This was eating my coral.

[deplinger]

I looked in my microscope to see what was eating my coral and I found these buggers. Does anyone know what they are? They move very fast so I had to smash it between the slide and cover to get it to hold still long enough to capture a video.

 

[nuxx]

Burn down the house!

... but I have no idea what it is

 

[Eric R.]

I looked in my microscope to see what was eating my coral and I found these buggers. Does anyone know what they are? They move very fast so I had to smash it between the slide and cover to get it to hold still long enough to capture a video.

Maybe a ciliate?

 

[deplinger]

Burn down the house!

... but I have no idea what it is

Right! It gave me the heebi-geebies!

 

[deplinger]

Maybe a ciliate?

I looked on line and saw that it looks like something called paramecium and those particle inside it are called phagosome or food vacuole. I think it might be eating the bacteria that were eating my coral. I did see some really small things running around the coral fragments that has slow tissue loss. I am going to try to get better pictures and videos. I am new to microscopes and taking photos with the microscope is even more challenging! LOL

 

[Auto-pilot]

That's a protozoan. These are responsible for BJD

 

[deplinger]

That's a protozoan. These are responsible for BJD

What is BJD?

 

[AC indochinese]

What is BJD?

Brown Jelly Disease

 

[deplinger]

Brown Jelly Disease

Yikes. How do I kill these things?

 

[Auto-pilot]

What kind of coral is infected

 

[deplinger]

What kind of coral is infected

I lost acros and stylos. I also lost a colony of hollywood stunner chalice and some meteor shower cyphastria but mostly sps.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Yeah not good. These protozoans are live in almost all of our aquariums. They live in the sand rocks and all over the place. They are creatures of opportunity that usually infect corals that are damaged. In your case they have taken off and are eating your corals. I usually recommend treatment of individual corals but if your corals are all infected and can't be removed you might want to consider a tank treatment. Are you carbon dosing or dosing amino acids???

 

[Eric R.]

Paramecia and the protozoan (Helicostoma notatum?) that may be related to BJD are both ciliates.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Paramecia and the protozoan (Helicostoma notatum?) that may be related to BJD are both ciliates.

They resemble Philaster or Helicostoma. And you are correct, they are ciliates to be more exact.

 

[deplinger]

Yeah not good. These protozoans are live in almost all of our aquariums. They live in the sand rocks and all over the place. They are creatures of opportunity that usually infect corals that are damaged. In your case they have taken off and are eating your corals. I usually recommend treatment of individual corals but if your corals are all infected and can't be removed you might want to consider a tank treatment. Are you carbon dosing or dosing amino acids?

This all started with trying to get rid of vermited snails and went down hill from there. This is the typical saga of doing something that causes more problems than cures.

Short answer - I am not currently carbon or amino dosing. I am spot dosing witchhazel when I see a problem developing and bringing the iodine levels up in the qt. I did the the witchhazel and BioDigest dosing regiment for slow tissue necrosis which started in my main 150 gal and connected frag tanks (when I was trying to rid the tank of Vsnails). The witchhazel regiment worked for rapid and slow tissue necrosis.

I also put a drop of witchhazel on the slide under the microscope and it killed everything on the slide so I know it kills them. But it has a high percentage of alcohol which is carbon dosing so you have to dose good bacteria….which apparently feeds the ciliates?

I cut a bunch of frags and moved them to a separate qt so i am growing out Vsnail free colonies. I found the ciliates in my qt after I had a couple frags lose their flesh. That is why I bought a microscope and started investigating.

 

[Auto-pilot]

In your case you have a tank wide infection. You might have to treat your tank. I would get Cipro amoxicillin chemiclean iodine and brightwell restorer . How big is your tank

 

[Auto-pilot]

Not sure what you were doing to kill those snails but you might want to run carbon and dona water change to try and clear whatever out of the water

 

[Auto-pilot]

Honestly If you can get all of your coral into a qt or tub it might be worth it to stop these infections fast in a concentrated antibiotic solution

 

[deplinger]

In your case you have a tank wide infection. You might have to treat your tank. I would get Cipro amoxicillin chemiclean iodine and brightwell restorer . How big is your tank

I have a 150 gal display with a 20 gal connected frag.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Dang how much coral is infected??