seamandrew
Member
Hi all,
I recently purchased this blue palm coral from Saltwaterfish.com. It quickly started to show signs of distress and though I tried to mitigate these using all the information available online and in my Julian Sprung invertebrate book, the blue palm is nearly gone. Sad because it was a remarkable specimen. I knew these were tunicates and harder to keep, but my water quality is great and all other corals seem to be doing quite well. In fact, the only problem I've had over the last 3 months is a Copperband Butterfly I lost.. but that was because I just bought him and he refused to eat over the week he was in my tank and slowly starved to death. I digress....
I took this picture of what is left of the blue palm coral. I have asked Saltwaterfish.com to refund me a credit per their 15 day guarantee. You can see two of the nudibranchs in the picture below. The other 2 nudibranchs are quite small. You can see 1 each of these wavy nudibranchs on the tip of each stalk. It looks like one but you're seeing 1/2 of each on separate stalks.
At first I thought these guys were commensal/symbiotic and given the color thought it was pretty nifty to have such beautiful nudibranchs in my reef aquarium. However, I now think they are parasitic and have been responsible for the demise of my blue palm. I've searched and searched online and can't find any mention anywhere of nudibranch species specific to blue palms. Typically a relationship like that is commensal or symbiotic, but in this case I'm not sure. I'm surprised Saltwaterfish.com wouldn't have seen at least 2 of them long before they sent me the blue palm. Has anyone seen these before? Can anyone help me identify them? Can I keep them alive once the blue palm is completely gone?
Just so people know, water chemistry is great, I ensure not to expose these guys to any air during transfer (tougher then you'd think when you're trying to avoid contaminating your tank), the blue palm was under good lighting and good water flow. I tried feeding it phytoplex when the tunicates were still there, but they disappeared 2 days after I received the blue palm. The rest of my corals are doing fabulous as are the few stowaway sponges in my tank!
Regards,
Drew
I recently purchased this blue palm coral from Saltwaterfish.com. It quickly started to show signs of distress and though I tried to mitigate these using all the information available online and in my Julian Sprung invertebrate book, the blue palm is nearly gone. Sad because it was a remarkable specimen. I knew these were tunicates and harder to keep, but my water quality is great and all other corals seem to be doing quite well. In fact, the only problem I've had over the last 3 months is a Copperband Butterfly I lost.. but that was because I just bought him and he refused to eat over the week he was in my tank and slowly starved to death. I digress....
I took this picture of what is left of the blue palm coral. I have asked Saltwaterfish.com to refund me a credit per their 15 day guarantee. You can see two of the nudibranchs in the picture below. The other 2 nudibranchs are quite small. You can see 1 each of these wavy nudibranchs on the tip of each stalk. It looks like one but you're seeing 1/2 of each on separate stalks.
At first I thought these guys were commensal/symbiotic and given the color thought it was pretty nifty to have such beautiful nudibranchs in my reef aquarium. However, I now think they are parasitic and have been responsible for the demise of my blue palm. I've searched and searched online and can't find any mention anywhere of nudibranch species specific to blue palms. Typically a relationship like that is commensal or symbiotic, but in this case I'm not sure. I'm surprised Saltwaterfish.com wouldn't have seen at least 2 of them long before they sent me the blue palm. Has anyone seen these before? Can anyone help me identify them? Can I keep them alive once the blue palm is completely gone?
Just so people know, water chemistry is great, I ensure not to expose these guys to any air during transfer (tougher then you'd think when you're trying to avoid contaminating your tank), the blue palm was under good lighting and good water flow. I tried feeding it phytoplex when the tunicates were still there, but they disappeared 2 days after I received the blue palm. The rest of my corals are doing fabulous as are the few stowaway sponges in my tank!
Regards,
Drew
