popped head of candy cane coral

[t5Nitro]

I reached into the tank to clean GHA off of another coral and I hit the candy cane. It "popped" one head of it. Has a little hole in it and shriveled up. Will it heal itself?

[jon99]

Yeah it will. As long as the coral is doing well and all parameters are in spec it will heal up in no time. I've done it many many times on my candy cane when moving rocks around, scrubbing algae, etc.

[t5Nitro]

Ok, thanks.

[xJake]

Um, I don't think you can actually "pop" a coral in the sense that it actually releases anything when it sustains physical trauma. You probably just hit it hard enough to cause it to retract rapidly which usually comes with a bit of tissue damage. This happens especially with LPS corals as they tend to easily sustain tissue damage. This happens when pressure is placed on the flesh and subsequently the flesh is pinched between the skeleton and whatever is causing the pressure (e.g. your hand).

It should recover fairly quickly; however, when fleshy corals are damaged there is always a risk of bacterial infection. I would keep an eye on it, and if it begins to deteriorate then you may want to remove the damaged area.