I have a acro that i bought that was in bad health. Brown when i got it, I placed it normally and it started to turn purple. the polyps did not extend at all and after 2 weeks came out some. it grew some but not evenly, only three little pieces grew out. it then started turning green (bad green) at the base, so i dipped it, and fragged it three times and 2 of the three are ok but still have stn. I just inspected them and fragged and dipped again. I noticed on two that now they are purple with little green tips (bright fluorescent green) , I really want to save it now. i cut 6 little frags tried to keep any stn off the frags. Please any suggestions to try and save would be appreciated.
Garf use to write about Escape Size of frags. Meaning a critical mass of live coral frag that would most likely take and survive. dont cut them up too small. the problem might be in the water. something a little toxic for a weakened coral. repetive Dipping can be harsh on the frags. since you have so many frags of it now, place them in different levels and flow of the tank and let them sit and adapt. surely some may survive. if they show color they are still kicking. but they need to sit still and aclimate and base out. But we cant always save a sick coral. Patience.
On the good side. I accidentally broke a skinny tip off my pearl berry a few weeks ago while cleaning the glass. it’s a 1/4 inch long tip. One polyp at the tip and two on the sides. I lightly glued it to a plug, and son of a gun, it’s basing out, holding its color and looking good. alls it takes is a little bit of DNA , a single poylp and there’s a chance it will grow.
Do you have any similar acros in the tank with it? how are they? have you got a really really close look for pests?
No other corals have it of course I have a slow grower. But no other coral has kept its polyps in like this. I did inspect it both times and didn’t find anything. I may have light shocked it. It was at the Lfs for months. But I figured that would bleach it. Would a dip get rid of any pests? It was brightwell koral dip.
[quote=“kaptken, post:2, topic:4457”]
repetive Dipping can be harsh on the frags. since you have so many frags of it now, place them in different levels and flow of the tank and let them sit and adapt. surely some may survive. if they show color they are still kicking. but they need to sit still and aclimate and base out. But we cant always save a sick coral. Patience. [/quote]
+1 with Ken. Leave it alone, let them sit and adapt. Although dipping may be good on some disease on corals, but not all, especially STN. Which one were those you’re talking about Tim? you didn’t mentioned it when I was there to visit.
It was one in the very back behind the big acro. Not sure if I showed you it was under a dim mh light for 5-6 months. At premium
like ken said put them in different place and one should survive. its already stressed and taking it out of water and putting it in a harsh dip isnt helping.
sometimes it helps to glue over the stned area. any pictures?
it then started turning green (bad green) at the base
What do you mean by “bad green”? Pictures would help significantly.
What are you tank parameters? Acros are indicator species for tanks. I lost my small colonies through STN ( slow tissue necrosis) after an OD of Mg.
Params. Are good mg. Is 1350 it is not something caused by water it is more an issue of tips to stop stn. The bad green started at the encrusted part at the base and worked it’s way up. It’s tissue loss then it turned a light pale green. I will try to get a pic
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:8, topic:4457”]
it then started turning green (bad green) at the base
What do you mean by “bad green”? Pictures would help significantly.[/quote]
+1, I was wondering the same thing
Oops sorry ken I missed your post. That is kind of what I am trying to do. What’s crazy is when I bought it it was all brown. After a week I noticed in small places it turned purple. Polyps stayed in. Then a week or two later it started fading slowly base up. It was up pretty high and I fragged it. But I still had some bad coral on all frags. I didn’t want to frag too small. Now last night I noticed the color it was brown turning purple with green tips or maybe polyps but the polyp wasn’t out so I thought if I frag it and still leave a part of the coral that’s losing tissue it’ll just spread so now I made some pretty small frags to have totally healthy pieces. Make sense? So what I will do is move the draft to different areas and see if any can survive
I have a picture but I’m at work now. the green is now white. It looks like a bleached coral now on The main part. But the frags still have tissue
The green part is because it has been expose without tissue for a while, after the STN. As to why it STN is the question.
I think it was in bad shape then exposed to too much light causing tissue loss the small (very small) frags actually look good