another gorgonian help question

[Amyandlars]

I didn't want to postjack blennybabe's gorgonian thread so I started my own. 5 days ago I got part 2 of my TBS package. 2 of the extras were a purple brush gorgonian, and a purple sea ribbon gorgonian. Unfortunatly the brush arrived DOA, and the ribbon is starting to lose some of the flesh.
I was told to keep lighting to a minimum for the first few days, so only my pc's have been on. Today was the first day I turned on the MH's; I also moved the ribbon higher in the tank, and closer to a powerhead. Since I did that polyps have made their first appearance. I'll post pictures tomorrow of the gorg. But just for an idea the base and the tips still have flesh, but the middle is going bald, but the polyps are extended from the tips.

Is it best just to leave it alone for now, and monitor it?

 

[Jamokie01]

Id leave it alone for now, flesh tends to regrow over the old skeleton pretty quickly. However, if too much flesh is gone, nuisance algae likes to grow on the skeleton, which will slow or halt the regrowth of flesh. So give it a few weeks, if algae takes over the skeleton, just frag it off and start a new colony.

 

[Amyandlars]

Well the gorg is doing a bit better now. Increasing the flow and being able to turn on the MH's really did wonders. I also started squeezing sponges that I keep in my sump for a little bacterial pick me up. That really gets the polyp's out!

Here is are a couple of pictures from today. It's starting to molt now rather than chunks of flesh falling off.

 

[cmsargent]

It looks like this could pull through or at least some of it. I think you've done the right thing with flow and lighting. If it was mine I think I'd frag it off into several peices. It looks like the base is gone...just skeleton so I'd cut it back to just above where the healthy flesh starts and then glue to a rock. This will allow the flesh to grow a new attachment to the rock and give it a bit more stability. As for the exposed sekelton in the middle you can either frag them or leave them alone. It you leave them alone keep a close eye on it. It the flesh starts to rot I'd frag off that section. Also if you see algea collecting on the skeleton you'll want to frag off that part to prevent the algea from overgrowing the recovering flesh.

 

[Ephraim]

I got a gorg of this type a couple months back, wasn't in that bad of shape, but none the less it was pretty rough. Left it alone in med flow med light. Month later it shed off some skin and put out some polyps. Now it's growing crazy fast.

 

[Amyandlars]

I tried fragging a little piece of it today. How long before I see polyps on the fraged peice?

 

[cmsargent]

I'd give it a couple of days to recover from the fragging. If you don't see any polyps within a week try moving it to an area with different flow.

 

[Amyandlars]

Well it is official the first frag didn't work. Some how it feel out of the rock and I haven't seen it since. It was only a small peice, about 1". On the plus side there are areas where the flesh is coming back on the original coral.