Chalice coral detached from skeleton

[Zakary2003]

I have a TSA Avatar chalice coral that grew to a decent sized colony and then died back substantially after a tank crash. Now, months later, the tiny section that survived was looking better until it fell into the sand yesterday. Today it detached from the skeleton. Is there any way to reattach it or save it?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Once a coral goes through polyp bailout it's impossible to save. Any photos?

 

[Zakary2003]

Once a coral goes through polyp bailout it's impossible to save. Any photos?

Photos of what? The detached polyp?

 

[Zakary2003]

I placed it back onto the skeleton but that's the polyp. Not much left of my original colony

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I placed it back onto the skeleton but that's the polyp. Not much left of my original colony

And it was completely detached?

 

[Zakary2003]

And it was completely detached?

Yes. It was rolling around the tank when I found it. It was super puffed up but otherwise looked alright.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Yes. It was rolling around the tank when I found it. It was super puffed up but otherwise looked alright.

Sorry to say but it's almost certainly gone. I'd leave it in there for the off chance that it recoveres but that's highly unlikely. It's unusual for corals to simply detach from their skeleton unless there's an underlying issue. Do your other corals look good? What are your exact parameters?

 

[Zakary2003]

Sorry to say but it's almost certainly gone. I'd leave it in there for the off chance that it recoveres but that's highly unlikely. It's unusual for corals to simply detach from their skeleton unless there's an underlying issue. Do your other corals look good? What are your exact parameters?

I haven't tested since before Christmas because I have relatives in town, but nitrates were high, around 20, and phosphates were very high, around 0.20 (not 0.02). I had been slowly lowering them up until Christmas via daily water changes and reduced feeding, and peak nitrates was 50 and phosphates was 0.50. Calcium was 380, magnesium was 1350, Nitrites and ammonia were 0, alk was 8.5, ph was 7.9, temp is currently 76F, salinity was 36ppt. But I really think the fact that the coral sat upside down in the sand for a day is why it detached, because the parameters and coral color had been improving until today.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I haven't tested since before Christmas because I have relatives in town, but nitrates were high, around 20, and phosphates were very high, around 0.20 (not 0.02). I had been slowly lowering them up until Christmas via daily water changes and reduced feeding, and peak nitrates was 50 and phosphates was 0.50. Calcium was 380, magnesium was 1350, Nitrites and ammonia were 0, alk was 8.5, ph was 7.9, temp is currently 76F, salinity was 36ppt. But I really think the fact that the coral sat upside down in the sand for a day is why it detached, because the parameters and coral color had been improving until today.

Stress from that could do it. Sorry about your chalice. Though advice regarding nutrients, don't lower them too quickly, daily small water changes and reducing feeding is a good way, but if the corals are adjusted to higher nutrients you'll need to acclimate them to normal levels or that could cause a mass RTN event. When where they 50 and 5.0?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I haven't tested since before Christmas because I have relatives in town, but nitrates were high, around 20, and phosphates were very high, around 0.20 (not 0.02). I had been slowly lowering them up until Christmas via daily water changes and reduced feeding, and peak nitrates was 50 and phosphates was 0.50. Calcium was 380, magnesium was 1350, Nitrites and ammonia were 0, alk was 8.5, ph was 7.9, temp is currently 76F, salinity was 36ppt. But I really think the fact that the coral sat upside down in the sand for a day is why it detached, because the parameters and coral color had been improving until today.

Though on good news there IS still a  small chance, I found an old thread and some reports of euphyllia surviving polyp bailout. I am unsure about chaliaces but to give it a chance I'd put it in a low flow area or in a container to see if it rebuilds a skeleton. @ISpeakForTheSeas and @encrustingacro might be able to tell you if lobophyllid chaliaces can survive similar to euphyllia. Give me an update in the next few days if remaining bit dies off

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Found this record of one living for awhile,

They can recover. You have to keep them from floating in the tank until they can reattach to a substrate, rock or frag plug.

More importantly you need to find why they bailed out.

Temp swing?

Salinity swing or salinity shock from introducing to a DT from a salinity that was different when bought.

High or low nutrients.

Pest or invert bothering it. Peppermint shrimp are notorious in damaging LPS.

Here's a video that explains what could cause it:

Do you have one of these floating guppy nurseries? Or some kind of plastic basket that'll let flow through but not the polyp? Something to make sure it doesn't end up in a pump when it separates.

