Help Chalices are Melting Away.

[jason fox]

hi ktar check your nitrates

[jason fox]

sorry i see you did that already.mabe phosphate.

[ptownreefer]

Has anyone tried any of the non prescription de-worming pills? I asked our local veterinarian about getting some interceptor and was denied. I am not having any problems but especially after reading this thread I would like to have a treatment on hand.

[AMGReefer]

Got some Interceptor today, but I have a question, do you dilute the pill in some tank water first or do you just throw the pill in the display tank and let it dissolve?

[Znut Reefer]

I would crush it to powder and then mix a small amount of tank water to it and mix it, then add it to the tank.

[AMGReefer]

Thanks Znut, do you know if it will hurt my Softies, my tank is 90% Softies.

But my Chalices are dieing and my acan is not doing well either, all my parameters are in check, just the Chalices and acan not doing well. And those are my favorite corals.

[Znut Reefer]

It won't hurt anything except crabs and pods. Softies will be fine.

[Kernel Panic]

Acans dying

I think this started when I added a bubble coral to the display. It looked healthy for a couple weeks, then closed up and melted away. After that recession started on a Symphyllia and red acan. I removed these to quarantine and have tried all kinds of dips without success. I have had issues with dino's that have receded over the last couple months with nutrient control and water changes. After the dino's receded I had a small outbreak of cyano which was corrected with chemiclean. I did the 20% change after the chemiclean and do 10 gallon changes per week. Other corals in the display looked fine for at least 3-4 weeks until I dicovered the same recession on yet another acan. I am concered about losing more if not all LPS. I am concerned I have introduced this same parasite.

Water parameters:

Salinity 35ppt (Sp gr 1.026)
Alk 9-10
Ca 430
Mg 1300
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.008 (d-d/merck kit)
Temp 79-80
pH 8.1-8.2

Corals involved are not next to any others for contact warfare. The red acan has continued to recede in quarantine in the absence of any fish. Sometimes overnight 5mm or more tissue at the edge will disappear leaving white skeleton with a sharp edge and nothing else. Polyps are open with tentacles extended.

I have yet to try Interceptor. I am considering it.

Any help would be appreciated!

[kass03]

Last summer I started losing acans 1 polyp at a time very slowly after adding some jap acans. I had read this thread but kept thinking it was something else because mine died 1 at a time while all my others looked healthy. My colony looked good except the 1 polyp that was receding. Once that polyp died another would start.
I lost quite a few and finally dipped the last one that was receding in interceptor around last November. It worked and that one stopped receding and is still fine today.
None of my others (I have about 20 frags) ever started to recede after that.
I only dipped the 1 frag at the time not all of them.
I dunno if it's a bug really cuz it did'nt spread to the others. You would think a bug would affect all of them but who knows.
I had tried many other dips before that also including iodine and melefix.
It won't hurt them to dip them in interceptor so I'd try it.
What I did was put it in a plastic container and float it in the tank so the temp would stay the same.
I shaved off a little of the pill in the container with tank water and stirred it up good prior to adding the acan.
I dipped it around 4 hours. I repeated this 1 week later.

If I were you I'd also have an LFS check your tank pars to see if they come up with the same numbers.

kass

[roshi719]

I had some issues with LPS receding a few months back and traced it to low Magnesium. Once I got my mag above 1400 everything recovered in a matter of a week. I was only down to 1200. I have found that low magnesium can cause all sorts of problems in our tanks, problem is most of us only test for magnesium at WC time.

[2_zoa]

Interceptor,

If it is for dogs and cats and they have to be tested. How do we get this stuff. I have noticed tissue recession on my chalice the last 2 days. Not like most have posted about but enough to get me upset. I also have noticed my Favites acting a little weird.

I wonder how we can get this in a different form or a different material. Check this out. It would appear that it is nothing more then a miteacide. Interceptor is made of

Milbemycin Oxime.

Now in thie Wikipedia document notice that is the the exact same thing as

Milbemectin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milbemycin

Now in this document Milbemectin is the ingredient for a miteacide.
http://pbesa.ucdavis.edu/ESApdfs/KepnerX.pdf

Now we just need to find it and dose it acording to the potency of it. The Interceptor tabs give the dosage amounts per the tablet size. What size tabs are you guys using to treat your tanks? Are you just getting the biggest ones?

