SPS - Polyps, Tentacles or Tissue

[nyknicks2544]

New to SPS but have kept some frags I have gotten alive for three weeks. For the most part they look ok with some coloring up better than others.

Interested to hear what you all think of the video below. One of the corals (Tort) I have not seen any polyps on. I have seen what appear to be tentacles extending out of the edge of where I’d expect a polyp to show from. This was right after feeding. Is it normal or is it flesh or something falling off the coral?

I notice on other sps corals the random long tentacle extending as well but those have polyps.

 

[SeaDweller]

What are your water parameters in your tank? Alk, salinity, Ca, temp, NO3, PO4 etc...

 

[nyknicks2544]

Alk: 7.7
CA: 430
Mag: 1400
Nitrates: 10
Phosphates: Undetectable to .001
Temp: 78-79
Lights: ATI Sunpower 7 hours a day
Flow: Tank has a ton of flow 2x MP40 and 2x Wav I am unsure if it could potentially be too much. The coral in question is kind of in front of the MP40 (middle of tank but in line with at on 60%)

Have used a variety of tests kits that all confirm these ranges.

Some more pictures below. There are two corals in the background that are basically dead (dead on arrivals from shipping). These were taken with lights off / flash. Best I could do at night.

Rocks have had a lot of algae throughout the life of the tank. I just began NoPox (low dose) to see if I can knock my nitrates down and eliminate it.

Other corals have seemed ok. Polyp extension / healing / coloring.

 

[High ICP]

I would dip it

It doesn’t have the notable bitemarks

But, it definitely has the flatworm look to it

Even before you dip it, take it out and smell it. If it has the acropora death smell, quarantine it if it still has any living tissue on it.

I take it back, it does have flatworm “bitemarks” on it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Nopox was great at 2 things for me. 1 was lowering nitrates and the other was causing stn on all my acros. I had perfect numbers, no algae and dead acros. Now I have 10-25 nitrates, a little hair algae and 35-40 thriving acroporas.

 

[High ICP]

And if it has flatworms, all of the other acros do to.

If you have one flatworm come off that beige frag...you have flatworms in all your acros. Dip them all. Then dip again in a week.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I don’t see any obvious bite marks but it’s hard to tell from the pics. How big is the tank? What is your lighting set up?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Never mind. I just saw your lighting details. Your po4 is really low. Are you using gfo too?

 

[High ICP]

The red circles look like AEFW bitemarks

The blue arrow looks like an acro base thats being eaten by AEFW

He doesn’t even need to dip it. Baste it, they will come off. Or take frag out of tank and smell it. If it has acro death smell, he has AEFW.

If not, then he doesn’t have flatworms. Yeah!

 

[High ICP]

This acro doesn’t look healthy either

 

[Graffiti Spot]

The red circles look like AEFW bitemarks

The blue arrow looks like an acro base thats being eaten by AEFW

He doesn’t even need to dip it. Baste it, they will come off. Or take frag out of tank and smell it. If it has acro death smell, he has AEFW.

If not, then he doesn’t have flatworms. Yeah!

I don’t think smelling an acro tells you if it has worms or not. I never smelled acro death when I had aefw.
The picture is to blurry to say if those are bite marks so don’t freak out yet op. Can you take a in focus pic? To me it looks like it could be a number of things.

 

[najer]

Google mesenteriel filaments, forget the stinging bit, I think of it as spot feeding an area during growth!

edit - they do sting but in that pic to me it looks like feeding.

 

[29bonsaireef]

How long has the system been running? Your rocks look fairly new, and seem to still be in the algae stages. There's one trick I learned early on getting into this hobby, that has yet to fail me to this day. That is, wait until your tank is exploding in coralline growth before you add SPS. Some may disagree, but I cannot recall every losing a coral from what they call "New Tank Syndrome". It's just a great rule to follow in this hobby and will save you money, and headaches. jmo

 

[SeaDweller]

The red circles look like AEFW bitemarks

The blue arrow looks like an acro base thats being eaten by AEFW

He doesn’t even need to dip it. Baste it, they will come off. Or take frag out of tank and smell it. If it has acro death smell, he has AEFW.

If not, then he doesn’t have flatworms. Yeah!

Acropora smell in general to me, I’m not sure that’s a good indicator of death or AEFW.

 

[nyknicks2544]

Thanks for all the replies!

I am 99.9% confident this is not AEFW - only frags in the tank and came from one of the most well known hobbiest in SPS so I’d like to steer away from that unless you’re all absolutely certain. If the frag dies it’s certainly because I am bad at the hobby lol

Below are a few more pictures. The tips appear like they are burnt or losing tissue. There are also so white areas which may potentially be STN?

The coral that’s dead in the background was dead on arrival so I would ignore that. Other corals appear ok not thriving but colors have improved and they have polyps extended.

I don’t see the strings anymore but I didn’t feed this morning. There is some algae caught on one of the tips which is what you’ll see in one or two of the pictures.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What size is your tank?
Are you using gfo? Or bio pellets?

 

[nyknicks2544]

110 gallons - no GFO, Activated Carbon or Bio Pellets

I did just start NoPox....4ml per day

 

[najer]

I scrolled back to the top then took this, double check you phos and if needs be try and raise it.
Please don't add any more sps, not meant as a rebuke, check my tips against your tips, mine are rounded and that is in strong flow.
Yours looks hungry to me, nitrates and phosphates play a part as well as the big 3, don't try and keep a certain coral, try and keep water that will sustain all corals! :)

 

[High ICP]

I don’t think smelling an acro tells you if it has worms or not. I never smelled acro death when I had aefw.
The picture is to blurry to say if those are bite marks so don’t freak out yet op. Can you take a in focus pic? To me it looks like it could be a number of things.

I didn’t mean that to be a definitive test, of course.

Like I said in my previous posts. It would not be a good test of if he does NOT have AEFW.

If you have no idea what an acro smells like that is being eaten alive by AEFW, YEAH! For you. You are a winner at reef keeping. And better than me, because that smell is stored indelibly on my hippocampus.

The only reason why I didn’t think the acro is already dead is because what he described were mesenteric filiments. Those would be a feeding response, ergo not dead.

 

[High ICP]

Acropora smell in general to me, I’m not sure that’s a good indicator of death or AEFW.

If you don’t know the smell I am describing, you win.