A disease is wiping out Caribbean corals. Coming soon to a reef tank near you?

[AquaBiomics]

I'm definitely interested in this. I just ordered some Florida Keys sand and mud. Now it makes me wondering about using them or not take the chance and throw it out.
Eli, same sand and mud you referred to in a previous article to increase bacteria.

A very practical question. Should we worry about adding material from this region? I can imagine arguments in either direction and I'm not aware of evidence that supports general statements at this point.

Out of the 4 bacteria I described here, 3 of them have never shown up in my home tanks - including the samples *after* adding live mud and sand from FloridaPets.

One of them (the Planktotalea sp.) was actually present (at similar levels) in several of my tanks before the live mud and sand addition, including one of the treated tanks. So I do not see any evidence to blame this presence on the live mud & sand.

Overall, I think the evidence supports a conclusion that the material I bought and added to my tanks did not introduce any of these SCTLD-associated bacteria.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

Did the study identify any antibiotics that killed these bacteria? I too have experienced coral die off of large colonis I had grown for many years. This occurred 1 year ago and again 3 months ago (Narcosis of tissue very slowly from the bottom up). I have been keeping coral for more than 30 years and never lost coral like this before.

I am currently looking to set up a larger tank and want to quarantine and treat my coral before transferring them to the new tank. Any suggestions on treatment process?

 

[paraletho]

I have for years thought that vibrio was one of the main players as far as coral pathogens. I remember an article albeit from The Great Barrier. That vibrio was behaving differently and becoming more virulent or toxic at the new higher water temps.

 

[AquaBiomics]

Did the study identify any antibiotics that killed these bacteria? I too have experienced coral die off of large colonis I had grown for many years. This occurred 1 year ago and again 3 months ago (Narcosis of tissue very slowly from the bottom up). I have been keeping coral for more than 30 years and never lost coral like this before.

I am currently looking to set up a larger tank and want to quarantine and treat my coral before transferring them to the new tank. Any suggestions on treatment process?

I haven't found the info on specific antibiotics yet, only the general statement I quoted above that antibiotics appear to be helping. I will continue to dig.

The situation you describe is exactly the kind of observation that led me down the path of asking questions about aquarium microbiomes. When you watch a tank every day, sometimes you witness events that just seem like they have to be caused by pathogens. RTN and STN have always seemed to me like they must result from some kind of pathogen or parasite. Once I saw every Rhodactis in a soft coral tank (multiple varieties) wiped out in a few days without noticable changes in chemistry or any other deaths in the tank. I've heard stories from other reefers about unexplained deaths of specific groups of corals that similarly just sound like the result of undiagnosed infections.

 

[Cory]

Is it just me or is it mainly in highly touristic areas? Maybe its sun tan lotion perpetuating diseases? Or something else.

 

[Corne]

I know we talk bacteria, pathogens, etc which can't really be seen with the human eye. Is there any way to look at a coral and tell that SCTLD is present?

 

[NDIrish]

A very practical question. Should we worry about adding material from this region? I can imagine arguments in either direction and I'm not aware of evidence that supports general statements at this point.

Out of the 4 bacteria I described here, 3 of them have never shown up in my home tanks - including the samples *after* adding live mud and sand from FloridaPets.

One of them (the Planktotalea sp.) was actually present (at similar levels) in several of my tanks before the live mud and sand addition, including one of the treated tanks. So I do not see any evidence to blame this presence on the live mud & sand.

Overall, I think the evidence supports a conclusion that the material I bought and added to my tanks did not introduce any of these SCTLD-associated bacteria.

I'm glad to read this. Makes me more comfortable of adding them to my tank. Do you think it's possible that the bacteria travels only with coral?
Thanks

 

[Mgex]

I think some of the infections are bacterial so couldnt we mass use some antibiotics to target a certain bacteria to wipe it out ?

 

[Mgex]

I'm glad to read this. Makes me more comfortable of adding them to my tank. Do you think it's possible that the bacteria travels only with coral?
Thanks

I know that if you get an oyster from the Mississippi sound it has a 100% chance of having vibrio in it due to a study they did a few years ago so i dont think it only comes in on coral

 

[drawman]

I haven't found the info on specific antibiotics yet, only the general statement I quoted above that antibiotics appear to be helping. I will continue to dig.

The situation you describe is exactly the kind of observation that led me down the path of asking questions about aquarium microbiomes. When you watch a tank every day, sometimes you witness events that just seem like they have to be caused by pathogens. RTN and STN have always seemed to me like they must result from some kind of pathogen or parasite. Once I saw every Rhodactis in a soft coral tank (multiple varieties) wiped out in a few days without noticable changes in chemistry or any other deaths in the tank. I've heard stories from other reefers about unexplained deaths of specific groups of corals that similarly just sound like the result of undiagnosed infections.

Anecdotally, I've experienced the same thing with what I could only describe as a pathogen taking out only acropora. It's so challenging though to assume myself and other reefers aren't missing some other hard to find stressor. Certainly if there is a stressor acropora will be the canary in the coal mine in home reefs.

 

[Bryce M.]