Polyp bailout is survivable, chances aren't great though, worse if it gets chewed up by a pump

So this guy is doing well in the acclimation box, as if nothing ever happened. I’m seeing a bit of new calcification to I’m hopeful it will recover. I guess the thing to do is leave it in the box until, hopefully, there’s enough new skeleton to glue it back to the rock?

Your parameters seem good as long as they remain stable. I have tons of snails urchins and hermits and never had an issue with the corals getting ticked off.. aside from that. I find my Acans love to be feed at least a couple times a week. Preferably something meaty. Low light, medium flow and fed regularly. They should puff up and extend outward from the skeleton by quite a bit when happy.

I took those at around 8 am I believe, as the fish were being fed. I can try target feeding them more vs broadcasting if that would be helpful. I also add live phyto every day, 2x per day. The fish get a variety of Rod’s original and easy masstick that the whole tank tends to partake in at feeding time.

And yes, talking about the one off it’s skeleton in the box — that was always the one in question. It still puffs up every day like normal, and never didn’t. I guess that’s why it was so surprising to me, b/c I would expect to see signs of stress prior to something so extreme.

Well, I loathe target feeding corals b/c I have a lot of inverts, and that’s why I broadcast now. For example today I target fed benepets and the cleaner shrimp and fish were stealing from them, and then I found a Nassarius snail on top of some zoas, smooshing them and stealing the food. It’s a zoo in there. So I get that some folks don’t believe harassment can cause an issue like bailout, but I’ve found various resources that list it as one possible cause. I wouldn’t rule it out. Now and then crawling over a coral is different from constant harassment.

I do plan to continue target feeding the micro lord in the box — it’s still looking very positive in terms of recovery, so I’m hopeful.

Okay, so I try to view everything as a learning experience and this one has me all kinds of amazed. The lord that bailed is regrowing skeleton at its base. It has little bits of white calcification under it now. So crazy.

No real reason for this post other than just expressing that I’m in awe.

Ive found this with a recovery from an acan bailout so there is hope. Though chaliaces may be tricker. Honestly until now I had no idea that surviving polyp bailout was possible. Good luck!

 

[encrustingacro]

Though on good news there IS still a  small chance, I found an old thread and some reports of euphyllia surviving polyp bailout. I am unsure about chaliaces but to give it a chance I'd put it in a low flow area or in a container to see if it rebuilds a skeleton. @ISpeakForTheSeas and @encrustingacro might be able to tell you if lobophyllid chaliaces can survive similar to euphyllia. Give me an update in the next few days if remaining bit dies off

This looks to be a Mycedium, which is a merulinid chalice. I haven’t heard of chalices bailing out, so I’m not really sure.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, I haven't heard much about chalices bailing (or rather, I haven't heard what happened after they started bailing), but there's basically always a chance (albeit a small one in a lot of cases) that the coral will make a come back under good conditions.

So, if you can figure out why it's bailing, you may be able to save it. The high nutrients (particularly phosphate) would be a red flag to me, so I'd ask if that's a potential cause for you. Also, what crashed your tank before? Has anything changed for the location of the coral since the crash (i.e. did you move the coral? did you change the lighting or flow the coral is exposed to?)?

(Also, for what it's worth, there are a few different threads on here about seemingly completely dead corals reviving from seemingly just their skeletons - so I wouldn't give up entirely as long as you feel you can provide the right conditions for the coral).

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thats odd, but you should be able to attach within a crevice or a frag plug with crevice being where I often place them

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Yeah, I haven't heard much about chalices bailing (or rather, I haven't heard what happened after they started bailing), but there's basically always a chance (albeit a small one in a lot of cases) that the coral will make a come back under good conditions.

So, if you can figure out why it's bailing, you may be able to save it. The high nutrients (particularly phosphate) would be a red flag to me, so I'd ask if that's a potential cause for you. Also, what crashed your tank before? Has anything changed for the location of the coral since the crash (i.e. did you move the coral? did you change the lighting or flow the coral is exposed to?)?

(Also, for what it's worth, there are a few different threads on here about seemingly completely dead corals reviving from seemingly just their skeletons - so I wouldn't give up entirely as long as you feel you can provide the right conditions for the coral).

OP did mention that the coral was kicked over, which is likely why it bailed.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

OP did mention that the coral was kicked over, which is likely why it bailed.

Ah, yeah, saw the sand part in the initial post but I missed the part about how long it sat in the sand.

Yeah, stress from that could definitely cause bailout.