Back from the dead

[Aquattro]

This is a frag that spent the last 4 months completely white. Not a speck of coloring at all. Since I thought I saw a couple of polyps on it, I decided to leave it in the tank. Good thing, I think it will turn out to be a really nice piece!

[Acro]

Brad,

I find it amazing how a coral will die for a unknown reason then one that you figure would die won't. I've noticed that in the repopulation efforts the zoox will repop in patches then spread out along the coral. Did you notice this as well?

[Aquattro]

Jamie, yes. It started with a couple of little patches along the base and then into the shaded areas of the branches. Just as the whole thing was becoming covered, the blue color started showing. The parent colony was also very blue.

[jb1974]

I have had something like this happen as well. I bought a purple humilis colony about 7 months ago. It bleached within a month and so I placed it on the bottom of my tank. I thought it was a goner, but left it there anyhow. I even transferred it over to my new tankwhen I upgraded. In the past 3 months it has slowly been regaining color. I have no idea what prompted it to get it's zoox back or what it was subsisting on all those months to keep it alive, or even why it bleached in the first place...weird...the coral started regaining it's zoox on one side and it slowly crept over to the other, it's about halfway on its way to full recovery now. I always thought that when bleaching corals recovered it was quick, but now I know it can take months in some cases....

[Acro]

Hello Janine,

This is a very intresting subject. You mention your wonder of how this coral remained alive. Well I to would have to wonder this. I had a bleaching event a few years ago. I did notice that the corals in question would also still grow. Either one of you notice this as well ? So I would have to geuss that they would still be getting some of it's energy source from the water column. I know the both of you feed plankton additives so Then the question would be wether it was from the additive or from say nitrogenus matter in the water column that substained life. Brad you feed phtyo right? So would geuss your coral in question did not remain alive directly from that. Janine you feed GP right? I don't know much about them so wouldn't geuss on that. I would suspect though that the corals were pulling their nitrogenus needs from the water column itself. But who nows for sure?? Very intresting.

PS Janine let me know when she's purple hint hint

[Aquattro]

Jamie, this is the second time I have had an acro do this. The first time I fed nothing other than what the fish required. I did not notice any growth at all for the months they were white. I did notice polyp extension regularly. One thing I do fairly often is blast my rocks with a baster. I know this produces a lot of food because my green brain fully extneds it's feeding tentacles within seconds! Perhaps the "dust" contains appropriate food for SPS....
On the first bleached acro, I saw accelerated growth once the zoox had fully repopulated. It was a tiny 1" frag 9 months ago and is now a baseball sized colony.

[Acro]

The coral I noticed the most growth although not much was a bleached M.digitata. Which is a far hardier coral then most Acropora's so that could be the difference. For the most part the intresting part is the fact they stay alive. The basting for sure adds DOM to the water column which are consumed by many corals.

[jb1974]

Yes, I did notice growth and thought that it was really bizarre! The humilis had attached itself to the rockwork underneath it regardless of the lack of zoox. I do admit that the more zoox it gets the quicker it grows. I have another frag in my tank at the moment that I got from a local reefer, it is a recent addition-maybe 2 weeks. It is a purple A. valida. I forgot what lights he was using on his prop tank and I ignorantly glued the frag near the top of my water column. It bleached within 2 days and was glued solid so I couldn't remove it. The thing has started encrusting anyhow! I will try to be more careful in the future finding out lighting and what-not before I go glueing frags permanently into site. I have always fed heavily and do feed GP's/Dt's.

Jamie: I will let you know for sure!

[Mak]

It's good to hear that these corals can make great comebacks. Now it just makes me much angrier what a local Reefer did out here.

I saved one of his corals and even paid for it. Well a large Staghorn was attached to the rock, so the dad asked me to bring it back. So I phoned the guy to see if he was home to drop it off. Well when I got to the house the guy sticks his hand in the bucket grabs the coral and puts it in a bag and chucks it outside. Now I had this coral for a couple of days and it was showing improvement, quite a few Polyps were out and starting to come out. I asked this guy If I could just keep it and save a couple of the other corals that looked better than the Stag. Buddy did not give a sh*t he just let his whole tank rought and WASTED MY TIME .

This also goes to show that just cause you have all the equipment in the world... DOESN'T MEAN YOU ARE A GOOD REEFER. Well at least this guy is selling off all his stuff... Thank God.

Sorry this has been bugging me for a couple of months.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Mak

It's good to hear that these corals can make great comebacks. Now it just makes me much angrier what a local Reefer did out here.

Where is "out here"?