Help! Duncan Coral Brown Jelly Disease?

Biggest Little Reef · Dec 21, 2020

I have a small two headed Duncan coral in my NUVO Fusion 40 that I fear has Brown Jelly Disease (see photo). For the last two weeks, I’ve noticed it just wasn’t opening fully and I wasn’t sure why. Yesterday I found two or three hermits “cleaning” the skeleton. Today, I found both heads nearly covered in brownnish red slime. Is this BJD? What should I do. As much as I don’t want to lose it, I’m much more concerned about the other corals in my tank.

Parameters have been stable. Recent test results below:
Temp 78.4
Alk 8.1
Calc 420
Nitrate ~15ppm
Phosphate 0.30ppm

I realize my Nitrates and Phosphates are high. I’ve been working on getting them down in the last week or so.

tnewell · Dec 21, 2020

Take the duncan out slowly with all the pumps off, put it in a secondary container and see if it blows Off with a turkey bastor. If so, then yes it’s bjd. As a precautionary measure, dip all your euphyllia and dip the duncan.

NeonRabbit221B · Dec 21, 2020

Sure looks like it. Hard to tell how many heads you have but it may be best to frag it and chuck the infected part. You will likely need to do multiple dips a week for a bit.

Biggest Little Reef · Dec 21, 2020

tnewell said:
Take the duncan out slowly with all the pumps off, put it in a secondary container and see if it blows Off with a turkey bastor. If so, then yes it’s bjd. As a precautionary measure, dip all your euphyllia and dip the duncan.

Thank you for the quick reply. What dip would you recommended? All I have available to me at the moment is CoralRX and Bayers.

Biggest Little Reef · Dec 21, 2020

NeonRabbit221B said:
Sure looks like it. Hard to tell how many heads you have but it may be best to frag it and chuck the infected part. You will likely need to do multiple dips a week for a bit.

It’s only two heads so there would be nothing to frag off. Both heads look to be infected. I’ll try dipping it but may end up having to toss the entire frag.

NeonRabbit221B · Dec 21, 2020

I would toss the frag instead of putting it back in your tank. Eliminates the risk of it spreading (which would be very bad) and two heads of duncan is fairly easy to replace. Not worth the risk IMO.

tnewell · Dec 21, 2020

NeonRabbit221B said:
I would toss the frag instead of putting it back in your tank. Eliminates the risk of it spreading (which would be very bad) and two heads of duncan is fairly easy to replace. Not worth the risk IMO.

Always a bummer to loose one of your first corals, but honestly I agree. 2 head duncan can easily be replaced, but your tank full of euphyllia can not.