Meat Coral/Acanthophyllia bleached?

[ScolyThor]

So, just snagged this guy from a local reefer for super cheap, he insisted that this is what the Acanthophyllia always looks like, but to my eye it is bleached pretty clearly. It has some hints of greens, yellows, reds, but is WAY whiter than any meat coral I have seen before. I assumed it would need some TLC, but has real potential to color up pretty significantly. The photo is with a filter, and even looks more colored than it does in person. In person it's almost totally white.

I've had a lot of luck recently picking up browned out corals (ended up being a gold torch, and a metallic green torch), so figured I'd give this one a try.

Let me know your thoughts on this one, and then I will update this one in a month or two to see if I actually can get this guy to color up!

Thanks everyone

 

[Kasrift]

So, just snagged this guy from a local reefer for super cheap, he insisted that this is what the Acanthophyllia always looks like, but to my eye it is bleached pretty clearly. It has some hints of greens, yellows, reds, but is WAY whiter than any meat coral I have seen before. I assumed it would need some TLC, but has real potential to color up pretty significantly. The photo is with a filter, and even looks more colored than it does in person. In person it's almost totally white.

I've had a lot of luck recently picking up browned out corals (ended up being a gold torch, and a metallic green torch), so figured I'd give this one a try.

Let me know your thoughts on this one, and then I will update this one in a month or two to see if I actually can get this guy to color up!

Thanks everyone

1). Meat (acantho) are easy to bring back, I bleached mine adjusting lights and it came back fine.

2). It might not be an acantho. Looking at the video, it could be an indophyllia which are more uncommon and like a cross of an acantho and a cynarina. Cynarina are typically opaque or can look white. I was even thinking it is a cynarina, but looks more like an indophyllia.

Lastly you are hitting it with quite a bit of flow in your video. Might want to make adjustments.

 

[ScolyThor]

Appreciate the response!

The photos/videos were taken in the tank of the local reefer I bought it from. It is already quite a bit more open and in less flow than in these photos.

It definitely could be an Indophyllia for sure, and I hadn't considered that. It is about the size of a baseball when it is closed up, and already opened up to about 8" across, with more room to extend still!

I'm fairly certain it isn't a Cynarina, as it doesn't have the radially directed bubbles/blebs.
I could totally see it being an Indophyllia rather than Acanthophyllia...

I will send a better photo tomorrow when the lights come back on!

 

[Shibaken3]

NICE CORAL.
I also have one. I accidentally bleached it but now it's back to its original color. Feeding helps maintain their color in my experience.

 

[ScolyThor]

Here are some updated photos with the coral in my tank today.

I do wonder if it is possibly getting too much flow in this location as well. It isn't expanding fully on the left side, though not terribly. The flow comes down the glass and then goes from left to right in this location.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Kasrift]

Here are some updated photos with the coral in my tank today.

I do wonder if it is possibly getting too much flow in this location as well. It isn't expanding fully on the left side, though not terribly. The flow comes down the glass and then goes from left to right in this location.

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, still looks like an indophyllia to me. Cool looking. It should spread out otherwise it is getting too much flow.

 

[encrustingacro]

Yeah, still looks like an indophyllia to me. Cool looking. It should spread out otherwise it is getting too much flow.

Not Indophyllia; just an intermediate phenotype between Cynarina and Acanthophyllia. Indophyllia (now Cynarina) macassarensis was a taxonomic mistake made by Bert Hoeksema when he confused Acanthophyllia and Cynarina.

 

[Brian1f1]

The few of you that posted yours bleached but it came back, what did you do to bring it back? I’ve had mine about 6 weeks and it’s starting to bleach. Do you need to go extremely low light with them when they bleach? How long until yours recovered?

 

[Kasrift]

The few of you that posted yours bleached but it came back, what did you do to bring it back? I’ve had mine about 6 weeks and it’s starting to bleach. Do you need to go extremely low light with them when they bleach? How long until yours recovered?

Took about a month and a half, yeah, I just covered it some so it received less light. I didn't change the light schedule since I didn't want to affect the rest of my corals, I think that is a rookie move.

 

[Brian1f1]

Took about a month and a half, yeah, I just covered it some so it received less light. I didn't change the light schedule since I didn't want to affect the rest of my corals, I think that is a rookie move.

Ok. Im having trouble getting mine shaded enough. Using a foggy plastic tub to dim just over the acantho. These guys really hate light. It’s the only thing I have that can’t handle it, and it’s been on the bottom the whole time.

 

[Kasrift]

Ok. Im having trouble getting mine shaded enough. Using a foggy plastic tub to dim just over the acantho. These guys really hate light. It’s the only thing I have that can’t handle it, and it’s been on the bottom the whole time.

Just needs to slowly get acclimated, I did something similar and just put something across the lid of my tank to "shade" it. Mine sits in 150 par on the sandbed right now.