open brain favre

so i purchased a open brain favre coral, i was told that there was a sea urchin disturbing it and it started to recede, any sugestions?

 

Was the urchin at the lfs or in your tank? How does it look now?

 

the urchin was at the lfs
so far it hasn't lost anymore of the brown or green, is ther like a cure or somthing i could give it

 

well i would never purchase any coral from an LFS that was not in good shape, whether being disturbed by something or not. Bad move cuz!

 

Sterling, although that is GREAT advice, if you know what you are doing and how to care for the animal, many can get a very good deal if it is not doing that great in the LFS. I am an advocate of saving as many doomed corals as you can, as long as the price is right. If they ask for full price on something that is unhealthy, it's a no brain-er to walk away. But you have to look at how receded the tissue is and what kind of tissue loss it has succomed too. Got any pics? Many open brains suffer due to lack of food, as most LFS's will feed the fish but neglect things that would be more than willing to be fed.

 

yah here are my pics

 

Well first, that's not an open brain. It looks to be a favia or favite, I'm thinking favia. It looks to have experience a lot of tissue recession. These types of corals don't necessarily retract like others, they do a little. The skeleton that doesn't show any color is dead and won't come back. The urchin wasn't disturbing it, I bet it was eating it. Sometimes once favia have started to suffer tissue necrosis they will not recover, other times they will be fine. If is hasn't appeared any worse, you may be fine. If it is still receding, you could try to frag it by taking it out of the water and cutting the skeleton with a dremel tool. You need to cut right between the edges of each polyp.

 

wow , this is so overwhelming!
i think i'm gonna let it be and watch what happens.
is there anything i could do to help it stay alive?
thanks for the info guitar man!