[2_zoa]

Well I am unable to get interceptor locally.

So any ideas on where to get it. My coral has now doubled the recesion site. I don't have long tha's for sure. I think I might loose it.

I think I am getting out of this hobbie............

[2_zoa]

Well, brfore I decide to shut it all off I am gonna try a treatment. I don't have any thing to loose. So, for those reading and not saying anything.

Since I can't get the Interceptor due to the fact that every vet in town has decided to stop carrying it. I don't have time to waite for it to coome in the mail from canada. I have done my best to back track the Active ingredient in Interceptor. I have come up with what I believe to be a suitable replacement. I guess we will see tomorrow when I get home.

[Johnny C]

Interceptor can be hard to find if you don't have a dog or know anyone who does... if you know of any local reefers, I'd try searching around from some there. GL

[Tico Mike]

Over the years I came across tiny crabs eating acans from Japan. No pics, but interceptor works in some cases. Go to a vet with pics, print out of RC page talking about it,etc,. That's how I got it...

[las]

Does this infection happen often?

[reefgems]

If you read the whole 11 pages it def seems like there are many people out there with symptoms, but then again how often is it really from water conditions or light stress. I think there are prob many many more that are too proud to openly discuss their lps are suffering, they try and tweat their water conditions or light but in the end loose much of their lps and then move on or switch from lps to sps and never share their expierences.

i have put together a nice collection of wild acans and it seems to me that using interceptor for the full 3 sessions (to kill eggs) is as important as quarantining. I am talking about preventative measures

[las]

thanks reefgems,

Should people be doing things like dosing vitamin c, KZ amino acid lps concentrate and feeding their corals to help build vitality in their corals? Or, does it not matter how healthy your corals are once these bugs hit your system?

I am just thinking what I can do about preventing this in my tank. I have no signs yet but it seems this can happen overnight and wipe you out.

[reefgems]

I think all we can do is feed them plenty and add all the other stuff we add, keeping mind to not overfeed, keep tank conditions stable, and get them as healthy as possible.

dip new corals on arrival, quarantine for three or so weeks, use the interceptor for three sessions while QTing. this is what i'm going to do once my interceptor arrives, only thing different than my usual is the interceptor sessions for me, i already qt for a while

oh and if you have symptoms use the interceptor in your tank for three sessions, don't worry about your tank inhabitants as the concensus seems to be that your livestock will be ok. the three sessions is to kill eggs and to make sure you get em all. people are just sticking with their normal water change schedule (most every week) and many also use carbon after a few days.

hope this helps

[las]

How do you dose vitamin c in a reef tank?

[bugg_zy]

Amazing thread with great INFO!!! Thanks so much for the folks who's input has helped their fellow reefers out.

[las]

Originally Posted by 2_zoa

Well I am unable to get interceptor locally.

So any ideas on where to get it. My coral has now doubled the recesion site. I don't have long tha's for sure. I think I might loose it.

I think I am getting out of this hobbie............

Someone posted this earlier in the thread.

Here's the link:

petmeds.com

[alphatango]

Just treated my tank with Interceptor. Had a few colonies that bleached. I initially thought it was due to quick change in Alk, but only a few colonies were affected out of about 40 or so. I then looked closer at the bleached Acans and noticed the tiny black dots that were mentioned in this thread. Its been an hour since I dosed. Just noticed copepods floating in the water column. Fish, corals and snails look fine. Acans are actually extending their tentacles and catching some of the copepods. As expected the crabs don't look so good. Will do water change at the 6 hour mark and turn carbon and skimmer back on and will post how everything looks tomorrow.

[brenndm]

I have a couple of questions after reading through this entire thread...

1) Can you just pull out the affected corals and treat with Interceptor in a QT or do you have to treat your entire DT?

2) Has anyone else confirmed that lowering the temp helps?

[reefgems]

seems to me that the infection could still be in your dt if you just remove and qt. the coral might look better for a while but the infection/bugs could still come back. i think the best bet is to use interceptor in your whole system for 3 sessions, one for initial kill off, one for egg hatch kills, and one just to make sure follow up session. i'm going to treat new pieces in my qt before i introduce them to my dt

doesn't lowering temps reduce the onset of disease... if there are aussie pests eating at our corals i would guess that secondary infection causes just as much damage as the bugs themselves, although i would like to hear others opinions on this