Base Up RTN on Beautiful Spathulata on the GBR.

Biggles · Oct 17, 2018

Sorry for the blurry pic but you can still see how this spath colony in 5 mtrs of water on the GBR stands out against it's high light and high flow neighbors. The pic was taken about 10 days ago i think, by the owner of my LFS who went out to have a look at the acros on the reef in person where they are collected.

When you look closer you can see the fresh white base which had RTN'd a good inch up all the way around like a ring barked tree. It obviously happened in the last day or two since the entire skeleton was fresh bright dead white with no algae etc. Dave the LFS owner told me in person it looked like pinky orange with bright yellow tips and was one of the prettiest acros he saw that dive.

tripdad · Oct 17, 2018

It looks like a gorgeous piece! You Aussie's have the best reef so close to you. I suppose it's mother nature's payback for everything else in Oz trying to kill you.

Biggles · Oct 17, 2018

Nothing in Aus tries to kill you Scott, if it can and wants to kill you, it will.............. if you come to Aus for a visit just stay away from the beaches, rivers and any native bushland areas. Sydney has funnel web spiders that will bite you through a leather shoe - they ALWAYS want to kill you and are very good at it..........

tripdad · Oct 17, 2018

I hear rumor there's flying acro's in one nieghborhood. Guy say's he keeps finding them on his roof......... Nice to hear from you mate.

Graffiti Spot · Oct 17, 2018

Dude where have you been? Do you still have your tank running? Last I remember the corals looked great but you were having slow growth. What's it look like now?

Biggles · Oct 17, 2018

I had to remove the entire rock scape and dip all my acros for AEFW a few months back. The acros are on a new rock scape now and still settling back in but everything with the reef is going well.

Currently i'm running a dying spath wildlife rescue service since Dave decided to bring the spathulata home rather than let it die in the wild. After 4 days in the biggles acro intensive care unit the prognosis is good.........

Biggles · Oct 17, 2018

Graffiti Spot · Oct 17, 2018

Good to hear you went through a dip process and got rid of those things, I can't wait to see how things turn out with your reef after it all settles back into auto pilot.

Biggles · Oct 20, 2018

You can see the stump in the background on the bottom.

I discovered this little pair of commensal crabs half way through chopping down their house. I cut the base back to where the RTN stopped and the bleaching started. You can see the pigments just beginning to appear again at the edges. It truly sucks that corals are safer in our tanks than in the ocean these days............

I don't think they're too happy about my renovation work tbh......

MarinaP · Oct 20, 2018

Was it a mass bleaching on that patch of the reef? Nice job saving it.

Biggles · Oct 20, 2018

Just the odd piece here and there i believe mate.

Biggles · Oct 26, 2018

Two weeks into living the dream back in 26 C water 24/7.

tripdad · Oct 27, 2018

It's looking good Andrew. Spaths are tricky to keep happy for a lot of us.

Biggles · Oct 27, 2018

tripdad said:
It's looking good Andrew. Spaths are tricky to keep happy for a lot of us.

It's only been a couple of weeks but so far it's going well mate. I think if you give them at least 400 PAR and the kind of flow that would blow the flesh of most of your other acros you will stand a good chance of keeping a spath happy.