Our Dead Coral Skeletons - Phoenix Effect

innerspark

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#1
How many of you sps guys toss your dead skeletons once your coral dies? I've done it but that last time I had issues I just left them be unless. 6 months later and some times longer now I am finding those coral skeletons coming back to life. They would be so dead that they where gray and all of a sudden there is polyps again. So for those of you who lose a sps colony sometimes there is still hope.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20140916-the-corals-that-come-back-from-the-dead
 

innerspark

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For instance the stag in this photo has been in this tank for at least a year now. About a month into having it, it bleached, grew hair algae and red slim all over it. Today it still has a tiny peace of hair algae that has never gone away but as you can see it has polyps and is coloring back up. I thought this guy was for sure dead with coralline on it and everything.
 
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#4
Solid point. Happened to me a lot with Acros in general but especially stag acros. If they truly are dead, I also would not throw it away. Their skeletons are perfect for calcium reactors given they are the exact ratio of parameters needed to dose the tank. If you don't have a calcium reactor, give it to a LFS. Any LFS that knows what they're doing will probably accept them.
 

innerspark

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Solid point. Happened to me a lot with Acros in general but especially stag acros. If they truly are dead, I also would not throw it away. Their skeletons are perfect for calcium reactors given they are the exact ratio of parameters needed to dose the tank. If you don't have a calcium reactor, give it to a LFS. Any LFS that knows what they're doing will probably accept them.
That's another great idea.

Here is another photo and why I bring this up tonight. I was looking around my tank and at the top of a dead skeleton I've just left in the back I find a little glimpse of a garf bonzi with what looks like it's coming back to life. Look how dead the skeleton is next to it and ignore the green birds nest under it
 
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watchguy123

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#8
I don't recall ever having an acro skeleton coming back to life but I have had polyps return to my rock months to years later. I have found Monti's that I have cut out, epoxied over, coralline algae covering the rock and bam a year later new polyps. Sometimes you can't keep them alive and other times you just can't get rid of them.
 
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#9
i've seen some amazing old tanks that when the big colony of sps died, they put another frag, and it grew right over it... looked so natural and perfect...
 
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#10
I've always thrown the skeletons in my sump under the assumption that they would act as live rock rubble and help in filtration even if it's a small piece. I had this happen to a digi that was on my sand bed. I thought it was pretty cool so now I just leave skeletons on the sand bed. It's happened about twice after this. One was a cyphastra the other was a favia that I thought was dead for sure. All the green implosions in my tank started from 2 polyps that were in a tank for 7 months with no water circulation/heater/ or lights. Corals are pretty hardy. Neat thread thanks for sharing
 

innerspark

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I've always thrown the skeletons in my sump under the assumption that they would act as live rock rubble and help in filtration even if it's a small piece. I had this happen to a digi that was on my sand bed. I thought it was pretty cool so now I just leave skeletons on the sand bed. It's happened about twice after this. One was a cyphastra the other was a favia that I thought was dead for sure. All the green implosions in my tank started from 2 polyps that were in a tank for 7 months with no water circulation/heater/ or lights. Corals are pretty hardy. Neat thread thanks for sharing
I'll have to remember that the next time I move and forget a frag in the container for a few days.
 
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I'll have to remember that the next time I move and forget a frag in the container for a few days.
There is a thread out there about a vendor who had a plate coral die. He said he decided to leave it in his tank instead of throwing it away like he usually does. He said he later noticed that it had little spots on it and they turned out to be baby plate corals. In that thread someone mentioned that they never throw away fungia or even bubble corals and euphyllias since they can "come back from the dead" Pretty cool
 

nay

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#14
I just made a thread last nite...got 3 bleached acros from a frag pack and 3 day later polyps start popping up
 
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There is a thread out there about a vendor who had a plate coral die. He said he decided to leave it in his tank instead of throwing it away like he usually does. He said he later noticed that it had little spots on it and they turned out to be baby plate corals. In that thread someone mentioned that they never throw away fungia or even bubble corals and euphyllias since they can "come back from the dead" Pretty cool
That's how I got my plate coral. Guy had 1 die but left skeleton in place and then a few months later it had a lot of little spots on it. I bought it at dime size and now it's quarter size. My personal experience is with a garf bonsai. It died but the skeleton was in such a cool shape that I kept it in sump and fuge light brought it back after almost a year.
 

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That's awesome Mike! Good thing I didn't throw out the skeleton of my pink Cadillac


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