Brown slime on cral?

[Hara]

I did a search but could not find, any posts that would pertain to a slime or brown fungal mess on corals. I think I have seen some of this and am not sure. How would I positively identify it? What might the treatment be? is there a dip? Would the UV sterilizer help? Is it contagious to other corals?
TIA

 

[reefrunner69]

Please go into chat, time could be of the essence...

OK, I waited for about 15 min. you must notta got the post....

I suspect it is either a "brown jelly" infection, or your coral is managing it's zooxanthellae population. On is harmless, the other is catastrophic.

If it's zooxanthellae, then it's no biggie and it will happen from time to time, it will manifest as a brown slime stringing from the mouth or individual polyps (on corals where the mouth is actually in the center of the polyp).

If it is brown jelly it will manifest a a brown jelly like substance that consumes the flesh of the coral, very rapidly. It is an opportunistic infection of dinoflagellates (not unlike and related to the zooxanthellae in the coral ). There are coral dips that may help, Seachem makes a good one, I've heard Kent's isnt that bad either, but I like to use a FW dip for hard corals and use the Seachems for softies. If using the coral dip, follow the directions on the bottle, if doing the FW dip adjust temp and ph (dechlorinate) and dip the coral for 1 minute. Before the dip you should siphon off the jelly with a small diameter hose (like airline tubing), after the dip you should put the coral in an area of high water flow, this will hinder the dinos from settleing on the coral again. Watch any corals close to it carefully, it is contagious, although a healthy coral doesn't usually become infected. Repeat as needed to control the infection. This stuff is fast, if you do think it's brown jelly, at this time of night I would go ahead and FW dip it, otherwise you may not have a coral in the am, just a skeleton.

 

[Hara]

I was actually in the tank room, feeding the fish.

The brown part has left. Now it just looks rather mushy on the polyps that it was on. A condy had been in the vicinity yesterday. I moved the coral. Could this be a reaction from a condy incident?

 

[reefrunner69]

Yes it could have been an over production of slime in an effort to remove neatocysts from the condy. From your discription of mushy, I'm still not sure of the "brown jelly". Can you get a pic?

 

[Hara]

The deterioration had spread by this morning...not to the point that the whole coral was affected, but enough that you could tell it was spreading.

We did not have any coral dip..so I put a little methylene blue in fresh water, dipped in that, then dipped in fresh water. Put the coral back in its spot, it stayed closed several hours and then a few polyps started to open up some. The dipping seems to have stopped the spread of whatever it was. I kind of thought that we would either cure it or hasten its demise, but it looked doomed if we did not try.

Needless to say, getting a pic now would not be of much use. A couple of the polyps had totally sluffed off before I dipped it.

I am wondering if I should dip it tomorrow too...

 

[reefrunner69]

Unless the brown jelly returns it is not necessary to dip it again. The FW kills the protozoans that are consuming the coral. I am curious as to why you added metheline blue? I am unsure what affect it might have on the coral (I suspect it is harmful) other than staining it blue and hindering photosynthesis. At any reate, with Brown jelly, it is unnecessary to add anything to the FW, that alone usually does the trick.

 

[Hara]

I added the methylene blue because of its antifungal properties. It did not stain the coral, and unfortunately, the slime has returned as of this morning.

 

[reefrunner69]

I still am not convinced it is brown jelly, although I'm waffleing. Since it is back can we see a pic? Let's positively ID it, before we go any further. At any rate don't use the Methylene blue again, it may not have this time, but it will, that stuff stains everything.

 

[Hara]

If someone can ever teach me how to take close ups........
Here are the pictures, as you can see, it is mostly on the base. The anemone had worked his way up the rock and UNDER the goniopora...
moved both the anemone and the goni and then the slime stuff happened.

 

[reefrunner69]

Yep, that is "brown jelly", follow the instructions in my first post. FW dip or a dip in the coral dip. Repeat dips as necessary. Make sure you remove as much of the jelly as possible (with a small diameter tubing) prior to removing the coral from the tank. After treatment, make sure to put the coral in an area of good waterflow.