Closed Brain coral help

[sbcam]

Hey all, Ive had a closed brain coral which I received about a year ago. I noticed a hole in the middle of it with some sort of crab-like creature living in it. Soon after I noticed it, the coral began to die starting near the area of the hole and moving outward, at that time I decided to kill the bugger inside. Since then, some new growth began apearing, which made me optomistic, but as soon as the growth started, the coral began to turn dark dark brown in other places. Im at the point where I am trying to figure out what to do to give it the best chance of survival. Could I frag off the dark brown ( if in fact the dark brown is dead?). Will the dead part never grow back? Will it eventually spread to the healthy parts? Here are some pictures as well, you can see in the middle the new growth ( purple/brown with green mazes) The light brown stuff is still feeding at night and going soft, I beleive it to be still healthy, just the dark dark brown stuff apears dead. Thanks in advance for any help given

[isaac1]

Wow that's one realy unhealthy looking coral, I would assume if it's just spreading and getting worse u might just have to bite the bullet and throw it out unless u try and frag it I have a giant brain coral and I've seen him turn a gross brown but it was from a lack of salt in my tank best of luck thow

[whatcaneyedo]

Is the dark brown area really soft and loose? If so, siphoning it off would be the least traumatic way of stopping the spread. Use a small diameter flexible length of tubing and siphon the tissue off of the coral into a bucket then replace the removed water with newly mixed saltwater. If that works the healthy living tissue will eventually grow back over the dead areas in time. That approach worked very well for me when I received this coral which spent too much time in a very small amount of water.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh109/whatcaneyedo/Picture2022.jpg

[sbcam]

The dark brown parts are hard, I noticed last night alot of "bugs" all over it, especially in that area, which is good, considering I have a Mandarin Goby, but probably not so good for the coral. I would like to at least give part of it a chance for recovery, will fragging the good part prevent that part from dieing by preventing the decay from spreading?

[whatcaneyedo]

It probably will. But nothing is for certain. Try it and let us know if it works.