Epic Aquaculture
The artist formerly known as SawCJack00
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My Tank Thread
So, I love to try to help people when they are having problems with their corals, but one thing that drives me bat poop crazy is the misuse of the term bleaching when it comes to SPS. It makes it very difficult to try to diagnose problems when the term bleaching is used for just about any malady on a coral. Bleaching is when a coral expels it's zooxanthellae as a reaction to negative environmental influences such as temperature or, more often in our tanks, light. There is still tissue on the coral, however it appears much lighter, and can almost look white. Recovery from bleaching is usually not a problem but can take some time. Necrosis or Recession which is the symptom observed in STN (Slow Tissue Necrosis) and RTN (Rapid Tissue Necrosis), is completely different from bleaching as it is the loss of tissue from the coral skeleton. Causes vary, but often it occurs in our tanks due to water quality issues, and often it occurs immediately, or soon after introduction to the tank. Obviously both conditions aren't good, but Recession requires immediate intervention if there is any hope of saving the coral, while bleaching can usually be remedied by reducing the light intensity over the coral and slowly acclimating it to higher intensities over time. Here are some examples of bleached frags verses frags that have tissue recession:
This frag is slightly bleached. This was the day it was received via overnight.
This frag is also bleached from shipping stress:
The frag below is suffering from RTN and has lost tissue where you see the white:
In the case of the first two pictures which were bleached frags due to shipping stress, I simply placed them in a low light area then slowly acclimated them to higher light intensity. They both recovered nicely. The last frag which RTN'd I fragged what I could off of it, but all pieces where gone within 2 days.
The moral of the story - when asking for help with SPS issues, please make sure to use the correct terminology for the symptoms that are present, in particular if you are unable to get a good picture to post. It will greatly help anyone who is trying to assist you with a diagnosis and remedy, and it will also keep me from going bat poop crazy
This frag is slightly bleached. This was the day it was received via overnight.
This frag is also bleached from shipping stress:
The frag below is suffering from RTN and has lost tissue where you see the white:
In the case of the first two pictures which were bleached frags due to shipping stress, I simply placed them in a low light area then slowly acclimated them to higher light intensity. They both recovered nicely. The last frag which RTN'd I fragged what I could off of it, but all pieces where gone within 2 days.
The moral of the story - when asking for help with SPS issues, please make sure to use the correct terminology for the symptoms that are present, in particular if you are unable to get a good picture to post. It will greatly help anyone who is trying to assist you with a diagnosis and remedy, and it will also keep me from going bat poop crazy
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