Please advise. Open Brain Coral separated from the base

cblf · #1 10-22-2011, 05:49 PM

Open Brain Coral expanded.jpg

Open Brain Coral Separation retracted.jpg

A donation to my new aquarium is this piece of open brain coral. It had receded to half of the base plate before it got to my aquarium and was in pretty rough shape. It did fine for a few weeks and seemed to be growing and looking healthy while the tank has been cycling. Last week it started to separated from the base. When the lights came on it swelled up so much that it was actually pulling itself off the base. It was about 6 hours from when the lights came on until I got home again and watched the last tiny bit let go. I caught it with a fish net and laid it back onto the base in about the right spot. Then wrapped a zip tie around it to hold it in place. I was hoping it would reattach. I assumed it was too much current at the time but if that was the case why would it have done so well for the first few weeks then all of the sudden let go?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

MKLKT · #2 10-22-2011, 06:01 PM

Putting an already suffering coral through a tank cycle is pretty much a guarantee that it won't make it.

whatcaneyedo · #3 10-22-2011, 06:50 PM

High phosphate and environmental stress are known to cause 'polyp bailout'. Most of the time the coral perishes and does not form a new calcium skeleton. While I've read some claims in books that they can recover in nature I've never seen or heard of it happening in a home aquarium.

Here is what Borneman has to say on the subject:
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/e_borneman3.html

cblf · #4 10-22-2011, 07:29 PM

Thank you for the information. That was an interesting read.

If it is even remotely possible that it can begine calcifying a new corallite I will remain hopeful.
The question becomes; should I attempt to contain it or just let it float around the tank and hope for the best?
There are no fish in this tank yet, I have seen copepods and many bristle worms throughout 30-40% of the rock in the aquarium.

whatcaneyedo · #5 10-22-2011, 07:48 PM

You don't want it to drift under a rock or into a pump so I'd try to contain it in a basket of some sort. A strawberry basket, or a DIY creation out of Egg crate or gutter guard would work well.