Acro issue

[BlueDevil]

Looks like I'm facing my first SPS issue and not having any prior experience with SPS I have no clue what this could be.

I noticed something eating away at one of my acro stalks. In the picture below (sorry for a phone quality pic) in the bottom left of the stick in the background you can see an area being eaten away. At the damaged area I can see some really fine filaments - almost looking like an aptasia filaments, just super thin.

Any idea what this could be and what I need to do to address the issue. All the other corals don't seem affected at this point.

Thank you!

 

[cee]

Do you possibly have AEFWs? Have you been dipping your recent frags?

I'm not quite sure what to make of the filaments. Often times various worms and barnacles make their homes in acro skeletons. Are you certain that isn't what you're dealing with? Are you sure there is tissue loss (hard to tell from the pics)?

 

[BlueDevil]

Do you possibly have AEFWs? Have you been dipping your recent frags?

I'm not quite sure what to make of the filaments. Often times various worms and barnacles make their homes in acro skeletons. Are you certain that isn't what you're dealing with? Are you sure there is tissue loss (hard to tell from the pics)?

AEFW was my first thought. I have yet to see the first flat worm in the tank though. It seems like there's a hole in the center of the area where the damage has taken place. There certainly appears to be some tissue loss on the entire edge of the stalk where the damage is taking place. All the polyps have receded/disappeared.

I do dip all my new corals in Revive before introducing them into the tank. Here is a slightly better picture (don't mind the piece of floating food - I just fed the tank) ...

 

[CastAway]

Tagging along.
I think I have this same frag, from the same source.

 

[Rob.D]

Are you certain the hole didn't exist before and a Medusa/spaghetti worm took up residence? I don't see any bite marks from AEFW's and the edge looks like it's being irritated by the filaments.

 

[BlueDevil]

Are you certain the hole didn't exist before and a Medusa/spaghetti worm took up residence? I don't see any bite marks from AEFW's and the edge looks like it's being irritated by the filaments.

I observed this frag quite closely when I had first introduced it into the tank and I have to say I do not recall seeing the hole prior to this. I'm 99% sure of that.

A member on a different forum said that acros at times send out feelers to 'clear space' when they are going through an encrusting stage. Now that I think about it, the area around the damage looks like it has started to encrust (has a melted wax look to it). So this could be another possible scenario as well, I don't know since this is my first experience with acros.

I sat in front of the tank and observed for a good hour and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I even sprayed around with a turkey baster and nothing unusual got kicked up. I sprayed those filaments and they did not recede at all (like those of aiptasia do). So it leads me to believe the filaments aren't part of a worm. The color on the frag still looks great (no bleaching), and in fact the other two stalks are showing signs of growth up on their tips (you can see a faint white growth spurt in the picture, especially on the taller stalk).

I will keep an eye on it over the next few days to see if the damage is getting worse.

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

Beats me man. Good luck.

 

[CastAway]

Experiencing the same growth at the tips. If it is a pest I'll be anxious to know. Keep us updated.

 

[BlueDevil]

Experiencing the same growth at the tips. If it is a pest I'll be anxious to know. Keep us updated.

Will do for sure. How's your other frag (that we each got a piece of) doing. Mine is really starting to encrust at the base really well, and I see hints of green showing up at the base. The frag itself doesn't seem to have a whole lot of polyp extension that I can see. Wasn't that the one that was suspected to be a PC Rainbow?

 

[CastAway]

Yeah, PC Rainbow was the guess. Mine has lightened up, still brown, no PE, not encrusting yet. [emoji22]

 

[KJ]

AEFW was my first thought. I have yet to see the first flat worm in the tank though. It seems like there's a hole in the center of the area where the damage has taken place. There certainly appears to be some tissue loss on the entire edge of the stalk where the damage is taking place. All the polyps have receded/disappeared.

I do dip all my new corals in Revive before introducing them into the tank. Here is a slightly better picture (don't mind the piece of floating food - I just fed the tank) ...

look like this? Vermetid snail

 

[KJ]

PC Rainbow was the guess. Mine has lightened up, still brown, no PE, not encrusting yet

Light-LOW-MEDIUM
Water Flow-MEDIUM-HIGH.

 

[BlueDevil]

look like this? Vermetid snail

KJ - I think you might have found who the culprit is! I do have several of those Vermetid snails and am embarrassed to say I had no idea that those tube looking things on the rocks were bad! I just figured they were sort of like feather dusters. You learn something new everyday!

Now to find out how to get rid of these buggers! Do you have experience dealing with them? What should I do about that acro? Should I pull it out and dip it in some RX?

 

[KJ]

What should I do about that acro

Pull it out and super glue the hole

 

[KJ]

Do you have experience dealing with them

No Sorry

 

[cee]

Don't even pull it out, just put superglue in the hole. I do it quite often, seals the buggers in their tube.

 

[BlueDevil]

Don't even pull it out, just put superglue in the hole. I do it quite often, seals the buggers in their tube.

Some nods good! I'll give that a shot. For a long term remedy should I try pulling these tubes off the rock with long nose pliers? From the little I've read so far they multiply quite quickly. I don't want them attacking my acros all the time. Or was this an unusual incident?

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

Listen to @cee over me any day. He is one of the most knowledgeable I know.

 

[BlueDevil]

Just spent the last hour super glueing the frag and picking out most of the worm tubes. There were only a couple of rocks that had a fair bit, on base rock in particular. I went ahead and glued one other frag too that seemed to have a similar spot. Hopefully that takes care of the issue and the frags encrust over what's going be some shiny superglue on their stalks.
Will keep y'all updated with the results.

 

[cee]

Some nods good! I'll give that a shot. For a long term remedy should I try pulling these tubes off the rock with long nose pliers? From the little I've read so far they multiply quite quickly. I don't want them attacking my acros all the time. Or was this an unusual incident?

If you seal them in they'll die. Coral will encrust over in time.