Birdsnest recovery project

[Schnizzle]

I was given this little guy when picking up some other corals from a tank shutdown. It's a piece that was found hiding while cleaning up the tank. The polyps look great but I have a question.

Would you snip the skeleton off right at the current living tissue or leave it alone and let the tissue grow over the skeleton? I suppose the real question is can the coral fight off algae and grow over it or will the algae win?

Sorry for the blur, the coral is only an inch long.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

You can do either. The green birdsnest is very prolific. It will branch out from the living area below. It is possible, depending on nutrient loading in your system, that GHA or other nuisance algae will colonize the dead tip. If nutrients are fairly low, that should not be a problem.

Just be warned...green birdsnest can grow very rapidly in systems they like :)

 

[SeaDweller]

cut or leave, doesn't matter. I'd probably cut.

 

[Ridgeway]

I generally cut off any dead branches as i don't like algae growing on these areas, that some times annoys the coral and slows down growth. I only do this with a Dremel, doing it with other methods is more risky and less precise.

 

[Schnizzle]

Thanks for the reply’s. I’ll cut it down tonight.
I do get GHA popping up here and there.
PO3 .04 and NO3 6
I hope it does grow crazy. It’s my favorite looking coral and I had this spot reserved for it since day one.