I try to only get aqua cultured things but I recently did get some wild caught fish
How could I test my water?

 

[lexinverts]

I try to only get aqua cultured things but I recently did get some wild caught fish
How could I test my water?

Just go to the Aquabiomics website. He sells water tests for the microbiome of your aquarium, and this includes screens for these pathogenic bacteria.

 

[Bryce M.]

Just go to the Aquabiomics website. He sells water tests for the microbiome of your aquarium, and this includes screens for these pathogenic bacteria.

awesome, thank you!

 

[debees5]

I was diving in Cozumel about six months ago and the evidence of this disease was so disheartening. The Dive master and film crew said there was a school of thought that this disease was inadvertently imported from Asia in aqua farming off Florida. They said it is difficult to try treatment solutions in the open ocean, but that several types of treatments were showing slight improvements in coral farm areas. It was so depressing. I stopped getting anything from the Caribbean....

 

[rhodium1]

This might be an explanation for what I'm seeing. Finally! I haven't changed anything (except adding a few more clean-up crew members) and parameters are stable, but all of a sudden I started losing acans, favias, and a platygyra that had been doing extremely well. They were all healthy and then....they started declining. Shriveling up from the outer edge toward the center. Flesh on the bases of my beautiful Duncans is doing this too now. Meanwhile I have other corals right next to them that are doing beautifully. I couldn't make any sense out of what might be happening, but this sounds awfully suspicious. Maybe I'll try Chemiclean and see if it helps?

It's a crazy coincidence that Aquabiomics is in Junction City, OR. It's not like "Junction" is a booming metropolis! My wife grew up in the tiny town just next door (Harrisburg) and I grew up about 40 minutes away in Cottage Grove. It's a small world, I suppose.

 

[KenO]

This might be an explanation for what I'm seeing. Finally! I haven't changed anything (except adding a few more clean-up crew members) and parameters are stable, but all of a sudden I started losing acans, favias, and a platygyra that had been doing extremely well. They were all healthy and then....they started declining. Shriveling up from the outer edge toward the center. Flesh on the bases of my beautiful Duncans is doing this too now. Meanwhile I have other corals right next to them that are doing beautifully. I couldn't make any sense out of what might be happening, but this sounds awfully suspicious. Maybe I'll try Chemiclean and see if it helps?

It's a crazy coincidence that Aquabiomics is in Junction City, OR. It's not like "Junction" is a booming metropolis! My wife grew up in the tiny town just next door (Harrisburg) and I grew up about 40 minutes away in Cottage Grove. It's a small world, I suppose.

Please keep us updated I lost 95% of all my Duncan’s, torches and hammers along with the few SPS I had. A few of my hammers have started to regrow tiny heads from microscopic tissue that must have survived.

 

[AquaBiomics]

This might be an explanation for what I'm seeing. Finally! I haven't changed anything (except adding a few more clean-up crew members) and parameters are stable, but all of a sudden I started losing acans, favias, and a platygyra that had been doing extremely well. They were all healthy and then....they started declining. Shriveling up from the outer edge toward the center. Flesh on the bases of my beautiful Duncans is doing this too now. Meanwhile I have other corals right next to them that are doing beautifully. I couldn't make any sense out of what might be happening, but this sounds awfully suspicious. Maybe I'll try Chemiclean and see if it helps?

It's a crazy coincidence that Aquabiomics is in Junction City, OR. It's not like "Junction" is a booming metropolis! My wife grew up in the tiny town just next door (Harrisburg) and I grew up about 40 minutes away in Cottage Grove. It's a small world, I suppose.

Small world! I live nearby and JC leases are much lower than surrounding areas, it's a great place for a small business.

I'd be curious to know if your tank has any of these SCTLD bacteria ... I do not think we have any tests of chemiclean in the pipeline yet, but it sure would be interesting to see if this widely used additive affects these bacteria.

 

[AquaBiomics]

I know that if you get an oyster from the Mississippi sound it has a 100% chance of having vibrio in it due to a study they did a few years ago so i dont think it only comes in on coral

You raise a good point, that Vibrios are everywhere in the marine environment.

I should clarify - all tanks have many different bacteria in the genus Vibrio. Some we can assign species names, others are undescribed members of the genus.

We label this one Vibrio sp., but it's different than the many other undescribed Vibrios that are also called Vibrio sp. Until someone describes it we can only be more specific by using ID numbers that are hard to remember.

Maybe I should refer to this as the SCTLD-associated Vibrio?

 

[KenO]

Small world! I live nearby and JC leases are much lower than surrounding areas, it's a great place for a small business.

I'd be curious to know if your tank has any of these SCTLD bacteria ... I do not think we have any tests of chemiclean in the pipeline yet, but it sure would be interesting to see if this widely used additive affects these bacteria.

Eli, too bad I just sent my other microbiome test in this past Monday. Since I have the unknown Vibro in my tank we could have done the chemiclean treatment and then tested. I guess we could still do that if my 2nd test still shows it.
Ken

 

[debees5]

Scientists on Battling Coral Disease: We Need Funding, Resources Quickly

Researchers say big limitation in efforts is manpower.

www.mynews13.com