I recently picked up a colony of bflintix9tomussa wellsi flintix9t on Saturday and things aren't going great. Got them home, dipped them in coralRx, and that's when I noticed one polyp had some tissue damage. Looked like the hard spike of the skeleton under it poked a hole in the tissue.
Over the next couple of days, that polyp just kept losing more and more tissue from the center out. Now it's got a little rim of tissue at the top and another bit at the bottom, but the middle and sides are basically gone. And to make things worse, I've got a layer of white fungus/mold forming on the damaged areas, and it's starting to spread to the neighboring polyps - they're showing signs of tissue damage where they're touching the dying one.
I'm really new to coral keeping, so I'm not sure what's going on or how to treat it. I did try spot feeding them with some cyclopeeze last night, and the sick polyps did eat a bit, but they didn't react like the others - just seemed weak. I'm hoping to save the sick ones, but if nothing else, I want to contain this and keep it from spreading to the rest of the colony.
I've attached some pictures - the first one is from today, the second is from a couple of days ago, and the third and fourth are from when I first noticed the tissue damage.
Experiences with sick blastos corals?
Re: Experiences with sick blastos corals?
I'm not too concerned about the damage spreading, it seems pretty isolated to that one polyp. I'd just focus on keeping the flow low to medium, that way you're not stressing the rest of the colony. Make sure to feed the healthy polyps well, they'll help support the weaker ones since they all share nutrients. You might want to try feeding some frozen mysis too, see how they take to that.
Re: Experiences with sick blastos corals?
It's not just the one polyp, I've got the two next to it showing some skeleton at the border to the dying one, which is concerning me.
I've been trying a variety of foods - mysis, plankton, pods, LRS nano reef frenzy, and cyclopeeze. They've been pretty picky, but last night they finally took some cyclopeeze, albeit quite late. I'd read that sick bflintix9tos might not become active for feedings until nighttime, so I waited and tried again at 1 am.
I did see some movement, and everyone but the dying one took some food. However, the two bordering ones were a struggle - they needed multiple attempts before they'd take some, and even then, they had trouble getting it in their mouth and keeping it closed.
I've been trying a variety of foods - mysis, plankton, pods, LRS nano reef frenzy, and cyclopeeze. They've been pretty picky, but last night they finally took some cyclopeeze, albeit quite late. I'd read that sick bflintix9tos might not become active for feedings until nighttime, so I waited and tried again at 1 am.
I did see some movement, and everyone but the dying one took some food. However, the two bordering ones were a struggle - they needed multiple attempts before they'd take some, and even then, they had trouble getting it in their mouth and keeping it closed.
Re: Experiences with sick blastos corals?
I think I'd start by doing a Lugol's dip to help prevent any further infection, then move the colony to a spot with really gentle flow to minimize the risk of bacterial issues or brown jelly forming.