rogueshrimp88
Community Member
Hello! I've wanted to make this thread for a little while, mostly as a way to track my progress or lack thereof. The New Thread challenge is the other reason I'm making this thread :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing: . That being said I guess I'll start with some backstory.
The story so far...
So a while back, like maybe October or November 2024 I had picked up some coral among other things from my LFS. One of the things was this micromussa, or maybe it's a favia experts let me know if you can. I unfortunately don't have any pictures from when I got it. It had orange mouths with an almost black outer ring that was divided by teal bands. So I got it in the tank, put it first on the sand bed to acclimate to the light, then after a week or so I moved it to its spot on the rock. At the time my tank was still positioned against the wall so it was technically mostly out of view, but the plan was to eventually rotate the tank to the peninsula position it's currently in. It was doing fine for a while. I then started to notice it was covered in sand. My court jester decided it was too close to it's cave I guess. So I just blew the sand off hoping the fish would give up. Unfortunately the CJ was more persistent than I thought. After awhile hair algae started growing on parts of the coral and not long after my pitho crabs started eating dead flesh and the algae. I figured it was a total loss and left it. Fast forward to January and I decide I'm tired of only seeing half my tank, so I rearrange the dining area, drain 90% of the tank, and rotate it to the position it was meant to be in. For reference I had a Waterbox 25 Peninsula. After getting everything settled I can finally get a look at the coral and one of the mouths was still present! Most of the flesh around the mouth was gone but it looked like it was still clinging to life. So left it hoping it would recover. After a month the CJ goes back to his sand spewing ways so last month in March I decide to pull it off the rock and move it to a safer spot. At first I attached it to a plug and put the plug in a PNW customs pop stand in a shaded area. My strawberry conch decided it didn't like that and knocked it over repeatedly. Now I have it in a single hold frag rack as close the sand as I can.
TL/DR:
Bought a coral in fall 2024, Court jester buried it. Rotated tank 90 degrees. Coral still clinging to life. Letting it recover on frag rack.
The question:
So first off, anybody able to take a guess if it's a micromussa or favia? The heads looked more separate when it was in good health so I'm leaning towards micro. Next will I be able to save it? Assuming it doesn't get buried anymore, will it recover with so little flesh remaining?
Pictures:
How the tank looked in Dec 2024. Mid-day.
How the tank looks now, Apr 2025. Almost night time.
Coral 3 days after I moved it March 9, 2025, late morning.
Coral today, almost night time. Day 39 of recovery.
The story so far...
So a while back, like maybe October or November 2024 I had picked up some coral among other things from my LFS. One of the things was this micromussa, or maybe it's a favia experts let me know if you can. I unfortunately don't have any pictures from when I got it. It had orange mouths with an almost black outer ring that was divided by teal bands. So I got it in the tank, put it first on the sand bed to acclimate to the light, then after a week or so I moved it to its spot on the rock. At the time my tank was still positioned against the wall so it was technically mostly out of view, but the plan was to eventually rotate the tank to the peninsula position it's currently in. It was doing fine for a while. I then started to notice it was covered in sand. My court jester decided it was too close to it's cave I guess. So I just blew the sand off hoping the fish would give up. Unfortunately the CJ was more persistent than I thought. After awhile hair algae started growing on parts of the coral and not long after my pitho crabs started eating dead flesh and the algae. I figured it was a total loss and left it. Fast forward to January and I decide I'm tired of only seeing half my tank, so I rearrange the dining area, drain 90% of the tank, and rotate it to the position it was meant to be in. For reference I had a Waterbox 25 Peninsula. After getting everything settled I can finally get a look at the coral and one of the mouths was still present! Most of the flesh around the mouth was gone but it looked like it was still clinging to life. So left it hoping it would recover. After a month the CJ goes back to his sand spewing ways so last month in March I decide to pull it off the rock and move it to a safer spot. At first I attached it to a plug and put the plug in a PNW customs pop stand in a shaded area. My strawberry conch decided it didn't like that and knocked it over repeatedly. Now I have it in a single hold frag rack as close the sand as I can.
TL/DR:
Bought a coral in fall 2024, Court jester buried it. Rotated tank 90 degrees. Coral still clinging to life. Letting it recover on frag rack.
The question:
So first off, anybody able to take a guess if it's a micromussa or favia? The heads looked more separate when it was in good health so I'm leaning towards micro. Next will I be able to save it? Assuming it doesn't get buried anymore, will it recover with so little flesh remaining?
Pictures:
How the tank looked in Dec 2024. Mid-day.
How the tank looks now, Apr 2025. Almost night time.
Coral 3 days after I moved it March 9, 2025, late morning.
Coral today, almost night time. Day 39 of recovery.
