Sun Coral question

risin · 12-12-2006, 07:31 AM

Hello, first post here. I have been reading these forums a lot and have managed to start a successful reef aquarium. Thank you

So... I bought a Sun Coral on Sunday and they were welcomed into my tank with my APC power unit completely frying itself. I firgure that the tank was sitting stale for about 4 hours (I was not home of course). By Monday afternoon nearly all of the large polyps, about 20, were dead for sure, the orange pigment was flaking off and there was slime around them. Although, I noticed that there were about 5 small polyps on the bottom that were still alive, and I was actually able to feed them plankton and mysis shrimp last night. My question is: Will new polyps regrow in the existing skeletons? or will they grow over the them?

Everything else in the take seems to be ok. The fish were spooked and my Candy Cane coral lost some color, but it seems to be coming back.

JustPhish · 12-12-2006, 07:59 AM

Sorry to hear about what happened. That's a good question though. I've never nursed a sun coral back from the brink before but I'm going to guess that it will grow back just like it did originally. Laying down new skeleton with tissue spreading over it. I don't really think the coral will use the dead skeleton to save time and just spread it's tissue across and then place it's polyps in the very same structures they were in before. But like I said, I'm not really sure.