brown jelly infection

[davejnz]

Recntly,one of my LPS has devloped this infection.From my limited understanding of the diesase it is bacterial and highly contagious.i have tried countless searches on RC and for the most part have come up with very little.Lugols dips would seem to be effective against a bacterial pathogen.I am just un-sure on the concentration/length of time the coral needs to be dipped for.Any suggestions,links,advice is appreciated.

[dakar]

just tagging along.

[Reef_Angel]

I did a little homework on this as our curiosity got the best of us too. Thanks for bringing this to the board Davejnz.

This article in particular was taken from: CoralMania with Eric Borneman http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/eb/index.php (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/eb/index.php#ed_op#/STRONG#ed_cl##ed_op#/FONT#ed_cl##ed_op#/A#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#FONT)

Brown jelly is caused by the protozoan, Helicostoma nonatum. Myth or Fact

I have found occasional references to the Family Philasteridae of the Ciliophora containing a species named Helicostoma notata. I have browsed books on ciliates, and found no reference to any affiliation between the genus Helicostoma and corals. I have found no reference to support that brown jelly infections are caused by protozoans or ciliates, except those based on a German book on reefkeeping and an article in a German aquarium magazine from the mid 1980's. Since then, this designation has been promulgated throughout the world to the point where an internet search yields only two non-aquarium based references to the genus Helicostoma in total. I can find no valid reference to H. notata H. nonatum, and one reference to an
H. brudderbuckii. In fact, the few volumes I can find that mention Helicostoma I consider it to be monotypic, consisting of the species H. oblongum. The characters of H. oblangum do not fit the characters of the ciliates I have found in brown jelly, either, as might be expected since this ciliate is mentioned being found in brackish or salty water of the New York bight. A search of a
http://www.uoguelph.ca/%7Eciliates/typespecies/typespecies.html confirms that this is the only valid species. In fact, even an Australian science publication has erroneously called brown band disease as attributed to this ciliate (again, without any reference at all). The point here is that while ciliates are present in the brown jelly material, it is not clear at all what role, if any, they play in brown infections. They might easily be present simply because of the dead tissue. However, the ciliates are mostly of one kind, and there are ciliates present in all samples. What ciliate is anyone's guess at this point, and there may be many. I suppose it might even be Helicostoma nonatum, but I do not believe this ciliate has been accurately identified in corals with brown jelly infections.

http://www.captivereefing.com/richedit/upload/2k34c8a478ff.gif

In this photo, a brown jelly infection has begun on a Pocillopora damicornis colony.

http://www.captivereefing.com/richedit/upload/2kb861d0a575.gif

A few hours later, the jelly like material has consumed the branch tips still visible above. The outlines of the branches are still visible in this amorphous mass of digested tissue and zooxanthellae.

What I have done is examine brown jelly from three affected corals: a Euphyllia ancora, a Pocillopora damicornis, and a Plerogyra sinuosa. The samples were all from different tanks, and collected many years apart. I have also sampled a brown jelly-like material from a reef coral in the Caribbean, and a sample of a brown slimy flocculent material that is relatively common on substrates in the Caribbean, usually from reefs that are not doing very well. I have not yet had a chance to examine the wild material. However, one sample of brown jelly now resides with the Registry of Coral Pathology, and the description by coral pathologist Esther Peters, confirms that there is coral tissue material, both algae and animal, within vacuoles of the protists. The necrotic condition of the coral tissue, and the fact that ciliates are not found digesting nearby corals or even healthy tissue of the affected specimen suggests they may just be opportunists of necrotic tissue rather than causative, or that they are part of an as yet unidentified consortium. I am slowly getting to these other samples, and hope to have more information soon.

Potential: innocuous to very harmful. The use of experimental treatments may have no effect at all, or it may result in mortality of the treated coral. I have watched the polyps of Pocilloporids bail out of their skeleton within an hour of being exposed to experimental treatments, including Lugol's solution. The use of antibiotics may also be harmful, in general, when applied without diligence in the creation of AB-resistant strains. Playing "doctor" with corals may seem compassionate and impressive, but mostly its just irresponsible guesswork, often with the hopes that some miraculous "cure" might result to save corals from unseen and unknown pathogens.

Distribution: extremely widespread, and has been occurring over long periods of time.

[Reef_Angel]

Davejnz..... Are you also finding this to be a problem in your system? Just curious because it almost sounds hopeless! There's so much to know about reefing? Makes me wonder sometimes if I'm really capable of doing it properly without cheating certain elements of our captive reefs. I don't think I could quit now though. I'm to hooked!

