Can coral come back from this?

[jaxteller007]

I was helping a friend do maintenance on a tank. Two corals were dying and my friend gave them to me to see if maybe they would come back in my tank. Not that my tank is anything special but the 3 coral we have along with all our fish have all seemed to be fat and happy for awhile. Any chance that these two may survive and come back?
The greenish one (i can't remember its name, maybe an elegance?), the parts that have come off from the skeleton. Any chance those reattach or something or are they going to die and fall off?

#reefsquad

 

[jaxteller007]

 

[Sharkbait19]

It certainly doesn’t look good. The flesh is definitely there, though. To me, they just look very angry. The hammer should start to come back with good lighting and flow, and the elegance does look a little diseased. You may want to start off by dipping both of them. What were the other tank’s parameters?

 

[jaxteller007]

It certainly doesn’t look good. The flesh is definitely there, though. To me, they just look very angry. The hammer should start to come back with good lighting and flow, and the elegance does look a little diseased. You may want to start off by dipping both of them. What were the other tank’s parameters?

I don't have the ability to dip them. I acclimated them and tossed them in. I do run a pretty strong UV on my tank. I trust the guy to not give me anything with any obvious signs of disease.
The other tanks parameters were pretty good from what I recall and all the other corals in it were all doing really well.
I'm definitely a rookie with corals, all I have is a Duncan, a zoa and a Kenya tree. What kind of diseases can coral have? Seriously curious about that and always looking to learn more.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I don't have the ability to dip them. I acclimated them and tossed them in. I do run a pretty strong UV on my tank. I trust the guy to not give me anything with any obvious signs of disease.
The other tanks parameters were pretty good from what I recall and all the other corals in it were all doing really well.
I'm definitely a rookie with corals, all I have is a Duncan, a zoa and a Kenya tree. What kind of diseases can coral have? Seriously curious about that and always looking to learn more.

Many stony corals suffer from what’s called brown jelly disease, where the coral melts away into, well, brown jelly, but it doesn’t seem to be that. It could be a skeletal disease, if the calcium levels were off. Elegance corals often suffer from elegance coral syndrome, which is really not treatable. Just a few ideas. That’s just all I know. Hopefully people of better knowledge see this thread soon, though. Good luck!

 

[vetteguy53081]

The elegance may recover where tissue is still within its skeleton but rest does not look reassuring
High alk, too much flow, low ph, high salinity are just some of the events that would cause this

 

[Sharkbait19]

I honestly don’t know enough about elegance corals to give a straight answer on that one. I just bought my first elegance yesterday. The hammer, however, doesn’t look too good, is all I can say.

If some parts look really dead, you should cut them off (carefully) to try to salvage the living tissue, assuming it’s a disease.

I would have set up a coral QT. As kind as it is to be housing these corals in your tank, you’re really putting your own corals, especially the Duncan, at risk. This is all assuming it’s a contagious disease, which it definitely could be if both LPS are infected like that.

 

[jaxteller007]

So should I remove the parts of the elegance that are not attached somehow? Or let them either survive or die off on its own?

 

[ReeferWarrant]

I wouldnt remove anything, you'll likely make matters worse if you do. The hammer looks receded but otherwise fine, the biggest things with corals is stable parameters. Just make sure you are regularly testing and maintaining a level suitable for them.

 

[jaxteller007]

I honestly don’t know enough about elegance corals to give a straight answer on that one. I just bought my first elegance yesterday. The hammer, however, doesn’t look too good, is all I can say.

If some parts look really dead, you should cut them off (carefully) to try to salvage the living tissue, assuming it’s a disease.

I would have set up a coral QT. As kind as it is to be housing these corals in your tank, you’re really putting your own corals, especially the Duncan, at risk. This is all assuming it’s a contagious disease, which it definitely could be if both LPS are infected like that.

The Duncan being at risk surprises me. That thing seems to have been indestructible lol. We accidently left all whites on one weekend, came back and it was half bleached, it came back. It fell off a rock while we were gone and half of it was buried in the sand, got home and that half was dead. It's exploded in growth since then lol. Is it because it's LPS (is it? lol). The tank these came out of had lots of other LPS and they were all fine. But i'll keep an eye on it, if the Duncan starts looking bad the two re-homes gotta go lol

 

[Sharkbait19]

The Duncan being at risk surprises me. That thing seems to have been indestructible lol. We accidently left all whites on one weekend, came back and it was half bleached, it came back. It fell off a rock while we were gone and half of it was buried in the sand, got home and that half was dead. It's exploded in growth since then lol. Is it because it's LPS (is it? lol). The tank these came out of had lots of other LPS and they were all fine. But i'll keep an eye on it, if the Duncan starts looking bad the two re-homes gotta go lol

I’m only concerned that if it is a disease, it could spread across the stony corals, no matter how hardy (though Duncans are pretty disease-hardy).

I don’t necessarily think that the corals are diseased as much as just angry. Clearly they have been in need of clean water, and as long as you keep up in stability, they should pull through. I will say that I’ve read that elegance corals are somewhat difficult, because of how stable of a tank they need.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I'd get the sand off of them and then see if they start to recover given stable parameters...

