A fellow hobbyist in my local reef club at the time contacted me about his dying Pectinia coral. He said no matter what he did, the tissue kept receding, and it was just a brown color. Knowing the hobbyist and his system, this was out of the ordinary. So, after much discussion, I took it in to attempt a rehabilitation of this dying Pectinia coral. (Photo taken 8 March 2014)
Inspection:
Upon inspection, I noticed that the tissue recession was slow (notice the coralline algae growing on the old skeleton). I also noticed it was covered in very tiny, moving, white dots (and majano anemones!)
I wanted to take a closer look at the “white dots,” and found that they were Ostracods – seed shrimp. This was the first coral I’ve encountered that had a massive pod population covering it during the day. Typically I’ve only seen ostracods out at night.
Although a microscope isn’t ideal for examining seed shrimp, it was still neat to see.
Treatment:
As with all my dying corals, I started the coral out with a series of dips.
During the dipping process, I trimmed off all of the excess skeleton to expose any hidden issues, reduce the likelihood of pests, and allow the coral to regrow a skeleton unencumbered.
I didn’t really believe the ostracods were the source of the problem, but dips are always wise.
Quarantine:
After three dips and a skeleton trim, the Pectinia coral was quite stressed, but it went into my quarantine tank for observation.
Continued Care:
The coral started to regain color, but the ostracods came back. Interestingly, they only covered this one coral during the day. I decided to perform the dips again.
Final Results:
After the second set of dips, I never saw the ostracods again, and the coral started to recover. By 1 May 2014, the coral was turning a beautiful blue and starting to grow. Shortly after this photo was taken, I gave the coral back to its owner. Below, you can use the slider to see rehabilitation of a dying Pectinia coral from beginning to end!
