Blastomussa wellsi recovery

[TippyToeX]

I belive I showed this recovery sequence before but just glossed over it. Well I got a PM the other day asking how long it took to recover and if I did anything different to help it.

So I thought I would just go over it here in case it might help someone out in the future.

It all happened when an Acro frag fell on to a frag of blastomussa wellsi frag. The blasto took the most damage long term and the acro came out ahead. Here is the acro after I removed it from on top of the blasto. In total I think the acro was on top if the blast for about 3-4 hours I'd estimate.

The blasto only had one polyp shrunken after I removed the acro frag. I didn't even bother taking a picture of it because it just looked ticked off and nothing more. Until 4-5 days it gradually cam to look like this!

I thought it was pretty much a goner. Still had to give it a shot for a recovery. So I changed the water flow towards the blasto so it was a little more vigorous. And started feeding it every night with cyclop-eeze. After the lights were out I would turn all of the pumps off and load a turkey baster with the cyclop-eeze. I would basically fill each polyps with about 1/8 of a teaspoon of the food. Then covered the blasto to keep the shrimp and bristleworms (baby brittle stars too!) away.

After a week of feeding it looked like this..

Then I cut the feeding to every third day and a week later got this far in it's recovery..

Every third day but with some mysis too!

And after about a month it looked as good as new!

 

[iCam]

Hey, nice recovery! I always check out your threads, knowing there will be some nice photos

 

[dbrown]

That is incredible.

 

[MaryHM]

That's awesome. We've had really good luck putting damaged Blastos (wellsi and merleti) out in the greenhouse. In no time, they're good as new. Same with hammers and scolymia.

 

[TippyToeX]

Thanks everyone!

Mary- On a total side note, is your greenhouse open to visits from time to time? I'd love to stop by one day and see it.

 

[MaryHM]

Not generally, because we're located inside a US Customs protected harbor and visitors are frowned upon. It's a major deal to get people in. We're going to do an open house this summer for the local clubs though, and you're more than welcome to attend that.

 

[TippyToeX]

Understood. I'll keep my eye out in the So Cal forums then. Thanks!

 

[GraviT]

Wow! Great recovery! My blasto colony has died down to 1 single polyp, so I'm following your lead starting tonight. The colony was a bit on the iffy side to begin with, but I got it at an awesome price due to the LFS owner being completely clueless on what it was. I'll post some pictures if it starts to pull through.

 

[TippyToeX]

Thanks GraviT. I'm sure with some TLC it will pull through. Please link me when you put the pictures up, or post them here if you can. Good luck!

 

[Piccru Ponios]

GraviT"The colony was a bit on the iffy side to begin with, but I got it at an awesome price due to the LFS owner being completely clueless on what it was. "

Maybe he/she just knew the colony was iffy. If it dies, then how good a deal was it?

 

[GraviT]

On the surface, it seems that it being iffy might have been the reason it was so cheap. I should have mentioned the conversation that lead up to the purchase.

Me: How much is that torch coral?
LFS owner: $35
Me: Hrmm, how about that hammer?
LFS owner: $35
Me: Ok, how about that one? (pointing to an elegance)
LFS owner: $35
Me: This one looks pretty cool, how much is it? (pointing to blasto)
LFS owner: $35

I began to see a pattern at this point!

I wish I had found this thread sooner, I might have saved more of the colony.

 

[heuerfan]

Holy smokes Amy, great job and great pics! Wish i would have seen this earlier, i threw away two blasto pieces that receded on me

So the formula is decent flow and feedings every night?

 

[TippyToeX]

GraviT - I think it was well worth the risk! You just keep doing what you are doing. Even if you end up saving just one. It will grow and the effort will payoff.

heuerfan - Thanks! A good mix of flow, and until I saw some healthy flesh it was nighty feedings. When the mouth was not gapping so much I cut back to every other day. Then when the flesh started looking "puffy" I cut it to twice to three times a week. It recovered quickly!

 

[Kogut]

That really is amazing. It's great to see people still caring for the coral instead of throwing in the towel. Very nice work nursing it back to health.

 

[smiller]

Way to go Amy! You got da touch, girl! What a nice coral it now is! And we thought that you were just magic with a cookie cutter!

 

[TippyToeX]

Thanks Steve!

 

[heuerfan]

Here's another one of my blastos starting to recede
Last week i did a water change and poured the water right in front of this blasto so the pressure may have stressed it out? Plus the water was a bit on the cooler side.

I also notice at night lots of amphipods on the receded area, seems like they are eatting my blasto away?

Here is a pic, i'm going to start feeding mysis, i hope i can bring it back before its too late!

 

[TippyToeX]

Kogut - Thanks so much!

heuerfan - Wow! What a beauty. :eek1: Other then the little recession it looks good. There are no softies (or zoanthids) near by are there? My other blasto receded the same when some zoanthids got too close. I moved them (ran carbon more frequently to help control alleopathy) and they perked up.

FWIW, I am quite sure the pods are eating away the tissue that wasted away. Keep feeding it, it truly helps!

 

[GraviT]

Looks like mine continues to recover. Today, there appears to be a bright yellow color inside of the mouth, something that wasn't evident before.

Here's a picture after 3 nights of cyclop-eeze feedings: (camera stinks, sorry the pic isn't very good)

 

[TippyToeX]

Sweet GraviT! :thumbsup: Keep it up! & please keep updating if you can. I's love to see it's progression into a fat fluffy blasto again!