Burrowing Mussel?

[Abrfrie88]

One of my Wilsoni colonies that I’ve had for about eight months suddenly started to melt today. Up until now it has shown no signs of stress and has only gotten larger and puffier.

When I got home today, I noticed that about half of the colony had completely melted out of nowhere. I cut away the melted portion to try to save the rest and I found what appears to be a burrowing mussel in the skeleton.

I’m assuming this is the reason it melted out of nowhere, especially since everything else in the tank is doing great. I’ve attached photos of both the mussel and the coral. Can anyone confirm whether this is a burrowing mussel?

The remaining piece was dipped in iodine for about 10 minutes after the cut. Is there any chance the separated piece will survive? Should I follow up with any additional dips (antibiotics, potassium chloride, etc.), or is iodine enough?

I’m planning to cut and inspect the bases of my other acanthos, scolys, and cynarinas to check for similar pests and I was wondering if these are something that spreads within a system, or is this more of a “comes in with the coral” situation where it either has one or it doesn’t?

Ironically, I came across a Reef Builders article last week that talked about this exact issue and recommended cutting the skeletons down to inspect them, but I hadn’t had a chance to read it yet. I quickly read it after finding the mussel, but if I had just read the article then and started checking I might have caught this before it took out half the colony. lesson learned.

If anyone has any insight or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Can anyone confirm whether this is a burrowing mussel?

Given the hole in the coral, I would say you're right that it's a coral-boring bivalve; these sorts of critters really only cause problems by growing and removing more of the coral's skeleton in the process.

I’m planning to cut and inspect the bases of my other acanthos, scolys, and cynarinas to check for similar pests and I was wondering if these are something that spreads within a system, or is this more of a “comes in with the coral” situation where it either has one or it doesn’t?

Generally, bivalves don't do very well in our tanks long-term and they generally spawn into the water column (which spawn gets filtered out in most tanks). Without knowing exactly what kind of bivalve it is/how it would do it in our tanks and its reproductive strategy, I can't say for sure that it won't reproduce in your tank, but I will say the odds are very low (so it's most likely not going to spread).

The remaining piece was dipped in iodine for about 10 minutes after the cut. Is there any chance the separated piece will survive? Should I follow up with any additional dips (antibiotics, potassium chloride, etc.), or is iodine enough?

I am honestly not sure what the best treatment would be here - maybe @Jay Hemdal would have an idea?

 

[DaJMasta]

As said, it's a coral-borer, a parasite and cause of a lot of LPS deaths, as I understand. Consider it a parasite and remove what you find, but I don't have particular advice on what would kill them that's coral safe aside from manual removal/destruction.

 

[Abrfrie88]

Given the hole in the coral, I would say you're right that it's a coral-boring bivalve; these sorts of critters really only cause problems by growing and removing more of the coral's skeleton in the process.

Generally, bivalves don't do very well in our tanks long-term and they generally spawn into the water column (which spawn gets filtered out in most tanks). Without knowing exactly what kind of bivalve it is/how it would do it in our tanks and its reproductive strategy, I can't say for sure that it won't reproduce in your tank, but I will say the odds are very low (so it's most likely not going to spread).

I am honestly not sure what the best treatment would be here - maybe @Jay Hemdal would have an idea?

As said, it's a coral-borer, a parasite and cause of a lot of LPS deaths, as I understand. Consider it a parasite and remove what you find, but I don't have particular advice on what would kill them that's coral safe aside from manual removal/destruction.

Thanks for the info! The Wilsoni didn’t end up making it. Just slowly started dying from the area that was cut. I’m planning on cutting the bottoms off the skeleton of my other acanthos, scolys and cynarina to inspect them and make sure they don’t have the same issue.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Given the hole in the coral, I would say you're right that it's a coral-boring bivalve; these sorts of critters really only cause problems by growing and removing more of the coral's skeleton in the process.

Generally, bivalves don't do very well in our tanks long-term and they generally spawn into the water column (which spawn gets filtered out in most tanks). Without knowing exactly what kind of bivalve it is/how it would do it in our tanks and its reproductive strategy, I can't say for sure that it won't reproduce in your tank, but I will say the odds are very low (so it's most likely not going to spread).

I am honestly not sure what the best treatment would be here - maybe @Jay Hemdal would have an idea?

Sorry - I don’t have any direct experience with bivalves living in coral skeletons.

 

[SPS_]

I had a similar issue, I was lucky that removing them did increase the health of the coral. I would remove them asap, because I did have them pop other places. Haven't had to remove one in a while, so fingers crossed they are out of the system.