sps, at what point do you give up and throw it away?
 

Hello everybody, I've been keeping lps for decades, but just started sps this year. My question is when is an acropora totally dead. I've got some frags that I bought from j and l about 4 mos ago. Most are o.k., but got this big acro.( about 5 inches tall, 3 inches wide) that I think is dead. Haven't seen any polyps for months. I've been hoping it would recover, but it has'nt changed or grown in months. ( my green birdsnest and green millipora have doubled in size in the last 4 mos)
How long does everybody keep trying to save a frag? I guess as long as you can still see some living tissue, it might have a chance to come back, or am I wrong? Can sps actually recover? When do you pull the plug?

As long as it isnt white with no tissue or polyps.... thats bad....any other condition, the coral has the potential to recover from.

White with no polyps = dead

Absolutely not. I had a small colony that was completely white with no polyps for months. I couldn't reach it, so left it in the tank. 4 months later it started coming back, and at 6 months was an awesome little blue colony.
Sure way to tell, remove it from the tank and smell it, acros have a pungent smell if they have tissue. Dead have no smell at all.

True but very rare, for the most part if the coral is bleached and not showing any polyps it's not coming back. It's very difficult to tell whether it still has tissue or not. Perhaps I should have been more clear.

I give up up and throw it away when the coral is white and shows no polyps, that to me = dead. :wink:

haha, yes, throwing it away almost certainly means it's dead, or will be shortly. But the smell test is 100%, if it smells like acro, it's got potential. I've had several return from death, and several not, but as long as there is tissue (smell it) it stays in the tank.

I have the same concern, I have about 5 frags that my coral beauty (for sale btw) nipped the polyps off, but the stems are still a very vibrant color. I think thats what we're trying to find out wether they will recover from that.

i wait until the entire skeletal structure has encrusted with various algaes.. then I call it in. I have one "colony" that RTN'ed down to two polyps and its immediate surrounding tissue. There's probably no more than 5mm worth of tissue around the polyps and it has been like this for a month now :surprise: I guess it is in a perfect zen balance or something. I would frag it but the two polyps aren't even on the tips, they are in the middle of one of the branches. I wasn't sure what to do about it so I just left it.

i also hold off on the chucking until the coral is white and starting to host various algae and growths

Usually if algae grows on the 'body' of the coral, it means it is dead. Regular algae will never grow on a healthy piece of sps body.

SPS corals have a sweet smell to them that distinguishes them from being dead. Well, this 'sweet' smell is really subjective at this point :)