adventures with huge leather corals

[tomtoothdoc]

i want to share my adventures in the past 3 days......the short version.

wed. night p/u a huge 10" green nepthea and a huge 14" or so yellow fiji leather from a member who got them from another who broke down the tank. they both were put in the same bucket and i went merrily along my way feeling pretty happy about having some nice softies(i only had experience with zoas and shrooms as far as softies goes). got home, rinse everything off, inspect for pests, and put them right in the dt..... since they were way too large for the qt. fed the tank, had my dinner, showered and went to bed.

clue #1 the water in the bucket was dark brown when i p/u, he swapped out the water and did mention that they were sitting in a bucket with only wet paper towels to keep them wet for an unknown amount of time when he got them .
clue #2 the water in the bucket was black when i got home...only a 20 minutes ride.
clue #3 they were really slimey when i was rinsing them off before putting them in to the 200 gal. dt....but leathers are supposed to be slimey
clue #4 my wife said the basement smells fishy when we had breakfast thursday morning. i told her i got some really big corals last night and i didn't wash out all the buckets when i went to bed.
clue #5 when i got home after work thursday night, the basement smells really fishy.
clue #6 skim mate collection cup was almost full and it was really dark gunky green/brown color.
clue #7 cloudy water is indicative of something ran amuck.

i went to the tank and discovered 10" black nepthea and melting 14" green/brown fiji leather.

8x new bags of chemipure in a fluval 405, new ferric oxide in the phos reactor, 80 gal. water change, 8 hrs. of expletives, and the tank is still cloudy. i have not slept since thurs. 7 am.

note to self.....no more huge softies, the larger they are the more chemical warfare, black water is no good.

 

[2slo4me]

wow man sorry for ur lost... i hope everything else in ur tank survived.

 

[daisy]

Oh no!

Okay, you had a differently crappy day(s) than I had - I ended the day with minimal losses though. I hope you make it out of this with minimal losses as well!

-t

 

[tomtoothdoc]

thanks eddie and daisy....keeping my fingers crossed. mixing salt for more water change as we speak. i figure i'll do water changes every other day for like a week or two and then see.

wow man sorry for ur lost... i hope everything else in ur tank survived.

Oh no!

Okay, you had a differently crappy day(s) than I had - I ended the day with minimal losses though. I hope you make it out of this with minimal losses as well!

-t

 

[DCG1286]

i want to share my adventures in the past 3 days......the short version.

wed. night p/u a huge 10" green nepthea and a huge 14" or so yellow fiji leather from a member who got them from another who broke down the tank. they both were put in the same bucket and i went merrily along my way feeling pretty happy about having some nice softies(i only had experience with zoas and shrooms as far as softies goes). got home, rinse everything off, inspect for pests, and put them right in the dt..... since they were way too large for the qt. fed the tank, had my dinner, showered and went to bed.

clue #1 the water in the bucket was dark brown when i p/u, he swapped out the water and did mention that they were sitting in a bucket with only wet paper towels to keep them wet for an unknown amount of time when he got them .
clue #2 the water in the bucket was black when i got home...only a 20 minutes ride.
clue #3 they were really slimey when i was rinsing them off before putting them in to the 200 gal. dt....but leathers are supposed to be slimey
clue #4 my wife said the basement smells fishy when we had breakfast thursday morning. i told her i got some really big corals last night and i didn't wash out all the buckets when i went to bed.
clue #5 when i got home after work thursday night, the basement smells really fishy.
clue #6 skim mate collection cup was almost full and it was really dark gunky green/brown color.
clue #7 cloudy water is indicative of something ran amuck.

i went to the tank and discovered 10" black nepthea and melting 14" green/brown fiji leather.

8x new bags of chemipure in a fluval 405, new ferric oxide in the phos reactor, 80 gal. water change, 8 hrs. of expletives, and the tank is still cloudy. i have not slept since thurs. 7 am.

note to self.....no more huge softies, the larger they are the more chemical warfare, black water is no good.

Now tell us the long story. :scratchch

Sorry to read this Tom ... You should freeze them as a memento!!! :kidding:

***OR*** those are the rare Black Nepthea and Green/Brown Fiji Leather! I will give you $100 for a 1/2" frag!

 

[Awibrandy]

Arggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Sorry Tom! That really stinks (no pun intended)!

I may get flamed for this:
I would hold the seller responsible. 2 leathers in one container is a huge mistake!!!!
Who ever heard of wrapping leather (corals of any nature) in wet newspaper to keep them moist?arggggg
I know you don't want to say who the seller was, so I won't expect you to.
Hope & pray the rest of the animals in your tank are not will not be affected by this.:hug:

I would definitely keep up with small water changes, as well as small amounts of carbon changing it out every third day.

I wish I was closer to help.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

Arggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Sorry Tom! That really stinks (no pun intended)!

