corals grow back or regenerate?

[ryanpal]

i have a few corals that came with the tank (i don't know the technical names, but i'll try to find out)

some of the corals have only 1 or 2 of the coral jelly looking stuff. the other parts of the stems where it seems this jelly stuff used to exist is empty.

my question is, will this stuff ever grow back? i actually have 1 or 2 stems that are empty with nothing in them.

just curious if they are gone for good or what not.

thanks again ;]

[Travis L. Stevens]

As long as it stays healthy, the coral will regenerate.

[ryanpal]

oo thats great news.

how would i know if it's dead an won't generate back?

also i take it the way to ensure the best possiblity of growing back is to keep the water levels good with frequent water changes...anything else?

[reefshadow]

i have a few corals that came with the tank (i don't know the technical names, but i'll try to find out)

some of the corals have only 1 or 2 of the coral jelly looking stuff. the other parts of the stems where it seems this jelly stuff used to exist is empty.

my question is, will this stuff ever grow back? i actually have 1 or 2 stems that are empty with nothing in them.

just curious if they are gone for good or what not.

Hi. If the "stems" are actually bare skeleton those portions are probably gone for good. If the "coral jelly looking stuff" refers to live polyps, there is a chance they will live and grow with the proper care, if they aren't too far gone. I would recommend first learning what the corals actually are, then you can go from there with specific needs. Assuming these are "hard" corals (corals with skeletons) they need proper levels of calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity to do well long term. If they are photosynthetic corals they need proper amounts of light. They may also benefit from feeding depending on the type of coral.

Posting some photos for us would be a huge help on the ID portion, then we can give you specific help from there.

HTH

[ryanpal]

ok guys here's the pics ;] (sorry the camera i have is garbage)

i think this is trumpet or candy corn coral?


this one i can't find what it is. you'll notice that only one stem has bubble/jelly stuff coming from it. the other stems are empty.


here's another stem which has some different colored tips on the stem but no coral stuff


another stem which has nothing at all..maybe these can be revived?


i'm not sure what this guy is. he has a nice green color though. i htink he's attached to a rock..can i safely remove him and place elswhere?


i'm not sure if this is brain coral that was dried up or not..what you guys think?


here's another thing that looks like the green thing posted above but not as vibrant green and alot bigger


lastly i believe this is brain maze coral..this seems to be doing ok



welp there it is...any help on what these things are and if they can be revived (the dried up ones that is) is greatly appreciated.

ryan

[reefshadow]

1. "candy cane" coral or caulastrea. Looks pretty healthy, that's a normal colour. If the tissue starts to receed from the base of each "arm" showing white skeleton, it isn't doing well. They like to be fed. At night or when they sense food they extend feeding tentacles around each mouth. If you put shredded shrimp or scallop on them they'll suck it down.

2. Some type of euphyllia, looks like "hammer coral". Looks kind of bleached and stressed. Make sure it isn't getting alot of very strong flow, and feed each head that is still healthy.

3. Euphyllia Sp, on its way out. It isn't too common to be able to save them when they are receeded this far.

4. Ditto. if it has coralline on it like that it's been dead for awile.

5. "green hairy mushroom" corallimorph. Easy to grow, can be invasive. doesn't need feeding. May be ricordea but hard to tell from that photo.

6. Long gone most likely.

7. Another corallimorph, "mushroom" maybe actinodiscus or rhodactis, large size and shape would indicate rhodactis IMO. doesn't need feeding.

8. Not sure on the last, could be favia, favites. Often called moon coral or maze. Favia types can be hard to positively ID without skeletal analysis. Looks extremely healthy. If it extends tentacles at night it would probably feed which could be beneficial.

As an aside, don't throw the empty skeletons away. Consider them live rock rubble, sometimes you can even get babies budding from skeletons you thought were long gone. It isn't real common, but it does happen.

HTH!!!

[ryanpal]

thanks for the input!

few questions.

for the hammer coral. how can you tell it's stressed? i have another one which has shrunk down alot (for some reason). these started to expand and branch out alot in the past few weeks. it seemed as if they were doing good...not stressed. what signs should i look for?

thanks again ;]

[reefshadow]

I think it look a little bit more shrunken than you would like to see, also the colour look kind of washed out, though there are euphyllias that are very neon. They usually have a deeper colour though IME. What I don't see is alot of recession around the base of the tissue, like the caulastrea when you start to see white skeleton around the bottom of each polyp this isn't a good sign. So that's good. I would just make sure the current isn't too strong and feed if it will accept food. A healthy euphyllia should be very plump with full tentacles, and no recession around the base of each polyp. If it developes a brownish jelly looking mass over or around the polyps it probably has a protozoal infection, rather common with euphyllia sp.

It also appears as if there's an aptasia (pest anemone) behind the euphyllia. I would get rid of it if it is. If it is touching the hammer it will kill/stress it. If you have more of these in your tank get rid of them ASAP.

