Euphyllias fine for a few weeks, then suddenly melt within a few hours.

[Stelioshah]

Greetings, every time I try a euphyllia it does reallly well for a few weeks, then it starts retracting more and more into its skeleton over the course of a few days and then it suddenly melts away. That only happens with euphyllia, any other coral that I had die off was by me messing up.

Throughout the day alk between 7.7-8 no alk swings ever since I bought it.
Phosphates currently 0.045-0.05 Hanna ulr
Nitrates always a steady 10-15ppm, never leave that range.

About 3-4 days ago I noticed that the frogspawn started to retract so I decided to do a water change, since I was also getting much more algae than usual, I also added a small amount of Fe(OH)2 to reduce the algae, the phosphates did not get to zero as you can see from my parameters above (I just checked the phosphates again earlier).

A few hours ago I recognized the typical euphyllia melting look, long "strings of flesh extending off of it". Is there anything I can do? My tank consumes about 0.5dkH per day, a pretty good amount considering it is an lps tank, so things are growing.

Here is how the euphyllia looks right now (I didn't manage to catch the "strings of flesh"), It used to extend like 4-5 times this size about 5 days ago, the only changes I have made since then is that I glued it exactly on the same spot on a piece of rock, nothing else:



I wouldn't post if it just retracted for a few days, I have seen it melt so there is not much I can think of..

 

[KrisReef]

You have brown jelly disease.
You need to treat for it with Cipro.


I think this is the link

This one works

 

[HB AL]

Possibly a brown jelly infection spreading to the rest but I would definitely be checking for some water chemistry issue. I've rarely dealt with "brown jelly" but havnt found it to be that bad, cut dying head off and the rest continue happy as can be. Being that new ones seem to do fine when introduced then within weeks are toast l would look at other things maybe even a crab or something dining on them at night. Also worst case scenario you have the flatworms that love to consume Euphylia, now those are a real problem. Years ago I had the same thing happening although not as quickly with the new additions and dipped one just in iodine that I had a few years and was showing distress and found the problem, Euphylia eating flatworms, they especially liked the torches before the hammers, frogspawns etc... after battling for months with little success I went with no euphylia for a year and solved the problem.

 

[Stelioshah]

You have brown jelly disease.
You need to treat for it with Cipro.


I think this is the link

This one works

Would iodine work in that case? I can't really buy antibiotics without prescription...

 

[Stelioshah]

Possibly a brown jelly infection spreading to the rest but I would definitely be checking for some water chemistry issue. I've rarely dealt with "brown jelly" but havnt found it to be that bad, cut dying head off and the rest continue happy as can be. Being that new ones seem to do fine when introduced then within weeks are toast l would look at other things maybe even a crab or something dining on them at night. Also worst case scenario you have the flatworms that love to consume Euphylia, now those are a real problem. Years ago I had the same thing happening although not as quickly with the new additions and dipped one just in iodine that I had a few years and was showing distress and found the problem, Euphylia eating flatworms, they especially liked the torches before the hammers, frogspawns etc... after battling for months with little success I went with no euphylia for a year and solved the problem.

I always dip new corals, the thing is that yes I have had corals die off, once from an alk swing and once over the course of many months due to very low phosphates which led to starvation

I even had a bad refractometer calibration solution in the past which led me to get my salinity to 1.032, still with no coral losses.

Now everything was good, new heads on acans, chalice 24/7 puffed up, blastos happy, so I decide to buy a euphyllia one more time and once again it just disintegrates just like the last time... Alk NO3 PO4 Mg Ca pH and salinity have always been in an acceptable range ever since I got it..

 

[Stelioshah]

I saw my bloodshrimp shrimp near it earlier which is unusual since it hides during the day, but it probably just senses that it is dying off..

Possibly a brown jelly infection spreading to the rest but I would definitely be checking for some water chemistry issue. I've rarely dealt with "brown jelly" but havnt found it to be that bad, cut dying head off and the rest continue happy as can be. Being that new ones seem to do fine when introduced then within weeks are toast l would look at other things maybe even a crab or something dining on them at night. Also worst case scenario you have the flatworms that love to consume Euphylia, now those are a real problem. Years ago I had the same thing happening although not as quickly with the new additions and dipped one just in iodine that I had a few years and was showing distress and found the problem, Euphylia eating flatworms, they especially liked the torches before the hammers, frogspawns etc... after battling for months with little success I went with no euphylia for a year and solved the problem.

 

[KrisReef]

Would iodine work in that case? I can't really buy antibiotics without prescription...

The protocol for bjd calls for Cipro. Dips in Iodine have not been effective in the past. Hopefully @HB AL is correct?

 

[HB AL]

The protocol for bjd calls for Cipro. Dips in Iodine have not been effective in the past. Hopefully @HB AL is correct?

Iodine dips do not kill them whatsoever but it works great as a very benign dip which has no chance of hurting the corals but if the flatworms are present they will start coming out in the dip container quickly to escape the water with iodine. They seem to eat them from the inside out where you can't see em till its too late or you dip the coral and they come out, longest one I've seen come out way back then was over an inch long! The iodine dip is an effective tool to help discover if it's a parasitic issue.

 

[ReefHog10]

Have you considered flow? (In my experience, too much direct/non-random flow let to eventual polyp retraction and loss)

 

[Stelioshah]

Have you considered flow? (In my experience, too much direct/non-random flow let to eventual polyp retraction and loss)

I have already lowered the flow but it really was totally extended on the same spot for 2 weeks straight with the exact same amount of flow so I do not think it is the issue here..

