Tongan Busy Acro Bleaching From The Bottom Up

[ShaggyRS6]

Hi guys, I got a Tongan Busy Acro a couple of weeks ago. I knew I was taking a risk with this coral as it's on the harder side to keep but as my parameters were spot on I thought I would give it a go! For the sake of full disclosure all by other corals (SPS) and (LPS) are doing great. Also, I do have a couple Gorillas in the tank which I am picking off slowly, I have never seen then eating any or my corals.

The bleaching starts right from the base and is spreading up the branches. Like I say, all other corals untouched but those are considered on the easy to moderate side in terms of keeping.

Any ideas? I guess I could start fraging it and see if I can keep any alive? Its a small colony. Also, if anyone lives in the Mt Juliet in TN area and wants to put it in their tank to see if you can save it then I'd be happy to do that!

 

[C. Eymann]

Need some params, how stable everything is,?how often do you test?, dosing regimen ?
How are you testing? is refractometer calibrated correctly? temp fluctuations?
need to know those details as well.

Also can we get a closer pic at the tissue necrosis/receeding ?
That will enable everyone to help more.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

If you zoom into that pic you can actually see it, but I will get a close up tonight!

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
PH - 8.2
Phosphate - 0.03
DKH - 9
Calcium - 410
Magnesium 1290

That has been stable for the last two weeks, the only change I see is the nitrates fluctuate between 5 - 8

Testing salinity with Hanna device, backed up with Refractometer.

Im not dosing because I have felt I have not needed to.

 

[ScottB]

Params are fine.

Tells us about your acclimation and or dipping procedure?

 

[ShaggyRS6]

It was cold when I got the coral, the water temp it came in was 69F What I did was drip acclimate right into the bag on this one, I did not take it out. I had the bad it came in (which was large) in a bucket and put a hand warmer under the buck separated by a face towel. I then slowly, over the period of maybe 2 hours mins bought it up to temp. There was no difference in SG.

When there was enough water in the bucket to cover it I tipped the water from the bag in and placed the coral directly in the bucket.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

Here you go, got massively worse while I have been at work.

 

[jda]

Looks like A. Aculeus. This is a difficult coral. If everything else looks OK, then I would not take it too personally even though the loss can really suck.

 

[adtravels]

Looks like A. Aculeus. This is a difficult coral. If everything else looks OK, then I would not take it too personally even though the loss can really suck.

I agree A. aculeus. sometimes they are toxic green. @jda, in your experience why do you quote this a difficult coral? I too am having a little problem with mine.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Are you carbon dosing or using gfo?

 

[ShaggyRS6]

Just running carbon in a bag. Got a reactor today, will get that going at the weekend.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What’s your hydra schedule?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

And how much and how often do you feed your fish

 

[ShaggyRS6]

Once a night . I fragged it as it was even worse. I managed to save one good piece. Got up this morning and one branch had gone ne white overnight. So we call this one a bust.

 

[jda]

A. Aculeus seem to be very intolerant of swings of any type. They also seem to slowly melt away in trendy tanks where people seen to want to have high poison levels - although some corals do not mind, this is one that does. IME, A. Aculeus needs NSW type parameters and a super stable tank. If you can provide this, it is a really beautiful coral that grows fast.

This is a really tough coral in any type of new tank that is not teeming with life and stability. Again, I would not take this personally about your ability as a hobbyist since most people struggle with these.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

A. Aculeus seem to be very intolerant of swings of any type. They also seem to slowly melt away in trendy tanks where people seen to want to have high poison levels - although some corals do not mind, this is one that does. IME, A. Aculeus needs NSW type parameters and a super stable tank. If you can provide this, it is a really beautiful coral that grows fast.

This is a really tough coral in any type of new tank that is not teeming with life and stability. Again, I would not take this personally about your ability as a hobbyist since most people struggle with these.

No i I certainly do not take it personally, what I do take a little personally is that I knew I was taking a risk with this one, and I more angry with myself that I contributed to killing this coral when it could have gone to someone who would have kept I alive.

I won't make that mistake again!

 

[adtravels]

very interesting,

My aculeus is on the way out all other corals fine and have accepted even a slightly higher copper level shown on my icp test received yesterday. Thanks for the insight this is a useful thread.

 

[C. Eymann]

Here you go, got massively worse while I have been at work.

Hey, do you still have this in the tank? did you throw away the skeleton?

I spotted some dark spots that could just be leftover bits of tissue or it could be something more sinister, pics arent clear enough.

I have seen a few cases of suspected halofolliculina corallasia in the past few weeks on here, basically looks like STN but you will see these small black worms embedded into the skeleton.
Just wanted to see if by chance this might be a case of that as well.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

Yeah I do see them on the piece I have left, but I thought is was tissue. There is nothing embedded on the skeleton though. In fact the bit that I saved died off on one more branch, I put it in super high flow and this morning I see some polyps out. Never seen that before.

Ill take some macro shots when the lights come on.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

This it this morning

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Flesh looks thin but looks like it could be a superb piece of it grows out. I don’t see any of the black spots now which is good. Those worm things are tough.