A dip wouldn't hurt, but I know you said you don't have the means to dip... it really isn't difficult. Buy a bottle of coral dip and then all you need is a small container. Mix the dip and some tank water and dip the coral per the directions on the bottle. You will want to do this for any coral you add to your tank, minimum. otherwise you are just endangering everything in your tank with whatever you add to it. if those new corals had any bugs, pests, or diseases, they are now in your tank. Dipping can help reduce/eliminate those things before adding coral to your tank.

 

[jackfish520]

I was helping a friend do maintenance on a tank. Two corals were dying and my friend gave them to me to see if maybe they would come back in my tank. Not that my tank is anything special but the 3 coral we have along with all our fish have all seemed to be fat and happy for awhile. Any chance that these two may survive and come back?
The greenish one (i can't remember its name, maybe an elegance?), the parts that have come off from the skeleton. Any chance those reattach or something or are they going to die and fall off?

#reefsquad

It looks like both of these corals have entered the 'polyp bailout' stage. Usually not a high recovery rate but these don't look completely too far gone. I would test for alkalinity daily along with nitrates/phos... and do a 20% water change twice a week.

Personally, I would not dip these coral due to the severity of the tissue recession. Any handling of the coral is going to agitate it more and worsen its chances of survival. Good luck!

 

[Sharkbait19]

When I first got my torch coral, it started to die and looked terrible. I felt so guilty.

A few months later, it looks like this.

All that panicking I did when I got the torch seemed to be for nothing. I learned that sometimes you just have to let the coral be and things will eventually work out, because now my torch is my most flourishing coral in the tank.

 

[jaxteller007]

I'd get the sand off of them and then see if they start to recover given stable parameters...

A dip wouldn't hurt, but I know you said you don't have the means to dip... it really isn't difficult. Buy a bottle of coral dip and then all you need is a small container. Mix the dip and some tank water and dip the coral per the directions on the bottle. You will want to do this for any coral you add to your tank, minimum. otherwise you are just endangering everything in your tank with whatever you add to it. if those new corals had any bugs, pests, or diseases, they are now in your tank. Dipping can help reduce/eliminate those things before adding coral to your tank.

Everything we get normally has been QT'd and such before it ever touches our tank, and these were done the same before going to the client's tank. More talking about the potential of introducing parasites into our tank, not disease.
The tank they came form isn't showing any signs on fish or other QTs of parasites. It was just these two corals dying off.

 

[jaxteller007]

It looks like both of these corals have entered the 'polyp bailout' stage. Usually not a high recovery rate but these don't look completely too far gone. I would test for alkalinity daily along with nitrates/phos... and do a 20% water change twice a week.

Personally, I would not dip these coral due to the severity of the tissue recession. Any handling of the coral is going to agitate it more and worsen its chances of survival. Good luck!

As much as I want these two corals to make a comeback, I'm not doing 20% water changes twice a week in our 180G lol. Not only do I not have the spare money to make that much saltwater right now (or available time lol), I'm not putting fish and corals through that kind of stress to try to save these two guys that were given to us instead of being just allowed to die off and get tossed in the tank they came from.

Edit to add.. .not trying to come off as a grouch or anything. Just saying, that's way more time, money and stress than i can afford to spare right now to try and save 2 corals that were given to us lol.

 

[KrisReef]

As much as I want these two corals to make a comeback, I'm not doing 20% water changes twice a week in our 180G lol. Not only do I not have the spare money to make that much saltwater right now (or available time lol), I'm not putting fish and corals through that kind of stress to try to save these two guys that were given to us instead of being just allowed to die off and get tossed in the tank they came from.

Edit to add.. .not trying to come off as a grouch or anything. Just saying, that's way more time, money and stress than i can afford to spare right now to try and save 2 corals that were given to us lol.

Let it ride. I say the elegance is done, and the hammer may follow. Like others have said, sometimes these things recover after looking that bad. You might get lucky. I wouldn't do anything extra except keep an eye out if they turn bad. You don't want their rotting flesh mucking up you 180 water.

 

[jaxteller007]

Let it ride. I say the elegance is done, and the hammer may follow. Like others have said, sometimes these things recover after looking that bad. You might get lucky. I wouldn't do anything extra except keep an eye out if they turn bad. You don't want their rotting flesh mucking up you 180 water.

That's kind of what I was thinking. The hammer has opened up some, of course then either my buttface Lt Tang or sleeper goby spit sand everywhere and got sand on it. (my Lt tang doesn't spit sand, but he "cleans" his hiding spot all the time sending sand flying lol).

I'll try and get a picture when I get home today but one thing I noticed yesterday was that part of the elegance that had come detached from the hard shell, the coral had formed like a whiteish "bubble" right at the intersection where the detached part meets the part of the coral still attached to the shell. Almost like it was walling off that detached section so it would die and fall off without causing problem to the rest of the coral. No idea if that's actually something they do but it sure looked like it.

 

[Levi Nicolas]

Como vocês são esses dois hoje em dia? o martelo de parede que eu continuaria mesmo que derretesse porque eu li em alguns lugares que meses depois que o martelo morreu, vários botoes nasceram em todo o esqueleto. apenas esperança

 

[Levi Nicolas]

@jaxteller007

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