my new baby... AKA The Café

rmorris_14

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Fishy888

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As many of you know I’m dealing with GHA right now. My purple digi currently looks like this.

IMG_5936.jpeg


It’s going to be a couple of weeks at least before I get my trochus snails and my hermits aren’t touching it.

I’m considering cutting the part of my purple digi that’s rebounding nicely and gluing it directly to the cave like rock. Of course it has its share of algae too but where I’d be gluing it has no algae. What would you do in my situation?

On the one hand it’s doing awesome. There are three prominent growth tips on it now. It’s used to being in the orientation it’s in right now. If I cut and glue it it will be in a vertical orientation.

On the other hand I worry that the GHA will overrun the digi’s live tissue.
 

Fish Styx

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As many of you know I’m dealing with GHA right now. My purple digi currently looks like this.

IMG_5936.jpeg


It’s going to be a couple of weeks at least before I get my trochus snails and my hermits aren’t touching it.

I’m considering cutting the part of my purple digi that’s rebounding nicely and gluing it directly to the cave like rock. Of course it has its share of algae too but where I’d be gluing it has no algae. What would you do in my situation?

On the one hand it’s doing awesome. There are three prominent growth tips on it now. It’s used to being in the orientation it’s in right now. If I cut and glue it it will be in a vertical orientation.

On the other hand I worry that the GHA will overrun the digi’s live tissue.
Tough call, and one I don't envy. Maybe as much manual removal and toothbrush scrubbing as possible to buy some time?
 

Fishy888

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Tough call, and one I don't envy. Maybe as much manual removal and toothbrush scrubbing as possible to buy some time?
When I first got the purple digi I gave it too much light too fast. It bleached and there was only a thin band of polyps still living. The tip you see has all grown back from that little band of polyps. They were poop brown for a month or so but they’ve colored up some. It’s growing again. It’s almost growing as fast as my green digi now. I’ll try using a toothbrush for now.
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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On the other hand I worry that the GHA will overrun the digi’s live tissue.
Algae doesn't grow on live coral tissue. It can irritate the coral and make more of it die though, and then grow on that newly exposed skeleton.
 

Fishy888

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EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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When I first got the purple digi I gave it too much light too fast. It bleached and there was only a thin band of polyps still living. The tip you see has all grown back from that little band of polyps. They were poop brown for a month or so but they’ve colored up some. It’s growing again. It’s almost growing as fast as my green digi now. I’ll try using a toothbrush for now.
You really need some aggressive manual removal at this point. No inverts are going to touch it when it's that long. Pulling it off with tweezers is a good start. I don't keep acros so I don't know how they handle H2O2, but that would be my recommendation once you remove as much as you can. You can even use a q-tip and dab the H2O2 on the algae/skeleton if the flesh is too sensitive...
 

Fishy888

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Algae doesn't grow on live coral tissue. It can irritate the coral and make more of it died though, and then grow on that newly exposed skeleton.
That is what I meant. I don’t want the algae to irritate the coral.
 

Fishy888

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You really need some aggressive manual removal at this point. No inverts are going to touch it when it's that long. Pulling it off with tweezers is a good start. I don't keep acros so I don't know how they handle H2O2, but that would be my recommendation once you remove as much as you can. You can even use a q-tip and dab the H2O2 on the algae/skeleton if the flesh is too sensitive...
I agree. I’d rather keep the live coral on the skeleton. Great idea regarding the q-tip. Thank you!
 

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