cut out the 3 remaining polyps in the center that at least 'appeared' to be unaffected. They're shriveled a bit but weren't deterioratring yet.

I cut the center few polyps out with a dremel and then I dipped it and the rock it was on in a strong Tropic Marin Pro coral cure solution. One and a half squirts in a little less than half a gallon of aquarium water.

I let them soak in that for 20 minutes, took them out and glued the dime sized frag back onto the rock. Lights are almost out now, so I'll wait until tomorrow to take a pic.

Last chance I can give it.

[Hypertek99]

Good luck i hope they make it.

[Hogfish77]

I also chopped off 2 of the polyps that had the recession continuing. I sure hope both our acans make it! :(

[vessxpress1]

Hey good luck hog. You going to try the Tropic Marin Pro coral cure too?

Here's the pathetic frag that's left of this thing now:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f203/vessxpress1/misc2/acanlord3.jpg

It could be better but could also be worse. It doesn't appear to have deteriorated since last night. I wouldn't say it's completely back to normal though. If it starts looking bad again, I'll dip it right away, otherwise I'll wait a couple weeks and report back.

Hopefully this works, even though it's been sick for weeks. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dip it at the first signs of stress.

[kev apsley]

Sorry about you Acan not doing well, it sux :( I do suggest that you dip every coral and frag you receive before putting it in your tank. I learned the hard way and by dipping in TMPC or Lugols you kill off any unseen microbial diseases or critters that may be hidden to the naked eye and cause unhappy reefing down the road

[vessxpress1]

Just to let everyone know..... I pulled the plug on this coral today. The lower polyp started going to hell (brown slime again) and I just didnt want to leave it in the tank any longer.

You win some, you lose some.

[Hypertek99]

So sad.

[Hogfish77]

Sucks to hear man. Mines about down to its last polyp.:mad2: