Fl ricordias melting

[flricordia]

Was in the LRS the other day and noticed the tank that houses the FL ricordias and elephant snails had lost all the ricordias. They had all melted away over the weekend. On the same system and next to the tank there were anemones and they seemed fine and on the other side were coral frags and they were also doing OK. Oh, and the elephant snails in the ricordia tank were still alive and moving around.
The ricordias had been in there for at least a month. I have no idea what water parameters were, the LRS hadn't tested and all the employees were busy when I asked about the rics and what had happened.
I personally have never lost a FL ricordia, though have lost plenty of yumas, and have never experimented with water quality so have no clue as to what could have caused them to melt. I have always thought them to be virtually indistructable, obviously wrong.
Anyone any ideas?

 

[puffer32]

I lost several yumas and zoos to a temp spike yrs ago.

 

[flricordia]

Was jsut there again today and all the snails in that same tank are dying. The tank is on system with all the others so they had better do some testing pretty quick.

 

[angler man]

How insane. I just spoke to a person today that had this happen to him as well. He lost close to 100 Ric's. It turned out to be a bacterial infection(from a Ric) caused by the stress of shipping. It spread quickly through his tank and toasted everything.

 

[flricordia]

That is scary. THese rics have been there for a couple weeks, probably longer., I think the last I boght out of that batch was closer toa month ago. Minea re all doing awesome. I beleve I have heard of a bacterial infection that killed off a large population. Thanks, info search tonght. Somthing to know about as ric owner.

 

[reefkprz]

bacterial infections and protozoan infections can wipe out a tank in short order. generally stress (and minor bumping from shipping) allows the bacterial colonies on the coral to shift and infect the stress weakened coral. once it sets into one coral it can spread to others rather quickly as one form or another of bacteria starts flourishing, as the first coral decays infected pieces spread through the water column landing on non stressed corals, placing the aggressive bacteria onto an other wise healthy specimen. then as more die off water quality begins to suffer from pollutants released by the dying corals, cuasing stress to others and weakening their ability to deal with the bacterial attack. its a pretty viscous circle, if you have ever seen a rampant case of brown jelly (protozoan infection) ravaging an entire tank it would give you nightmares.

 

[flricordia]

Originally Posted by reefkprZ
bacterial infections and protozoan infections can wipe out a tank in short order. generally stress (and minor bumping from shipping) allows the bacterial colonies on the coral to shift and infect the stress weakened coral. once it sets into one coral it can spread to others rather quickly as one form or another of bacteria starts flourishing, as the first coral decays infected pieces spread through the water column landing on non stressed corals, placing the aggressive bacteria onto an other wise healthy specimen. then as more die off water quality begins to suffer from pollutants released by the dying corals, cuasing stress to others and weakening their ability to deal with the bacterial attack. its a pretty viscous circle, if you have ever seen a rampant case of brown jelly (protozoan infection) ravaging an entire tank it would give you nightmares.
I guess I have been pretty lucky in that in all the years I have kept reefs I have never bought a coral that spread it. If I do have a coral that doesn't seem to be responding well though, it doesn't stay int he tank so maybe this is what has prevented this problem from ever spreading. Thanks for the info.

 

[reefkprz]

yeah IMO its also one great reason to quarantine corals, if they are suffering from a protozoan or bacterial infection it wont be introduced to your DT.