I may get flamed for this:
I would hold the seller responsible. 2 leathers in one container is a huge mistake!!!! nah....we both were boneheads for putting both leathers in the same bucket. i should have known that they would slime each other but for some reason didn't really think about it....don't know what i was thinking.
Who ever heard of wrapping leather (corals of any nature) in wet newspaper to keep them moist?arggggg for the record, they were in water not in paper towels....i made a mistake ...the rocks were in the paper towels not the leathers.
I know you don't want to say who the seller was, so I won't expect you to. it was black market stuff....they'll put a horse head in my bed if i mentioned who it was:shhh:....lol:joke:
Hope & pray the rest of the animals in your tank are not will not be affected by this.:hug: i sure hope so. weird thing is it seem that only lps's like brains, chalice, and acan were the only ones that were showing some signs that they were not happy. perhaps those were the ones in the path of the currents that may have carried the chemical weapons. the sps seem to be fine.

I would definitely keep up with small water changes, as well as small amounts of carbon changing it out every third day.

I wish I was closer to help.

thanks awilda for the kind word and gesture. the basement still stink and the skimmer really reeks.... i guess it's doing its job very well then.

 

[dubs]

awww that suck I hope you don't loose any of ur other corals or animals in ur tank

 

[DontXtripNfall]

Ouch! hope everything works out for you..

its 11:11.. i made a wish

 

[tomtoothdoc]

dubs and DontxtripNfall, thanks for your kind words.

forgot to mention that i've fragged a few pieces of what appear to be "alive and healthy tissue left" to give them a chance. sadly to say only a 2-3" piece of the yellow figi is the remaining tissue that hasn't melted away.... and even that doesn't look so good as of tonight.
i think i've gone through over 120 gal. or so of saltwater in the last 72 hrs. my rodi really is producing the rated 150 gpd....lol.
does anyone have any experience with the yellow figi? what's the chance of this making it?

 

[Awibrandy]

Tom, the experience I had with the fiji yellow leathers was always that once they started decomp. there was nothing I could do to save them. I believe that through out my 8 or so years I must have lost 3 due to the decomp. issue. What ever started it, once it started that was it.
Now with the one I currently have, it got stung by another coral (torch to be exact), and of course the decomp. began. As soon as I saw the black spot I got my kitchen scissors, and I cut away the spot. Of course I moved it much further away. It continued to decompose, but I once again took the scissor to that area. This happened over a year ago, and it has fully recovered.

As to the two pieces in your pic, I believe the top piece has an excellent fighting chance! Where as the piece on the bottom looks to be a goner to me. But I could be wrong.

Keep a close eye on them,and run a good quality carbon in order to ensure the health of your other animals. Also make sure they are getting plenty of flow.
Wish you all the best with their recovery.:hug:

 

[tomtoothdoc]

Tom, the experience I had with the fiji yellow leathers was always that once they started decomp. there was nothing I could do to save them. I believe that through out my 8 or so years I must have lost 3 due to the decomp. issue. What ever started it, once it started that was it.
Now with the one I currently have, it got stung by another coral (torch to be exact), and of course the decomp. began. As soon as I saw the black spot I got my kitchen scissors, and I cut away the spot. Of course I moved it much further away. It continued to decompose, but I once again took the scissor to that area. This happened over a year ago, and it has fully recovered.

As to the two pieces in your pic, I believe the top piece has an excellent fighting chance! Where as the piece on the bottom looks to be a goner to me. But I could be wrong.

Keep a close eye on them,and run a good quality carbon in order to ensure the health of your other animals. Also make sure they are getting plenty of flow.
Wish you all the best with their recovery.:hug:

thanks for the advice. i've been snipping away...actually scalpelling away with the surgical blade. never thought my surgical skills will come in handy with the corals...lol. i actually fragged an acan with my dental implant surgical handpiece with sterile saline spray....the frag and the mother colony seems to heal really well....but that's another story...hahaha. perhaps i should write for a federal grant....say for studying corals propagation techniques on the hawiian islands for a year ....hmmm that would be cool....lol.

what's considered plenty of flow?....i got it in the fuge with a throttled down mag 7 and a mp10 on short pulse wave mode. the macro and the anthelia are doing the sway dance back and forth....is that enough flow???

 

[Reefs Creation]

Sorry to hear about this Tom, from the look on them, I doubt they can recover, best to just chug it out before they pollute the water even more. Oops just saw the other pics after u fragged it, its looking good. But if they dont make it let me know, I have one of each frag for you.

 

[Awibrandy]

Sounds like you have enough flow going!

Tom, if you swing the grant/study in Hawaii consider my application to be your assistant.

 

[ECFENCING]

Tom

sorry to hear about this. If there's something you need help with give me a shout...

 

[xvinny631x]

Dont let it sit flat on the bottom.. Get some flow around it

 

["Shottaz"]

It's sad to see that happen to you tom, and its good to see your still trying, many people would just give up, lets hope it works out for you all the best

 

[tomtoothdoc]

hey alan, ernie, xvinny631x, and Shottaz thanks man.

unfortunately, the last of the yellow fiji had turned brown and melted away also. off i go for another water change.

so far one orange digi. is bleaching....it was added the same night. don't know if it was related or just coincident.

awilda, if i get off my butt to actually write for a grant, i'll hook you up....lol.

 

[knugenx]

Hope everything else is fine.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

Hope everything else is fine.

thanks karman.....how was the cruise?