Brown Jelly Disease Outbreak

[wil_lee76]

Hi fellow bros,

Just to share with you. Don't take these as a simple case.

Recently, bought an extra hammer to decorate my tank. Good price and colouration about 10 heads!

Dump it into my tank! after few hours, hammer swinging a bit...few days later, one of the head started to melt! "kang cheong" check water parameters, nothing wrong! Think might be stress and hope for the best! (thinking that a loss of head its ok, since i have 9 heads more) Left it inside and do nothing to it!

5th day, came back from work and see the head melted (brown colour) and can see the jelly floating ard my main tank! damnz it, check NET, check forums etc etc, and realised that it will spread...quickly, remove it and frag it...gosh, damnz suay! saw blade broke while sawing! !@#$ ! cursed and swear! quickly put back into main tank..(while putting, some melted jelly break loose and fall onto some corals) din care much!

6th day, again...came back home. Saw remaining heads started to stop growing and some melted. Now even more "kang cheong" time for war...remove the thing, put in my Fish only tank ( some mushroom fragging conduct inside) Uses the Seio to blow away all the spoilt parts...jelly floating ard the tank....smell damnz bad...leave the hammer inside and monitor.

7th day, wife called me few hours later. Told me my 3 "butterfly" gone case liao!came home early to montior the hammer & the fish only tank...left only 2 heads...damnz piss off! uses a saw and saw off every single spoilt parts....when monitor the main tank, frogspawn, yumas, red prata...all started to melt & stop growing!!!! rellay regretted for not taking action...NOW, remove all the spoilt heads, change the water for Fish only tank, main tank and hope for the best of the rest of the corals!

So guys, don't underestimate the POWER of these! really pek chey!

lesson learn: QT every corals, dip in lugol solution, saw off heads which started to melt!

Question: Is there any medication in the market to kill off the bacteria in the main tank?

[zorden]

Anyone know how to prevent this...and cure this..

[kueytoc]

my experience with brown jelly is to remove the infected head/heads asap before it starts to spread.

Unfortunately, there is no known cure. Here is some suggested solution:

Excerpts from REEFSHOW.COM...http://reefshow.com/html/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=60#Brown Jelly

Brown Jelly

Brown Jelly is a bacterial infection composed of opportunistic protozoans and other microorganisms digesting coral tissue. Brown Jelly usually begins at the site of an injury. Brown Jelly can be noticed by what look like brown filaments, or brown/brownish, somewhat transparent masses floating over and above a coral, usually enjoining the polyps of the coral into the mass. This infection can progress rapidly. It can spread through out a system or just infect one coral.

Do not mistake a Brown Jelly infection for algae growing "on" the coral when it first starts. If you notice even a small amount of brownish matter hovering close to a coral polyp you should immediately inspect and treat the coral or the polyps will rapidly disintegrate and more than likly infect other corals as the pathogen is sent streaming throughout your system. The location of the infection is not important, it can occur on the sides, ridges, middle or in just about any other area of the coral.

Bubble Coral, Goniopora, Elegance coral, Frogspawn and other Euphyllia corals, Xenia and Anthellia are some of the corals highly susceptible to this pathogen.

Treatment For Brown Jelly

a) GENTLY Siphon as much as the Jelly Mass as Possible

Remove infected coral and treat with an Iodine Solution like Lugols Solution.

c) make sure that your corals have adequate flow. Not laminar, but multi-directional and random

d) Skim, Poly pads, Activated Carbon are recommended

e) 25% water change.

f) check parameters