Torches are Dying

[pickupman66]

Something has happened in my tank. my two torch corals have both been losing heads lately. They were doing incredible and then what seemed like all of the sudden, the massive 10 head one lost three heads. the small one I got at the frag swap is gone. both heads. they just went up in a brown slimy mess. Not quite brown jelly like but similar. I fragged up the largest one to try and save what I could. all other Euphelia and SPS in the tank look amazing. frogspawns are massive. Derasa clam looks fantastic. zoanthids are happy.

Salinty is spot on 35ppt. po4 is .10, nitrates were 5ppm. ph is good, alk was 158ppm. I havent checked the calcium but will tonight. im just at a loss here.

 

[schooleyosis]

Same thing happened to me about a year ago. It looked as if someone took a 1/4" drill bit and drilled right down the center of one of the heads. Not sure if that was a pest or what...

Have you added any bio-media such as those ceramic balls or bricks by any chance?

 

[pickupman66]

Ryan,

NOPE. I havent added anything to the tank since it was moved in March to the new house. they were doing spectacularly until just a few weeks ago. the large one was well over softball sized and you could not tell individual heads from each other. then it just started to go south. I have had it for over 2 years as it was one of the corals that made the move from the 180 to the 66. it did very well in both moves in Feb and march and up into July, it was the highlight of the tank. What really irks me is that the Hammers and Frogspawns are doing wonderfully. they show ZERO issues. The scoly I got from Josh at the swap is nice and puffy. but a torch I got at the swap went up in smoke. 1 heads seemed to go down fast so I sucked it off. then the other just did it. on the large torch, i lost three heads then another pair just now.


Dont get me wrong, I am not the best maintenance guy, but I have been pretty regular in my monthly water change of 15 gallons. I have done my best to keep the alk dosed. it did get to 200ppm so i had to drop the doser down and let it naturally go down. it went down to 108 and then I let the doser pick it back up to 158 where it is now. but this is over a 4 week period. Would that cause it? If so, why would the other Euphelia not react?

 

[schooleyosis]

The same exact thing happened in my tank man. No explanation of anything and all other corals were fine. One day the torches just up and died off.

 

[Tyreef2016]

Very interested in this. All my corals have been fine but my torches have been nothing but tricky. Had one just detach it's polyps and let go. And also similar to the brown jelly but it was fine for almost 5 months prior. I increased flow and it seemed to help since. Not sure how your flow is.

 

[pickupman66]

I have more than enough flow. I actually tapered it back once I started losing heads. Go figure.

 

[Tyreef2016]

I have more than enough flow. I actually tapered it back once I started losing heads. Go figure.

Agreed. Always second guessing my flow. Just heard more flow helps keep the jelly at bay. Have any photos?

 

[cee]

...the torches just up and died...

Kinda like Mr. Bojangles...
Seriously, I've not had good long-term success with these either, esp. the Aussie ones.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Two weeks ago I noticed that my torch coral (5 heads) was not doing well. It had been closing up and not looking its best.

I decided to dip the coral and found that there were Euphyllia Eating Flatworms infesting my coral. Upon further inspection I noticed that they had laid eggs all around the base of the heads. The bad news is I was not able to save the coral. I believe it was due to the stress of dipping it every other day to make sure I got rid of the flatworms that hatched.

I am not sure if this is your current situation, but it is something to look into.

 

[eliramos]

It's amazing how many people have had this issue
The same thing happened to me!
I had a 6 head green torch that doubled in size after I began to dose over the course of a few months.
Little over a year goes by and I have made no changes to the tank.
2 fish lots of clean up crew nothing new
Then all of a sudden
One of the heads shows this

It was nothing like brown jelly I had seen before so I tried to suck it off with a baster and boom

It was in fact brown jelly
I immediately broke off the dead piece and any other pieces that showed the same symptoms before I lost this head as a precaution, and dipped the whole coral in rx.

What's crazy to me is that I've never seen brown jelly like that before it's always been that gross oozy junk
This looked almost fluffy.
But upon removal it was definitely brown jelly

 

[pickupman66]

I may just go and dip in coral rx tonight as a precaution.

 

[Tyreef2016]

It's amazing how many people have had this issue
The same thing happened to me!
I had a 6 head green torch that doubled in size after I began to dose over the course of a few months.
Little over a year goes by and I have made no changes to the tank.
2 fish lots of clean up crew nothing new
Then all of a sudden
One of the heads shows this

It was nothing like brown jelly I had seen before so I tried to suck it off with a baster and boom

It was in fact brown jelly
I immediately broke off the dead piece and any other pieces that showed the same symptoms before I lost this head as a precaution, and dipped the whole coral in rx.

What's crazy to me is that I've never seen brown jelly like that before it's always been that gross oozy junk
This looked almost fluffy.
But upon removal it was definitely brown jelly

This is the same torch it happened to me on to. All my gold ones have been fine.

 

[pickupman66]

So, I dipped the torch and hacked the two more dying heads off. Ugh. They stink too. Rest smells normal. Dipped in coral rx pro. We will see.

Here is fts. Notice the hammer in bottom center and left. And frogspawn top right. Both look fantastic and that frogspawn has more than doubled in extension and size since the move in march. Duncan is doing well so it is just the torches effected.

 

[.AcroKiller.]

Lindsey same thing happened to Andrew here in Clarksville they tarted dying for no reason. BTW great looking tank.

 

[Tori]

I've experienced something similar to this as well. Following!

 

[Travis Warren]

I just had same thing happen to my double head gold torch. Look really good and in one day dead. Moved under a bowl and then had white jelly but when I brought it up it was brown jelly and the smell about made me puke. Crazy my non gold torch and hammers are doing good like nothing happened.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

My frogspawn is doing the same thing, but it does not look like brown jelly disease at all. My torch next to it looks okay, though. I have to see if it is suffering from flatworm. I am going to dip it with Bayer's insecticide and see what happens. Good luck with yours, Linsey.

 

[LukeM1]

I had 40+ green torch heads in my tank that I had for 5 years. It spawned every year and gave me about 10 babies that all grew. All of a sudden about a week ago, one of the heads died. It was random and I didn’t think anything of it. After that it became a massacre. I lost 30 heads and counting.. I’ve tossed all the dying heads that appear to have the brown jelly. Most of them just appear to be bailing. Like everyone else here, I had not changed anything for months if not years. Things like this really make you want to ditch the hobby. It’s just too frustration to talk about some times. No wonder they are bleaching in the wild. If they can’t survive near perfect conditions in a controlled environment, they really have no chance in the wild.

 

[LukeM1]

I had 40+ green torch heads in my tank that I had for 5 years. It spawned every year and gave me about 10 babies that all grew. All of a sudden about a week ago, one of the heads died. It was random and I didn’t think anything of it. After that it became a massacre. I lost 30 heads and counting.. I’ve tossed all the dying heads that appear to have the brown jelly. Most of them just appear to be bailing. Like everyone else here, I had not changed anything for months if not years. Things like this really make you want to ditch the hobby. It’s just too frustration to talk about some times. No wonder they are bleaching in the wild. If they can’t survive near perfect conditions in a controlled environment, they really have no chance in the wild.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Check for flatworms

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Also, iodine dips if not mentioned above