Show me your rescued corals!

Der_Iron_Chef · #1 08-04-2008, 11:55 PM

I didn't want to hijack the "monti id" thread, but am interested in starting a discussion about everyone's experiences with regards to taking a browned out coral (specifically SPS in this case) and nurturing it back to colour. Pics, stories, humorous anecdotes all welcome.

Note: I'm also really curious to know what SPS, specifically, might take longer to colour up.

sharuq1 · #2 08-05-2008, 03:57 AM

Not an sps, but I couldn't resist posting this one. Somebody post some rescued sps!

Before

After

Snappy · #3 08-05-2008, 04:56 AM

Ok, I'll play along as I have lots but I'll start with this one. I had a huge battle with hair algae in 2006 that wiped out a lot of colonies so here is a before & after shot of this table.
August 06

More recently

whatcaneyedo · #4 08-05-2008, 06:23 AM

This one was completely brown when I bought it. Looks not too bad these days. I want to try it under some 14K lights (currently 10K with actinics) and see if it colors up a little more.

BMW Rider · #5 08-05-2008, 03:29 PM

I seem to do it the other way around. I buy them with nice colour then turn them brown

kwirky · #6 08-05-2008, 05:21 PM

I've got a piece of monti that started brownish red and now it's fluorescent pink. I've been working on some nice stylo for a while too that's starting to look promising. It started out completely bleached but now it has colour back to it's tissue and some of the skeleton's starting to pink up too.

I think part of the whole problem of SPS browning out is that lots of people simply accept them to be "difficult" coral and continue "trying" sps in their mixed tanks. I think SPS do best in a specialist tank, just like most LPS do great in a "lagoon" style tank just for them.

Plus it seems most of the LFS's just don't care if their SPS dies off. I firmly believe that stores that let their wild collected coral simply die off without putting an active effort in their husbandry, and make the same mistakes OVER AND OVER, should be boycotted. In most of the stores around the city they just let the coral slowly die and rely on somone buying it before it dies in their own system. I don't think they realize they can save money by just keeping their in stock coral alive, versus having to order more coral to replenish the stuff that died in the store.

It's a vicious cycle. I'm guilty of it myself, buying that $15 piece of coral that's almost dead, feeling that I'm doing the right thing, nursing it back to health. The stores are getting their money back and they just continue ordering more coral to kill. I read about it in the books but working for an LFS I see first hand how the market drives stores to stock difficult coral only to have most of it die in the tanks before they get in a customer's house.

But that's my grumbling about work, take it with a grain of salt

. I have a feeling I might be stirring up some heated discussion...

Chaloupa · #7 08-06-2008, 05:26 AM

K...this coral came in to the LFS and it was drop dead gorgeous....a beautiful dark blue tipped table acro....it was on hold but it ended up never leaving the shop and this is how it looked when I decided to try to do something with it...even if I got a chunk of it that was ok.....so here it was;

RTN BIG TIME! So I cut off a couple of live pieces and held my breath that they wouldn't do the same thing. This was it on June 22, 2008 when I first got it...cut off the big brown piece at the base and here it is today....it's starting to color up really well, and there are polyps out, some points starting to go blue and well.......I have high hopes!

You can see some blue really starting to take off......for me it's pretty exciting! Will continue to update this as best I can.....there is always hope! The other piece I have is smaller but higher up and developing color now too.