Here are the pictures reposted so they do not pull directly from reefkeeping.com. If you get bored, go back to that site address in my prior post and read about refuges! I don't know about anyone else, but if you get on the site, it becomes quite riveting. I could read for hours! .........Angel :angel7:

http://www.captivereefing.com/richedit/upload/2kce62eedf72.jpg



http://www.captivereefing.com/richedit/upload/2kdf047591ce.gif

I hope these load ok this time! If they don't, please take a look at the site with the pictures of this BROWN JELLY INFECTION. Sorry about the pics.Anyone else having problems

uploading photos? Let us know! Thanks and G'night! .....Angel

[davejnz]

In my past 4yrs keeping LPS corals,i've never had any of them die.This is my first instance with this type of infection.The coral that is infected is an Echinphyllia sp.The coral started to recede/lose tissue about 4wks ago do to some unfortunate incidents i had in my tank.I managed to stop the recession and for the past few weeks the coral was just sort of hanging in there.The other day,i noticed that the skeleton where the tissue had receded was starting to fall apart as well as a brown transcluscent material that was on some of the outer tissue margins that were healthy.

[Reef_Angel]

How weird. I did a search on "brown jelly infection", and I found tons of real informative articles on it, but it does seem to be quite a problem. Try this link too!
http://www.athiel.com/lib/bacterial.html Once you start reading this stuff you can't stop, and now I've got screen eye burnout. How many corals is that happening to on you?

I found out today by reading that the horrid little gorilla crab has been doing great damage in our tank! I had 2 chances at him when I was working on the tank too. Of course I didn't know it then!! ARGH!! Good Luck and G'night!

[Reef_Angel]

Some more reading tonight, and found a list of causes! Geez...it's like being doomed in a way.

Other Potential Causes
Besides the water quality deterioration or bad condition of it, there are other other causes that can lead to the onset of bacterial infections. The main ones are related to damage that occurred to a coral, the damaged area gets infected and bacterial disease follows.

Here are some of the reasons:

An urchin, while crawling through the tank, inflicts a scar or puncture to a coral
Sweeper tentacles from other nearby corals can sting a coral and leave a puncture of damaged area behind.
A piece of rock falls on a coral and causes a puncture or damage.
Bristle worms gnaw at a coral and cause damage.
A mantis shrimp with its razor sharp front mandibules causes damage when it touches a coral or brushes it while roaming around the aquarium
A fish causes damage in the process of touching a coral, possibly through sharp gill end, or in the case of Tangs, the brushing of their back razor sharp protective modified partial fin against the coral.
Any fish that eats polyps damages a coral (e.g. Angel and Butterfly fish - I include Pygmy Angels in this category by the way as some will harass corals and may damage them in the process).
Hermit Crabs can cause damage.
Small algae eating crabs can do the same, inadvertently but with the same end result.
Stone crabs moving around and touching corals or rubbing their claws against them, even if not on purpose.
Some shrimp may do the same, even inadvertenly.
Some nudibranchs (most are carnivorous) feed on corals or leave toxic excretions behind.
Detritus that accumulates on corals, rots and is not removed by current will eventually damage the polyp of a coral to the point where the damaged part can easily become infected.
Some sea slugs
Wrasse that are not reef compatible present in the aquarium. In this respect it is very important for hobbyists to ensure that whatever they add to their tank, is compatible with what is already in the aquarium. This applies to any type of animal you add not just corals and fishes.
Some snails that get onto the coral leave toxins behind as they crawl along. These toxins may harm the polyp. The secretions left on the polyp may, in fact, harm the coral and cause damage.
Small worms that attach to corals (usually white and round type worms). They are hard to eradicate and multiply rapidly. Another document will be added to the Main Library to deal with the eradication of these worms. In brief though, irritants have to be used so they detach and can be siphoned out. Some fish eat them. Six-Line wrasse are a good fish to try out.
Algae that touch corals can, while excreting toxins and general excretions, damage a coral.
and so on. This is a pretty good overview and you should have gotten the picture from this list how easily, indeed, damage to a coral can occur.
Remember that "any" damage can develop into bacterial disease.

The rest of the article on http://www.athiel.com/lib/bacterial.html deals with some of the ways to cure it. Vitamin C no less. It's 3am here, and I'm tempted to go view the tank in the dark to see if I can spot those crabs that might be causing some of my issues. Coral eating...going down the toilet bowl crab! I wonder if I have more than one. We really haven't gotten anything new, so he's been there for a while. Those crabs eat fish too!! We lost our scooter blenny just recently, along with the damage I am almost positive he did to my brittle star!! Ack...gotta sleep!