brain coral and skeleton questions

J

jimmy_beaner

New member
I bought this brain coral (discounted) at the LFS because half of its skeleton was showing. This was a couple months ago. One of the employees said "in time, it'll grow over the old skeleton". I'm wondering... how long is "in time"? And would it be better to just cut it off? I'll admit, right now it makes a nice handle for moving it around the tank, and I did trim off the old vertical pieces of skeleton, but it also makes a nice place for algae to grow, as you can see in the pics. Aside from the skeleton showing, it's been just fine. It eats well, seems to enjoy its place in the tank, etc. Suggestions welcomed.

IMG_3099.jpg

IMG_3102.jpg
 
Personally it took by favia brain over a year to grow over an area the size of a quarter. I personally would not cut it because I feel im not experienced enough and Im a firm believer in doing no harm. Meaning if its fine how it is, Ill let it be.
 
Yeah. That makes sense. I just like making things better. And if there's something I can do to help this guy out, I'd like to give it a try
 
Check out my thread on rescuing corals. A lot of people have posted their experiences and tips.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918483

As long as the main tissue has healed & appears healthy (which yours looks like), you can remove the old skeleton (and I recommend that as well.) IME, corals have a harder time growing over old skeleton than building new skeleton.
 
mecheng99 said:
check out my thread on rescuing corals. A lot of people have posted their experiences and tips.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918483

as long as the main tissue has healed & appears healthy (which yours looks like), you can remove the old skeleton (and i recommend that as well.) ime, corals have a harder time growing over old skeleton than building new skeleton.
Click to expand...

+1, for some reason once there's just skeleton it's really hard to get them to grow back on there.
 
MechEng99 said:
Check out my thread on rescuing corals. A lot of people have posted their experiences and tips.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918483

As long as the main tissue has healed & appears healthy (which yours looks like), you can remove the old skeleton (and I recommend that as well.) IME, corals have a harder time growing over old skeleton than building new skeleton.
Click to expand...

organism said:
+1, for some reason once there's just skeleton it's really hard to get them to grow back on there.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to remove the vertical skeleton? The one half is dead and (aside from the algae) barren. If it's just the horizontal "base" piece, I can cut that out at any time.
 
You don't need to do a total hack job on it...no point in removing all the skeleton. I usually remove the sharp points (so the coral doesn't get torn on its old skeleton) and excess skeleton that is easy to remove. On the vertical section, I would use some superglue gel to coat it (and to also kill off that algae on there.) The superglue will provide more of a flat base for the coral to grow down on (if it ever decides to.)

IME, once part of the coral dies and leaves a skeleton, the coral isn't programmed to grow back where it was (it's not like if we break a leg, the bones grow back in our leg...not in our ear or something weird.)
 
MechEng99 said:
You don't need to do a total hack job on it...no point in removing all the skeleton. I usually remove the sharp points (so the coral doesn't get torn on its old skeleton) and excess skeleton that is easy to remove. On the vertical section, I would use some superglue gel to coat it (and to also kill off that algae on there.) The superglue will provide more of a flat base for the coral to grow down on (if it ever decides to.)

IME, once part of the coral dies and leaves a skeleton, the coral isn't programmed to grow back where it was (it's not like if we break a leg, the bones grow back in our leg...not in our ear or something weird.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a great idea. I read all 7 pages of that thread. I use my Dremel to quickly hit the sharp areas and constantly dip them in some tank water that I have in a bowl. The main question was for whether I should remove that base section or not. I've been using it as a handle, which is wonderful so I'm not grabbing the coral itself. I think for that reason, I may as well just smooth it out a little more and keep it
 
I wouldn't mess with the base, especially if you keep the coral in the sandbed. That will allow the base to be in the sand and the tissue to rest nicely on the sand.
 
I cut mine in that thread and it has grown back almost completely now in about 6 months.

On a side note it is much harder to grab since removing the "handle".
 
One month update... it looks like it's trying to reclaim the old skeleton. It's been eating like a PIG lately. I feed it almost daily and it loves it.
There's a bit of sand due to me just moving it as the back normally faces the back of the tank.
IMG_3374-1.jpg
 
Looks good. Im glad it is healing well for you.

How did you keep algea off it? And part of if looks black, Is it?
 
capt85 said:
Looks good. Im glad it is healing well for you.

How did you keep algea off it? And part of if looks black, Is it?
Click to expand...

Umm, I didn't really touch the algae. I have it in a little more shaded area and almost the entire time the lights are on, it's expanded like an umbrella over the skeleton. When I bought it, it was receded a bit further than the first picture. It's been a long slow recovery, but I'm glad it seems to be getting better. Anyway, I'm assuming the brain shadowing out its skeleton helped lead to less algae there and now it's growing over that area... Which part looks black?

I also got the Dremel out and sanded flat the horizontal section of skeleton that seemed to catch a lot of small pieces of algae and it hasn't come back there since. If it continues to grow like this, I'm glad I didn't completely remove the skeleton... I just hope it keeps growing quickly. I've been feeding it more and more lately. It's like a bottomless pit.
 
Maybe it's your monitor because I'm not seeing it lol. The thing looks pretty healthy in the tank and eats like a hog so I'd assume all is well.
 
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