Also hard to tell from the pic, but the spotted mushroom next to the favia looks like it is touching it, in which case it can damage the favia. I know you posted about getting some mushrooms off the rock, are the purple/blue spotted ones the ones that are everywhere? Those are very pretty, you should be able to get hella credit for them. They aren't real common. Not saying they are rare and worth hundreds, but there are many other colours you would see in an LFS before these. I would think most LFS would jump at trading them, unless they are very common in your area. They are pretty "hot" however and can easily damage many other corals. I like to isolate them if I can, or locate them next to other hardy species.

HTH

[ryanpal]

i think there are a few types of mushroom in my tank. some look spotted like that...others aren't. i'll try to get better pics so you guys can get a better id on them.

sidenote: for the first time this morning i saw the tentacles coming from the candy cane coral. wow didn't know they were like that...it was pretty cool looking ;]

[ryanpal]

here are some other pictures of the mushrooms. two of them are a tad blurry (i have no luck with this camera). at any rate, hopefully you guys can tell what is what.

it really looks like some are red with green spots while others are purple with blue spots..you tell me ;]

blue spots



this one is actually a green spotted one but looks like blue spots in this photo:


full tank view:


right side where most of the purple ones are:

[ricsreef]

Thats a lot of shrooms you have there buddy!!!Looks like your tank is full of them.Thats awsome!!!However did you get that many,have you had your tank set up for decades?Or did you stock it with mushroom rock?WOW.

[ryanpal]

Originally posted by ricsreef
Thats a lot of shrooms you have there buddy!!!Looks like your tank is full of them.Thats awsome!!!However did you get that many,have you had your tank set up for decades?Or did you stock it with mushroom rock?WOW.

hah good question. my pops saw this and said, you should remove some of them..they are taking over the tank.

i'm not really sure what the previous owner did. when we moved the tank from manhattan to my home in NJ (water an all in a uhaul truck) it didnt' seem like there was that many. after a few days or week they started to expand more and more. it seemed as if the "shock" from the move was over and they branching out.

during the night they shrink up alot, but during the day the really do cover most of the rock.

i was told the rock is about 5/6 years old so maybe that has someting to do with it. i still think some probably need to be removed...no?

[ricsreef]

Kind of up to you,they will eventually take over the tank,but if you want to get rid of some let me know,I have a few different types of zoos if your interested in a trade.

[ryanpal]

Originally posted by ricsreef
Kind of up to you,they will eventually take over the tank,but if you want to get rid of some let me know,I have a few different types of zoos if your interested in a trade.

still getting used to the lingo...what are "zoos" ;]

[ricsreef]

Zoanthids,I tried to upload some pics for you,but I'm having a little trouble.Take a look here:http://www.coralfanatics.com/zoanthids.html

[ryanpal]

i would be up for trading those look great.

few questions:

1. how would we package this and ship them so its done so w/out harm to the items? would this cost an arm and a leg? ;]

2. how would i remove these so they aren't harmed?

3.how would we determine the amount to send?

ryan

[AMIFL]

Those are some good lookin shrooms but they look like they definately overan the tank. If I were you I would trade some away and make things a little more diverse. Should work out well.

[reefshadow]

Wow, that's alot of mushrooms, too cool.

Those all appear to be of the actinodiscus species, but as I said they are very pretty and you would see alot more common colours in most LFS's before these.

If you decide to ship there's alot of info on the subject out there, but they should be sent priority overnight, packaged in the appropriate bags, styro container is best, hot or cold pack depending on weather. You would generally be looking at around 30ish bucks shipping for a cubic foot box, depending on distance. It is doable, but the bigger the rock the more expensive to ship of course. You could break up some of the rock however. You would probably get alot of responses on these if you advertised them in the coral sale forum.

If shipping is way too much of a PITA, call all your area LFS's and see what they can do for you. I would think you could trade the majority of that rock for all new rock PLUS some additional credit. I would guess that if they (or you) broke all that up into fist sized colonies, they would be looking at at least 500 retail. At least. Most of my area LFS's would sell each colony for around 40 bucks, some more, some less. If I was selling this kind of thing out of my system, I would ask 25 bucks per fist-sized colony, considering how dense the growth is. If you have any local reef clubs you could advertise there.

I would use a hammer and chisel to break up the rock one large piece at a time, after removing it to a large shallow tupperware.

Of coure you can leave them, but they will burn and possibly kill any other corals they come in contact with. I like to isolate most of my mushrooms for this reason.

Good luck!

[ryanpal]

thank you for your response...

i dont mind getting rid of some. doing so might be a longish process since the live rock plays a major part of the system.

looks like i have some research to do and then i'll take it from there.

thanks for the info ;]

[bob124578]

You an use sterile sissors or a screw driver and hammer and chip them off the rocks (taking a scrap of rock from underneath them) so that you can keep the actual rocks.