Will These Survive? Or are they Too far Gone?

Ok. So, I got these 2 little frags for free. The guy says that the bigger frag is a purple Montipora Confusa and the smaller piece is a Pokerstar Montipora. When I saw how discusting his tank was and how far gone these 2 frags were, I was a little concerned that I won't be able to bring them back. Every single sps colony in this guys tank was either recieding or already half dead. Anyway, so as you can see in the pic these 2 frags are in pretty bad shape. They are completely browned and I see absolutely NO polyps anywhere on the pieces. I see tiny holes where it looks like the polyps are suppose to be. What do you guys think? Do you think these can still make a come back or are they pretty much dead?

 

Well good news!! The purple monti confusa has 3 or 4 polyps out!!! So I am feeling good about that!! Even in the other guys tank it didn't have any polyps out at all, so this is good! They came out after I fed my sps phytoplankton and zooplankton. The pokerstar hasn't had any polyp extension at all so far. When I got then I actually fragged just a tiny bit of some of the edges to hopefully stimulate healing and growth, but we'll see.

 

browned is certainly recoverable IME

maybe the camera or the lights in your set up, but I do not see brown corals, I see some color on both frags


do you know what lighting they came from? and how does that compare to what you have them under now?

Steve

 

He had the tank under very very intense LEDs. He said that his LED fixture is equivilant to a 1000w MH fixture.. And the tank was 125gals roughly. But from what I saw from his tank, he didn't know what he was doing or he was doing it all wrong. Personally I feel he had waaaaayyyy too much light on that tank. He even said he has an issue with either bleaching corals or browning them. And these frags were on a frag rack pushed to the front getting very very little light. He had aptasia, green slime algae and diatoms EVERWHERE... So his water must have had soooo many phosphates and nitrates and other nutrients in it. I think you are right about the frags still having a little color. The pokerstar is the frag I am really wondering if it will make it. I seem to have very good luck rescuing browned or receeding SPS... Sps just seem to love my tank, so I think the monti confusa will recover... Just waiting for a glimmer of hope for the pokerstar, whether it be a single polyp coming out or a slight coloring up.... Time will tell. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best. The lighting I have these pieces under are 4x24w T5HO (ATI bulbs- 2 Blue Plus, 1 coral plus, 1 aquablue special). 15 Blue leds and 18 purple leds (accent leds) in a 20gal tank. They are up high roughly 10" from the lighting in a moderate-high flow. This is the level of the tank where all my sps are.

 

I had a green acro completely die on me, I thought, but I saw a little dot of green left, 3 months later and its about 75% back. My buddy also gave me a completely bleached christmas tree SPS that was almost all white and is coming back. If there is anything living still, it can come back. IMOE, good luck

 

They both look rough, but fine to me. If they are kept out of the direct light for now and the alk and pH stay stable then they should do just fine.

The one on the right is Psammocora vaughani BTW.

 

Did you check those frags for Monti eating Nudi's and their eggs? From your description of his tank, I'd be a little concerned.

 

Actually it's not. He had the mother colony... this frag was taken from that piece. I even saw where it was fragged off... perfect match. It is actually a Purple Montipora Confusa Even the whole mother colony looked like this small piece.

 

yes I was VERY careful! I dipped them both just to be on the safe side eventhough I didn't see anything.

 

Awesome, K+ for dipping!!