Astrea Snail Eating SPS Coral?

[shaywood]

Last night this coral frag was looking great. This morning most of it's color is gone, except for the top 1/3. Next to the coral is a astrea snail and at the base of the frag is a lot of droppings (like something spent the night at the frag). Is it possible that the snail eat the color off of the frag? I have had this happen to two frags now. All water parameters are great, so I don't think its a bleaching problem.


Shawn

[Ninong]

Last night this coral frag was looking great. This morning most of it's color is gone, except for the top 1/3. Next to the coral is a astrea snail and at the base of the frag is a lot of droppings (like something spent the night at the frag). Is it possible that the snail eat the color off of the frag?

No, that's not possible. The Astraea snail is innocent.

I have had this happen to two frags now. All water parameters are great, so I don't think its a bleaching problem.

What is your daily water temperature range right now? In particular, how high is the temp? Is it hitting 85 deg F?

How long have you had these frags?

Are they from captive-raised colonies or were they chopped from wild-collected corals?

What lighting were they under before you got them? Is your lighting similar to what they were under before?

The frag pictured appears to be losing its tissue from the bottom up. This could be caused by a pathogen. Did the other frag that you lost lose its tissue from the bottom up?

[shaywood]

I ordered these frags from PacificEast AquaCulture on 8/26/08. I'm not exactly sure of their lighting. The corals seem to do fine until whitening quickly.

Temperature ranges from 85 in the day to 79 at night.

The other two frags began bleaching in one spot, low on the coral and spread across the coral. I was able to cut some non-affected areas on one and start new frags. Unlike the most recent vicitim, these two took a couple days to totally turn white.

You will notice in the picture that small spots here and there are are left uneffected, and the top is ok. I have since cut the top off and started a new frag on last nights victim.

[Ninong]

I ordered these frags from PacificEast AquaCulture on 8/26/08. I'm not exactly sure of their lighting.

He used to use 400w 20,000K Radiums exclusively but I think he may have switched brands a couple of years ago. In any case, he's running 400w and 1,000w 20,000K metal halides now. Corals with a prefix of T1 were grown under 1,000w 20,000K lamps and corals with a T2 or T3 prefix were grown under 400w 20,000K lamps. In addition, I believe he uses fluorescent actinic supplementation. You would have to ask Dr. Mac what the other prefix numbers mean.

He offers a wide range of frags at a wide range of prices. The best frags are the ones from colonies that he is growing where he shows you a photo of the parent colony. And, it goes without saying, that the safest frags are mounted frags where the coral has already started to encrust the mount. He also sells imported aquacultured/maricultured frags that are mounted. Sometimes he sells freshly cut unmounted frags. Some of these are fragments that broke off imported colonies in handling and others, I guess, are from colonies that he already had in stock.

In any case, in my experience, mounted frags that have had a few weeks to heal first before being sold are the safest frags to buy.

Temperature ranges from 85 in the day to 79 at night.

In my experience, SPS frags can run into trouble at temps in the 85-86 deg range. Especially if they were kept at a constant lower temperature before you purchased them. Dr. Mac uses a chiller and he keeps his systems lower than that -- lower than 85 F. I'm not sure about his temperature, you'd have to ask him about that yourself. I suspect it's in the 78-81 deg range.

I was able to cut some non-affected areas on one and start new frags.

That sometimes works if you catch it quick enough.

I have since cut the top off and started a new frag on last nights victim.

Good luck!

When buying stuff from Dr. Mac, if you place your order by phone instead of over the internet, you can ask a lot of questions and they will answer ALL of your questions.

[TimH07]

Dr. Mac has a propagation "aqua-greenhouse" for his small frags, ive been in it personaly. there is no artificial lighting, only sunlight. his larger corals/colonies are kept inside under metal halides (amazing selection as well) and his live rock is in curing vats under skylights all natural.

im going on a hunch and guessing you bought that frag as part of a 20 for 100 or 10 for 50 deals (i talked him into a 10 for 50) some of those frags, unless you hand pick them, are either "salvage" frags or freshly broken colonies in hopes of duplicating.

i know, i had 5 of the frags fail.