Can I help my Trachy?

[MR2MAS]

Is there anything I can do to stop this? My Trachy started showing some of its skeleton.

I did a KFC dip and have it in a cage to protect it, but it’s getting worse.

pH 8.3
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78.8
Alk 8.7
Nitrate 16.8
Phosphate 0.07

 

[Dom]

What is your calcium reading?

How quickly did this happen?

 

[MR2MAS]

What is your calcium reading?

How quickly did this happen?

I haven’t tested calcium. It’s been going for a couple of weeks now. It’s slowly getting worse.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

Mine started receding very slowly than algae grew on the skeleton and that seemed to speed up the wasting.
I did a hydrogen peroxide dip and put coral glue on the open skeleton, that seemed to stop the spread.
Seal up all open wounds.

 

[Frags 2 Fishes]

They can recover, the biggest concern is keeping a bacterial infection away.

Did you find out what caused the initial receeding? Did you have a dip or spike in Alk or nutrients? If the issue was corrected and you can keep bacteria from attacking it you can have a chance of getting it to recover.

Frequent spot feeding is going to be essential to recovery.

 

[MR2MAS]

So I just tried measuring calcium and I think I might be on the high side.

I’m using the Red Sea kit and the color didn’t change after using up the 1ml of titrant.

I’m going to do a 20% water change to see if it helps.

Before I did a hydrogen peroxide dip before and after the KFC dip.

 

[IKD]

Anything near the coral that would potentially be attacking it after the lights are out?

 

[JoJosReef]

As @Frags 2 Fishes said, I find feeding meaty corals daily when they are bad like this helps a lot. Keep algae off the skeleton. Check for baby bristleworms taking residence inside the skeleton (think the dip probably took care of that). Check that it isn't receiving full force flow right there on the skeleton. And keep feeding it. I gove mine medium sized TDO pellets in each mouth.

 

[MR2MAS]

Anything near the coral that would potentially be attacking it after the lights are out?

I thought about that and that's why I decided to put it in a cage for protection. I only took the cage off to check and take a picture. The cage is back on now.

 

[MR2MAS]

As @Frags 2 Fishes said, I find feeding meaty corals daily when they are bad like this helps a lot. Keep algae off the skeleton. Check for baby bristleworms taking residence inside the skeleton (think the dip probably took care of that). Check that it isn't receiving full force flow right there on the skeleton. And keep feeding it. I gove mine medium sized TDO pellets in each mouth.

I'll give this a go after my water change. I actually laid off the manual feeding after I dipped it thinking I might be overfeeding it. But I can easily go back to daily feeds.

 

[MR2MAS]

They can recover, the biggest concern is keeping a bacterial infection away.

Did you find out what caused the initial receeding? Did you have a dip or spike in Alk or nutrients? If the issue was corrected and you can keep bacteria from attacking it you can have a chance of getting it to recover.

Frequent spot feeding is going to be essential to recovery.

I'm hoping it's recover. It's one of my favorite pieces.

I haven't truly found out what may be causing this. My tests been pretty steady, with the exeption of calcium which honestly I don't ready test. I've been monitoring alk, pH, salinity, nitrates, and phosphates.

Maybe it's a signal to get the Maven? lol

But I will start spot feeding immediately.

 

[IKD]

S

I thought about that and that's why I decided to put it in a cage for protection. I only took the cage off to check and take a picture. The cage is back on now.

Good Idea. With how puffed out it is everywhere else on the coral, I tend to think it’s unique to that spot (high flow, being attacked) versus water quality.

 

[Dom]

I haven’t tested calcium. It’s been going for a couple of weeks now. It’s slowly getting worse.

I've had this happen. My calcium was only 320 when it happened.

If you have corals, calcium is an important parameter. Buy a calcium test kit and test. Report back with the number.

Maybe you can ask your local fish store to test your calcium?

 

[VintageReefer]

@MR2MAS did this recover? I have the same thing going on with a prized trachy of mine. Identical issue. I suspect it’s only receding in one spot due to sand. This spot must have become buried or irritated.

I keep other trachy and lps elevated on frag stands and they don’t have any issues. This guy of mine, is the only one on the sand, and has grown since I got it. I wish I elevated it earlier. I am about to kfc dip now and was searching for others in this scenario to ensure hydrogen peroxide is safe for trachy

In the pics below, the right area has a jelly like covering. You can see the greens below under the “jelly bubble”. The far right has the skeletal exposure.

This was placed somewhat in a cave opening and the issue happened in the back right where I couldn’t notice due to viewing constraints.