 

[Stelioshah]

Here is how it looked just a few days ago, could not find a better quality video..:

 

[ReefHog10]

Logically, I have to think you have another critter messing with it. In my opinion, you’ve ruled out most of the major concerns. I did recently come across a video from fragbox tv or YouTube where he was attributing a lot of euphyllia issues to low magnesium. Maybe worth testing just to see. He acted like levels of 1400-1500 were the goal. Good luck!

 

[Stelioshah]

It has looked like the video below from the sunrise until about 5pm (it then starts closing and looks like the video from yesterday) for the past few days, I am surpised that it still looks like that, after yesterday. I was expecting to return home today and find it totally melted. I am going to leave it for the time being and see how it goes.., I will also turn the flow off for a few hours and see how it reacts, thank you guys:

 

[Pntbll687]

It may be brown jelly, especially if it keeps getting worse and flesh starts peeling off. Take a look at the flesh that extends down the skeleton, is it white and extending far? Or is it discolored and up tight to the top of the coral?

I've found that if you want to remove the coral, the kfc dip is highly effective at "saving" euphylia that look like this. I have used the dip on branching and walling euphyllia.

The KFC Dip - A game changer in keeping healthy Euphyllia

Version: 1.1 (Updated 8/20/22) Please check this link for the latest version as the version included in the med kit but be outdated: https://kungfucorals.com/blogs/news/the-kfc-dip-a-game-changer-in-keeping-healthy-euphyllia PRE-WASH and POST WASH:!! Make sure to pre-wash corals before going...

kungfucorals.com

 

[Stelioshah]

It may be brown jelly, especially if it keeps getting worse and flesh starts peeling off. Take a look at the flesh that extends down the skeleton, is it white and extending far? Or is it discolored and up tight to the top of the coral?

I've found that if you want to remove the coral, the kfc dip is highly effective at "saving" euphylia that look like this. I have used the dip on branching and walling euphyllia.

The KFC Dip - A game changer in keeping healthy Euphyllia

Version: 1.1 (Updated 8/20/22) Please check this link for the latest version as the version included in the med kit but be outdated: https://kungfucorals.com/blogs/news/the-kfc-dip-a-game-changer-in-keeping-healthy-euphyllia PRE-WASH and POST WASH:!! Make sure to pre-wash corals before going...

kungfucorals.com

Last night the euphyllia was extremely retracted, I could barely see any flesh it all had gone deep into the skeleton, so based on that the flesh has not detatched from the base and I cannot see any discoloration yet... I am going to try and find some of these antibiotics I do have some amoxiccilin at home, but I do not think I will be able to buy the Ciprofloxacin though.. Would you dip it now? Or should I wait in case things get worse?

 

[Dave1993]

Last night the euphyllia was extremely retracted, I could barely see any flesh it all had gone deep into the skeleton, so based on that the flesh has not detatched from the base and I cannot see any discoloration yet... I am going to try and find some of these antibiotics I do have some amoxiccilin at home, but I do not think I will be able to buy the Ciprofloxacin though.. Would you dip in now? Or should I wait in case things get worse?

you do know corals retract when the lights go down right? like they fully retract into the skeleton

 

[Stelioshah]

you do know corals retract when the lights go down right? like they fully retract into the skeleton

As you can see on the video above, even during the moon lights the frogspawn was fully extended. My moonlights come out at 9pm, it now retracts at around 5pm, does not extend even to 1/3 of the size it did a few days ago throught the whole day. At nights it used to extend its mouth to feed, now it stays so retracted that you can't even tell if there is any flesh on it at all, that's what I am talking about, not to mention the melted flesh from yesterday.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Euphyllia is both resilient yet delicate in nature. The key is to avoid extremes. . . . Extreme light and extreme flow. Too much light and they expel their energy source known as zooxanthellae. Too much flow and they stress and you risk tearing them off the skeleton. Too little light and they recede, and too little flow , they shrink. They should sway in the current but not vigorously or bent over the skeleton as again- They will tear off.
They dont do well in High phosphate environments. While they are Not picky about placement, they seem to do best at the lower third of tank (see my location below).
Skeleton health is import also and assure the calcium level is Not below 380.

 

[Stelioshah]

Euphyllia is both resilient yet delicate in nature. The key is to avoid extremes. . . . Extreme light and extreme flow. Too much light and they expel their energy source known as zooxanthellae. Too much flow and they stress and you risk tearing them off the skeleton. Too little light and they recede, and too little flow , they shrink. They should sway in the current but not vigorously or bent over the skeleton as again- They will tear off.
They dont do well in High phosphate environments. While they are Not picky about placement, they seem to do best at the lower third of tank (see my location below).
Skeleton health is import also and assure the calcium level is Not below 380.

I just remembered that I run the pumps at 100% for one hour during night time to remove any debris, so I am now wondering if I damaged it, since It stayed quit extended during the nights. I also just tested how it sways at 100% and it is really vigorous, at the same time, the most damaged part of the coral is where the flow hits it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just remembered that I run the pumps at 100% for one hour during night time to remove any debris, so I am now wondering if I damaged it, since It stayed quit extended during the nights. I also just tested how it sways at 100% and it is really vigorous, at the same time, the most damaged part of the coral is where the flow hits it.

Sounds like you have identified a possibility. High flow will do damage in a hurry. For debris removal, I use a turkey baster which gives me control over where pressure is applied.