Rescue Corals

[MechEng99]

Bill4t - I've never known a detached polyp to regenerate a new skeleton. I'm sorry...maybe someone else on here knows something.

MandarinFan - Ouch. I don't see any sign of a mouth, so the chances of it recovering 100% isn't likely. However...on the positive side...many many many people have had the skeletons regenerate multiple babies. Just don't throw it away, and hopefully it will make lots of new replacements for you.

[MechEng99]

5/22/2012


6/30/2012


Still going with Cladocora on the above.

5/22/2012


6/30/2012

[MandarinFan]

MechEng - Yeah it looks horrible. It was such a beautiful addition to the tank and contrasted nicely with the sand bed. It looks even worse with the halides on during the daytime (the pic was taken in the evening with just actinics.)

Do the babies grow on the actual skeleton, the way mushrooms sort of regenerate? It sounds like there may be multiple babies, which could be cool. Now we wait, I guess... Thanks for your help.

[MechEng99]

The babies will grow on the mother skeleton, and then they drop off when they are big enough to not be blown around (or you could frag them off.) If you google it, you'll find plenty of examples (I haven't had this happen yet, so I don't have any of my own pics.)

[Christoph]

Hello Everyone,
What an incredible thread and a wonderful thing you all are doing! I came across this thread last year. I have been wanting to take on my own first true rescue for some time, but I seemed to have enough issues with keeping my own corals healthy. I have learned much since then and I can happily say I have a stable tank now.
So...I was at LFS a week ago and saw this guy in one of their tanks. The description on the tank said "Yuk Lobo $20". I didn't think it was "yuk", but it was definitely hurting. I inquired about it and they gave it to me for nothing. There were other corals in the same tank that didn't look so hot, so getting it out of there was the first step.
When I got it home, I did a Lugol's dip while acclimating it. It is in a back corner of my tank. Pretty low flow and low lighting. In the past week it seems a little puffier. I am feeding every night after Reef Energy and lights go out. It is hard to tell if is eating or not. I have a Lobo Hempricchai and definitely know when he is eating.
MechEng99, on page 8 of this thread you have pictures of several corals you picked up in October-ish. There was a lobo with blue/purple and brick red colors. It looks to be the same type of coral I have. Do you recall anything about it that would help me help it? I do plan to smooth out skeleton after a couple of weeks. The two heads that are completely gone, is there still a chance for them? Any tips or thoughts are welcome. Thanks

[Christoph]

Wow! What happened to all my paragraphs!?

[MechEng99]

Hi Christoph - ouch...that one is pretty rough. At this point, I wouldn't worry about the skeleton...the bleaching is the first thing you need to worry about. Without sufficient zooxanthallae the coral with starve without supplemental feedings. I would feed it every day until it starts regaining color.

I highly doubt anything will come back from those two heads that are completely gone...regeneration isn't common in most LPS species. However, you may want to keep them just in case. I run a pretty strict routine...all excess skeleton goes...in order to prevent pests/algae. Since I take in large quantities of rescues, the chances of me getting something nasty are pretty high, so I take all precautions.

Best of luck!

[Christoph]

OK. Thank you for responding. I am giving it everything I have at feedings. Mysis, brine, cyclopeeze, oyster feast, phyto feast, and garlic. I noticed you do a lot of pellet feedings too. I will throw that into the routine as well.

[MechEng99]

I've found that pellets are great at first. For whatever reason dying corals seem to respond better (at least for me) to a pellet. After they start healing up, they don't seem to care for them any more and prefer solid whole food (maybe pellets are easier to digest since they are so processed.)

Make sure to remove whatever food isn't eaten within ~30 minutes so it does not foul the water. Smaller/newer tanks have a hard time handling rescues as they can't cycle the dying waste as well as larger/older tanks. Keep this in mind - you may get some cyano depending on your tank.

[NewbyReefer]

Update on my Rescue Bubble Coral
All the little white spots grew into little bubbles

[MechEng99]

Awesome Newby! Keep us updated on its progress! Anything in particular that you're doing to help it along?

[NewbyReefer]

Originally Posted by MechEng99

Awesome Newby! Keep us updated on its progress! Anything in particular that you're doing to help it along?

I just direct feed and don't have any other corals to close to it. Thats about it. As far as what I'm feeding its pieces of silver sides.

[mayjong]

i bought this babys breath favia (if you haven't seen one, they are quite stunning- steel gray/blue with yellow mouth).
the day after i bought it, i woke up to find my alien eye challice inverted, directly on top of it! (fell off rock)
i basted the slime off, and over the next few days watched the favia skin shredding. it has some tiny areas of flesh left, with 2 browned out (tiny)mouths. seems to be stable for the last few days.
here it is today- hope to have recovery pics in the future!

[MechEng99]

Sorry to hear that Mayjong, but at least it's making a recovery! I'd feed it 3x per week to speed up its growth. Make sure to keep the skeleton free of algae as that can slow/stop growth.

[subzero1]

I increased the alkalinity in my tank along with the calcium, and it seems to have stopped shrinking and exposing its skeleton, only thing is that it is now surrounded by a sharp skeleton, much like the picture from the first post. What would be the best approach, should I just leave the coral be and keep nourishing it or should I attempt to grind the sharp skeleton down or pluck them off, what is the best approach If you know of another method that would be greatly beneficial. Thank you for any advice.

[subzero1]

Click the attachments, as you can see my frog spawn and candycane, as well as the other brain coral seem to be doing really well. it is a 3 gal tank, any suggestions.

[MechEng99]

Originally Posted by subzero1

I increased the alkalinity in my tank along with the calcium, and it seems to have stopped shrinking and exposing its skeleton, only thing is that it is now surrounded by a sharp skeleton, much like the picture from the first post. What would be the best approach, should I just leave the coral be and keep nourishing it or should I attempt to grind the sharp skeleton down or pluck them off, what is the best approach If you know of another method that would be greatly beneficial. Thank you for any advice.

I would leave it alone until it starts inflating again. Once it starts inflating, then I would carefully trim or grind down the sharp edges as they can tear the tissue in high flow. It's not critical, but the corals seem to grow back over it faster that way. But, I wouldn't mess with it again until it starts showing that it is really on the mend. No point in stressing it further now.

[subzero1]

Ok Thank You.

[K1983]

Nice thread

[ashlybeth]

I was in a LFS when I came across a very sad looking tank. I rescued an acan (orange, red eye) and a chili cactus. After reviewing most of these posts I thought I would post my own. Never planned on rescuing in the first place but I couldn't leave these guys. The acan had a rock sitting on the spots where the skeleton is showing and the bleached out heads are.

So, is this a good plan?
Feed every day (so far mysis/brine/cyclopeeze) haven't tried pellets
Placement - middle of tank, medium flow
Planning on trimming off dead skeleton and super glue edges

(also I have since moved the toadstool away from the Acan)
250 gallon, MH lighting

[rocketwind]

Amazing work!

[imarkspeed]

cool thread

[benjaminspades]

Hello I just rescued 56 heads of frogspawn. previous owner had no means of taking care of it so I took it in!

[benjaminspades]

Im not sure if my last post had pictures but I am putting it up again.

[benjaminspades]

Any tips would be greatly appreciated guys