Has him over a year in the same spot. It is now elevated to prevent further damage

It also is moved father from the hammer since taking the pics

Curious for an update. I hope yours is recovering

 

[MR2MAS]

@MR2MAS did this recover? I have the same thing going on with a prized trachy of mine. Identical issue. I suspect it’s only receding in one spot due to sand. This spot must have become buried or irritated.

I keep other trachy and lps elevated on frag stands and they don’t have any issues. This guy of mine, is the only one on the sand, and has grown since I got it. I wish I elevated it earlier. I am about to kfc dip now and was searching for others in this scenario to ensure hydrogen peroxide is safe for trachy

In the pics below, the right area has a jelly like covering. You can see the greens below under the “jelly bubble”. The far right has the skeletal exposure.

This was placed somewhat in a cave opening and the issue happened in the back right where I couldn’t notice due to viewing constraints.

Has him over a year in the same spot. It is now elevated to prevent further damage

It also is moved father from the hammer since taking the pics

Curious for an update. I hope yours is recovering

Hey there @VintageReefer. Unfortunately mine didn’t make it. I tried a peroxide and a KFC dip twice and neither times it made a difference. Similar to your pictures, that jelly substance just slowly took over it. My clowns and CUC were just after it and I isolated it in a cage. But eventually that slime or whatever just took it over completely. I don’t think it was BJD, but I didn’t want to take any chances of whatever it was infecting my other corals, so I just cut my losses.

That was my prize center piece that I had for a few years and it seems happy before it just went downhill.

I’m now on a hunt to find a piece like it again.

I hope your story ends better than mine! Best of luck to you!

 

[VintageReefer]

I’m now on a hunt to find a piece like it again

Send me pics I know some people / places with lots of trachy maybe I can find a similar one for you

 

[VintageReefer]

I did the kfc procedure last night. 10 hours.

Prewash yielded the truth. Much worse than I thought. Everything under the jelly flaked off and half the coral is lost. And it stunk like rotten fish

I left in kfc for about 10 hours then did post wash. No more smell. Nothing looked “worse”

I hesitated to return to the tank but decided to place back in its spot and align the skeleton back in the cave opening to shield from light

Next day…jelly has not returned so far. I don’t trust it’s healed in a day. I still feel this piece is in a fragile, weakened state, and honestly I expect to lose it. I may do nightly kfc dips to keep infection from redeveloping. Will have to take it day by day…monitor, treat, repeat

Anyway. This is the next day pic. I’m hoping it can pull through. The lack of jelly redevelopment gives me some hope

 

[MR2MAS]

I did the kfc procedure last night. 10 hours.

Prewash yielded the truth. Much worse than I thought. Everything under the jelly flaked off and half the coral is lost. And it stunk like rotten fish

I left in kfc for about 10 hours then did post wash. No more smell. Nothing looked “worse”

I hesitated to return to the tank but decided to place back in its spot and align the skeleton back in the cave opening to shield from light

Next day…jelly has not returned so far. I don’t trust it’s healed in a day. I still feel this piece is in a fragile, weakened state, and honestly I expect to lose it. I may do nightly kfc dips to keep infection from redeveloping. Will have to take it day by day…monitor, treat, repeat

Anyway. This is the next day pic. I’m hoping it can pull through. The lack of jelly redevelopment gives me some hope

Oh yes, I remember vividly the smell when I took it out of the water. Same as you, allot of flesh came off during the pre-wash. I was hopeful and kept it in the KFC dip for half the day. Unfortunately for me, that jelly came back after a day or two. We went out of town for the weekend and came back to see it completely covered in that stuff.

But yours is looking good. Much larger than mine was, so hopefully yours pulls through. Give us an update in a few days!

 

[MR2MAS]

Send me pics I know some people / places with lots of trachy maybe I can find a similar one for you

Here she is right when it started. You can see the skeleton on the right. But if you know anyone, let me know! Appreciate it!

 

[VintageReefer]

Hey there @VintageReefer. Unfortunately mine didn’t make it. I tried a peroxide and a KFC dip twice and neither times it made a difference. Similar to your pictures, that jelly substance just slowly took over it. My clowns and CUC were just after it and I isolated it in a cage. But eventually that slime or whatever just took it over completely. I don’t think it was BJD, but I didn’t want to take any chances of whatever it was infecting my other corals, so I just cut my losses.

That was my prize center piece that I had for a few years and it seems happy before it just went downhill.

I’m now on a hunt to find a piece like it again.

I hope your story ends better than mine! Best of luck to you!

Same is happening for me

I do full kfc with the pre/post wash. It comes out looking cleaned and better. Put back in the tank. Me too morning still looks ok. And by evening the jelly is returning and more of the coral lost.

I’ve done this 2 times in a row and am on my third attempt. It just keeps coming back. I’m ready to give up before it infects my tank. The dips are slowing progress but not curing unfortunately