THE GLOB! It is eating my new baby coral!

[blazeddiamonds]

I just received newly purchased coral in mail yesterday. All was fine. I came home from work today and took a few pics. I noticed that the base of a baby Ricordea Yuma was blurry. Checked out the tank with blind eye and could see just a blurry area, so I knew it wasn't the camera or something on lens or aquarium glass. AT 9pm, it was engulfed! As I looked over the reef, I see several white gooey areas. WHAT IS THIS? and...HOW BAD IS THIS? .....and WHAT DO I DO? Whatever this is, it had to arrive with my new corals. See 4pm and 9pm pics to compare.

 

[cpbirds407]

Im sorry but its not clear enough to identify whatever it is!

 

[blazeddiamonds]

Think I should try sucking it out?

 

[flricordia]

Unfortunatly with wild collected yumas this is a common thing. More than likely it will die off. There is a slight chance that by syphoning off the deterioration you might save enough to regrow, but if the mouth becomes hollow that you can see right through to the roc, it is a gonner. Sorry. It happens to all of us with wild collected yumas. Nothing to do with water quality, jus tthe individual yuams. I have lots of yuams and one jsut started to deteriorate while the rest are just as happuy as can be. Maybe try moving it to a low flow, low light area. I don't buy yumas anymore except locally and only if they make it for a week at the LRS or are too good a deal to pass on. Sorry about this. Fortunatly, as long as the yuma is not touching another, it does not seem contaigous. Mine has probably about 2-3 days left unless it turns around, but I am not holding my breath.

 

[paintballer768]

I was going to guess flatworm, but I dont know a lot about flatworms or yumas. I say flatworm cuz I woke up this morning and one was in my tank, and picture 2 I though I saw some worm-feelers.

 

[flricordia]

Woke this morning and found mine had opened right through the mouth meaning it is pretty much gone. I cut it up into small pieces and dropped them back into the tank, maybe one or two will attatch somewhere and regrow, but unlikely. Yours looks too far gone and too small to do this though.
One thing I have noticed, and you have no control from the time it is collected till it reaches the LRS, is that wild collected yumas don't fair too well once exposed to air. I am not possitive on these effects, but I have seen a connection from when I first started buying yumas and how they were bagged at the LRS and their demise later on. Now I insist that they are bagged under water and now the main LRS, when recieveing yumas, keeps them in water at all times hoping to avoid losses. Maybe because they are a deep water corallimorpharian compared to FL ricordias, which are sometimes exposed at low tide.
Even when I superglue then I do it underwater. Tricky, but can be done.

 

[flricordia]

Originally Posted by paintballer768
I was going to guess flatworm, but I dont know a lot about flatworms or yumas. I say flatworm cuz I woke up this morning and one was in my tank, and picture 2 I though I saw some worm-feelers.
Unlikely. Many loose yumas to this deterioration and no flatworm or other worm has been found to be the cause. If it were the case then eventually all the yumas in a system would be lost.

 

[blazeddiamonds]

Thanks for the info. And especially thanks for somewhat reassuring me that I probably had no control of this. I am new totally to saltwater and feel like a mother hen watching over every live thing in the aquarium. I attempted to suction off the goo but the whole baby yuma came up with it. It was no longer attached to the rock. I knew that it didn't look attached before I did it, but was hoping. So anyway, I cleaned the stuff off and put it back in the tank. Everything else in there seems to be okay. I suctioned up the other two spots of goo that were growing on rock, so will keep a close eye out for other spots. The parent yuma is superb as is my green brain. The brain ate shrimp last night and as soon as I turned the lights on this morning, doubled in size and put its small tentacles out. I am assuming this is a good sign. Again, thanks to all who helped. Flricordia, thanks for the private message to bessycerka regarding this!

 

[flricordia]

Looks like I may have saved it. I cut it into about 4 pieces before it melted completely, cutting and tossing away the melted parts, and I see two sections that are looking firm and colored up right now. The other two I can't locate as the pistol shrimp moves anything on the sandbed around to its liking. hopefully they will regrow.