Long time dead corals suddenly come back to life

[JonoH]

Have had GSP pop up from nothing - covering the whole rock its on now.

 

[Captain-Barnacle]

There is hidden genetic and structural diversity in coral, and epigenetic changes. Often only a tiny fragment has the right stuff to survive and thrive in a new set-up. Things get sick (incl. viral and bacterial infection) and die or bounce back, given time. Some corals change algal commensal species like farmers change crops. New co-variants emerge, almost as new species, with radical changes in colors and forms. "Rebirth of the Phoenix" is a common dynamic of life, that always finds a way. A-I-E-E-E!!! (insane wailing).

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Hasn't happened to me yet but I still have a goni frag that died because of an ato malfunction in there. No sign of life yet but I guess I might as well keep it.

 

[john_ob]

Smashed my frogspawn with a big LR while cleaning back in August. Took out half the top of the skeleton and the polyp bailed. I took a piece of the broken skeleton that had a small piece of flesh still attached and stuck it on a plug. Three and a half months later it growing in to three heads and the dead skeleton just decided to sprout a new baby head two weeks ago.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I love All of the zombie coral stories! I have a green monti that was bone white and came back, two Oregon tork that faded out to a heavy cream coffee that came back. I just two days ago I found a acan in a 75 gallon that I thought was dead when I moved everything over to my new 120 gallon. There has not been a light on in two months. Tank is full of live rock so I kept it running. I placed a small LED on the tank to make sure I didn't miss any clean up crew. I left the light on for a few days. I looked in the tank two days ago, I saw a slight red color and realized three very tiny heads with half of the flesh gone. So I placed it in a low light area and am crossing my fingers.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Great topic! So yes coincidentally enough, I have a Forest Fire Digitata frag that I thought was long gone over eight months ago.
Out of nowhere I noticed a very small orange tip developing. It is now (photo) the size of a pea, a healthy pea.
I, like most enjoy a nice mix of color throughout my tank. This new/not so new coral is in a great place to add a splash of orange.

 

[Saffer1]

This bubble coral looked a goner, but grew back to a monster size.

 

[Lavey29]

This bubble coral looked a goner, but grew back to a monster size.

Wow that's an amazing turn around for that type of coral

 

[PR_nano]

Was able to bring it back



Working on this one, don’t even want to touch it

 

[twentyleagues]

Plate coral, didnt grow back but spawned a bunch of babies about 6 months after it had died.

 

[Lavey29]

I have to wonder if these amazing coral turn around are just tiny examples of what happens in the ocean. There are many reports of huge reefs dying off only to bounce back bigger and better then before

 

[Gellisjr1]

So I'm sure we have all had corals die in the tank. I have some long time dead corals over 2 years suddenly color up and come back to life. Cyphastrea frag plugs that I glued to the rocks. Torches nuked them. Corals bleached, then browned, then covered with algae. Now over 2 years later they are coming back strong with color again.

Anyone else have corals resurrect?

I have a green slimer coral frag that wasn't in the best condition when I received it and had turned black in color. I just didn't bother with it because it kind of blended in with the rock scape. As my water quality has improved after adopting the Korallen-Zucht coral care system. The green slimmer is regrowing. I can take a picture of it when I get home as you can still see some of the black showing on the coral. This kind of makes me regret how many corals may have come back with better knowledge and tank maintenance.

 

[Gellisjr1]

I have to wonder if these amazing coral turn around are just tiny examples of what happens in the ocean. There are many reports of huge reefs dying off only to bounce back bigger and better then before

Mother nature certainly can be amazing and especially so when we as human kind leaves mother nature do her thing. I am 100% behind any human attempts to revive a damaged coral reef especially since it's caused by human pollution and other human actions causing our global change in climate causing ocean temperatures to rise. In my opinion it's our mess and our responsibility to rectify our pollution problem and give mother nature her chance to heal the wounds our species has inflicted. Case in point is the Chernobyl disaster in Russia. Since the disaster and no humans we are starting to see mother nature repairing our human damage. I am sure it will be several generations beyond mine before it can be returned to pristine conditions again. I am glad that plants and some animals are beginning to repopulate the area. It's certainly encouraging.

 

[Lavey29]

Mother nature certainly can be amazing and especially so when we as human kind leaves mother nature do her thing. I am 100% behind any human attempts to revive a damaged coral reef especially since it's caused by human pollution and other human actions causing our global change in climate causing ocean temperatures to rise. In my opinion it's our mess and our responsibility to rectify our pollution problem and give mother nature her chance to heal the wounds our species has inflicted. Case in point is the Chernobyl disaster in Russia. Since the disaster and no humans we are starting to see mother nature repairing our human damage. I am sure it will be several generations beyond mine before it can be returned to pristine conditions again. I am glad that plants and some animals are beginning to repopulate the area. It's certainly encouraging.

I agree a lot of problems in the ocean are man made but I'm not in the climate change camp versus natural temp evolution but this is a topic we don't need to discuss. You gave a good example in Russia but even home here when fires burn everything down, nature and the environment shows resilience and bounces back like the reefs in the ocean like the dead corals in our tank.

 

[Jeremy420]

I got 2 soft corals a week ago I have no clue what they are but they definitely haven’t looked the same as they did in store curious if they may be dying

 

[Gellisjr1]

I have a green slimer coral frag that wasn't in the best condition when I received it and had turned black in color. I just didn't bother with it because it kind of blended in with the rock scape. As my water quality has improved after adopting the Korallen-Zucht coral care system. The green slimmer is regrowing. I can take a picture of it when I get home as you can still see some of the black showing on the coral. This kind of makes me regret how many corals may have come back with better knowledge and tank maintenance.

This is the Green Slimer i was referring to. As you can see the tip still has a little hair algae and is black. Also a little bit on the shaded side as well but it's really coming back nicely.

 

[Lavey29]

This is the Green Slimer i was referring to. As you can see the tip still has a little hair algae and is black. Also a little bit on the shaded side as well but it's really coming back nicely.

You can clip that little tip off or just clean the algae off it.

 

[Gellisjr1]

I got 2 soft corals a week ago I have no clue what they are but they definitely haven’t looked the same as they did in store curious if they may be dying

Toad stool leathers. They definitely are not happy but wouldn't right them off. Softies can got through a strange period where they will look unhappy and then bounce back. If I remember correctly they do this before a growth spurt. As long as you basic parameters are good I wouldn't be overly concerned. Good luck.

 

[Gellisjr1]

You can clip that little tip off or just clean the algae off it.

Right now I want to keep my hands out of the water. I'm getting ready to send out my first ICP test. I don't want anything from my body messing up my readings. I more or want to get an idea where I am with my trace elements. I've got some new corals on the way. One of the pieces is a Goniopara and I've read they like lots of Manganese along with my chaeto. I do supplement with chaeto grow which contains some Manganese to replenish what the chaeto takes out of the water.

You can clip that little tip off or just clean the algae off it.

 

[Lavey29]

Right now I want to keep my hands out of the water. I'm getting ready to send out my first ICP test. I don't want anything from my body messing up my readings. I more or want to get an idea where I am with my trace elements. I've got some new corals on the way. One of the pieces is a Goniopara and I've read they like lots of Manganese along with my chaeto. I do supplement with chaeto grow which contains some Manganese to replenish what the chaeto takes out of the water.

If you do regular water changes then your trace elements are fine. Gonis are one of my favorite corals. They like 125 par and low moderate flow.