Small white orbs on Plerogyra, killing it off

[toekietoekie]

Hello everybody

I have a pretty big Plerogyra that seems to be infected with something.

On one side small white, fuzzy orbs started appearing wich seem to be slowly killing the coral tissue since more and more skeleton is showing. The rest of the coral is doing fine, inflates well, a good feeding response.

I have tried sucking them up with a baster but while i can suck them up they just bounce back into place so they seem to be connected by some kind of slimey stuff.

Someone on reddit said it might be some kind of fungus but I was kinda hoping somebody over here had a bit of a more definitive ID

Many thanks!

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Bump for you


They kinda look like eggs of somesort

 

[ChiCity]

those are messentrial filaments
(don’t try to suck them up!)

 

[Reefing_addiction]

those are messentrial filaments
(don’t try to suck them up!)

Umm those definitely don’t look like any messentrial filiments I’ve seen..

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Random photo from the internet of said filaments….

 

[Reefing_addiction]

those are messentrial filaments
(don’t try to suck them up!)

Also those are on bare skeleton…..soooo don’t think that’s what they are…

 

[toekietoekie]

Bump for you


They kinda look like eggs of somesort

Thank you!

Yeah that was my first thought. They acctually have the texture of frogspawn (not the coral, the eggs). But since nothing is hatching from them and they also don't dissapear I don't think that's what they are.

those are messentrial filaments
(don’t try to suck them up!)

Umm those definitely don’t look like any messentrial filiments I’ve seen..

Random photo from the internet of said filaments….

Also those are on bare skeleton…..soooo don’t think that’s what they are…

I also don't think that's what they are, they are seperated from the coral but growing on the dead, empty skeleton

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Thank you!

Yeah that was my first thought. They acctually have the texture of frogspawn (not the coral, the eggs). But since nothing is hatching from them and they also don't dissapear I don't think that's what they are.









I also don't think that's what they are, they are seperated from the coral but growing on the dead, empty skeleton

can you pull the coral and dip it in iodine? And remove those egg looking things at the same time?

 

[ChiCity]

your bubble coral is (presumably) getting stung by the lobo that’s sitting 2 inches underneath it….
this is why there is recession to bare skeleton and guts hanging out

 

[twentyleagues]

your bubble coral is (presumably) getting stung by the lobo that’s sitting 2 inches underneath it….
this is why there is recession to bare skeleton and guts hanging out

You dont think if the lobo was doing it the other 2 polyps would have gotten fried first or along with the one behind them that is having issues?

 

[toekietoekie]

can you pull the coral and dip it in iodine? And remove those egg looking things at the same time?

I can certainly try that, I'll get an iodine dip tommorow and see if that helps anything.

your bubble coral is (presumably) getting stung by the lobo that’s sitting 2 inches underneath it….
this is why there is recession to bare skeleton and guts hanging out

Would have been a good guess but that symphyllia has only been there since saturday, the coral was sick before that. They are also a lot further apart than it looks on the picture, there's at least 8 inches of space between them.

Do you think the white stuff are just the insides of the coral that got killed by something else? Should I try to manually remove it in that case?

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I can certainly try that, I'll get an iodine dip tommorow and see if that helps anything.


Would have been a good guess but that symphyllia has only been there since saturday, the coral was sick before that. They are also a lot further apart than it looks on the picture, there's at least 8 inches of space between them.

Do you think the white stuff are just the insides of the coral that got killed by something else? Should I try to manually remove it in that case?

You can use povidone iodine bought from the any regular store. Add enough to make it a dark tea color.

If this is growing on bare skeleton I don’t think it’s part of the coral. If it’s attached to the corals flesh in some way it’s possible.

Maybe just dip and gently baste, don’t remove the white things.

I’m not sure who to tag for this problem…..

@tbrown ??? Maybe he can help or know who to bring in

 

[tbrown]

I'm not sure on this one. @ISpeakForTheSeas may be able to help.

I was kinda thinking along the lines of what @ChiCity was offering up as a potential. It almost looks like a severely deflated head maybe that's prepping for polyp bailout? Any sign of flatworms or anything that could be irritating it? The Pavona to the left behind it can be fairly aggressive as well and they can have some 2"-3" sweepers on them so it's likely far enough away from that one as well.

 

[tbrown]

Do you think the white stuff are just the insides of the coral that got killed by something else? Should I try to manually remove it in that case?

If that's what it is, I wouldn't try to I remove it personally.

 

[thamnasteroid]

those are messentrial filaments
(don’t try to suck them up!)

your bubble coral is (presumably) getting stung by the lobo that’s sitting 2 inches underneath it….
this is why there is recession to bare skeleton and guts hanging out

Doesn't look like mesenterial filaments to me. Mesenterial filaments are more like white tangled strings, not little eggs. Also, I don't think the Lobo is stinging it; Pachies are usually the aggressive ones, not Lobos.

It could possibly be some invertebrate eggs.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I'm not sure on this one. @ISpeakForTheSeas may be able to help.

I was kinda thinking along the lines of what @ChiCity was offering up as a potential. It almost looks like a severely deflated head maybe that's prepping for polyp bailout? Any sign of flatworms or anything that could be irritating it? The Pavona to the left behind it can be fairly aggressive as well and they can have some 2"-3" sweepers on them so it's likely far enough away from that one as well.

I was trying to find someone other than @ISpeakForTheSeas lol alas he was also who I wanted to tag but didn’t know who else! I think he’s only on 1 or 2 days a week currently

 

[Coral Memere]

Bubble coral polyps live in the groove in the canyon of the skeleton. When mine receded, it deflates into the middle, not from one side only unless something is annoying it. Im encouraged by the fact that it's still fully inflating everywhere but that side. It could well be that something came along one night and laid aggs while it was sleeping (deflated) and now it's just irritated.
Bubbles also have much longer tentacles than an lobo I've ever had. I don't see anything around it that might reach it, except if that Pavona was VERY ambitious. I do see that plenty of critters could crawl along that rock crevice and do their thing on the corner of that skeleton.

Besides, I've never seen any of my bubbles or foxes spew filaments.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Found 1 image of a bubble corals mesenterial filaments….just so we can compare apples to apples

 

[tbrown]

Found 1 image of a bubble corals mesenterial filaments….just so we can compare apples to apples

But Becca, I prefer plums!

 

[Reefing_addiction]

But Becca, I prefer plums!

Well you can have cherries with cherries then