New acro worm parasite

[jbundas]

I found a parasite this morning living in a stag acro of mine that I haven't heard of or seen reports of before. See my post on RC:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1135665

Does anyone in the area have microscope with a camera on it that we can take some shots of this stuff with?

[naturebatslast]

Where did the Acro colony come from, tankraised or wild?

[jbundas]

I got it from a guy in NY, must have been 3 years ago at least. It did well in my tank for a while, but waned when everything in the tank started to go downhill. I fragged it and gave some to a friend who grew it back out. Provided we didn't lose track of what was what, he's got 2 large healthy colonies of it now. I got a piece about 6 months ago and grew that out which is the infected one at the moment. I believe I have another smaller colony as well that looks clean.

[Greg Hiller]

Wow, spooky, just when I thought it was safe to look under my bed again!

[jbundas]

No kidding....wait to you see all the pics. Check the RC post for the full story, but here are some highlights.......

Notice the rough sections with the sharp twisted skeletal formation below the tissue:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2259a.jpg

A bad section where the tissue has torn and receded to leave cavities in the skeleton:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2258a.jpg

[jbundas]

Microscope shots of the rough sections like those above:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2266a.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2275.jpg

[jbundas]

The P-shaped piece of clear spaghetting in the middle of the polyp is one of the suspect worms - they are so tiny:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2267a.jpg
Another one hanging off the side:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2277a.jpg

[jbundas]

The same one from above along with a piece of hair for size:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2287a.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/jbundas/Reef/IMG_2291a.jpg

[jbundas]

Crazy stuff. No idea where it came from or how it got there. The colony is now in isolation. I'm not worried about trying to save it, but it'd be nice to experiment with some potential treatements. I'd be surprised if this doesn't pop up again somewhere.....whether in my tank or in someone elses.

[TomD]

Wow, hopefully you can find out what these are.

[clamm]

Have you noticed this on any other acros, I have seen something similar happen to a Millepora...I thought that it was just stn...but the patterns I saw look similar to your pictures before the tissue would disappear.

Probably not the same thing, but man that picture looks familiar. I ending up cutting the bad away and saving the colony, just like you would try to do for any stn.

Anyone see anything similar..?

[testhead1313]

Hmmm... Methinks those are just mesenterial filaments, but you should check with Eric Borneman in the MD forum:
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Forum9-1.aspx
The rough white patches look like where the skeleton is showing through (ie tissue recession) and the mesentarial filaments are a sign that the coral is pretty PO'd. Let us know what you find out!
Chris

[jbundas]

I think you may have hit it Chris. Someone on RC mentioned the same mesenterial filaments and other pics I've found look just like what I saw under the microscope. I also found them on a frag that fell onto a large favia a few weeks ago and has since been receding. It's looking like this is not an external pathogen but a result of corals being corals. The favia attack/defense explains the frag decline but not necessarily the issue with the stag.

If the filaments seen on the stag are from the stag then what's causing the skeleton to deform, poke through the tissue, and disintegrate? Unless they're not from the stag, in which case how'd they get there when this favia/frag battle happened 2-3 feet away a couple weeks ago?

It is interesting to note that the frag still has apparently active aggressive mesenterial filaments on it supposedly from an encounter a couple weeks ago.....unless there's someone else po'd in the tank throwing out hand grenades.

[jbundas]

...or the filaments are the respective corals own. In that case, what's causing the stag's skeleton to deform and disintegrate?

[Greg Hiller]

I was thinking filaments too when I saw the photos. Have you been able to isolate a critter from the coral that moves on it's own? If it's a type of worm you might try Levamisole.