Can you culture zooxanthellae alone?

[gogo7]

i'm following this....sounds like you're on the right track. even started a little myself...but i've got nothing worth looking at under the scope.

 

[Sk8r]

I'm going to give this a try. I have a couple of rescue corals that should be good test subjects.

 

[Sk8r]

I did get the order, from Foster Smith, PhytoCure. It came in 75 degree temperatures, room temperature, no ice pack (and it has to be refrigerated). I queried F&S and they by next day e-mail wrote a nice letter that explained it's ok at that temperature and they will add ice packs during the summer.

It didn't smell bad. Figuring that corals may feed during twilight, I turned OFF the return pump, but not the powerheads, put in a little fishfood to get appetites up, and according to the bottle instructions, dumped it all in. Now we see if it does anything for my abused rescue corals. I gave it until the tank had been 3 hours past twilight, about 10 pm, turned the main pump back on.

Today, the corals are happy. I can't tell whether they're happier than the day prior, but the poor wisp of a candycane MIGHT be. The acan looks puffier than usual, but it has all the expressions of a rock.

We shall see. I have a healthy hammer starting to reproduce left and right, a massively abused acan and candy cane, and two very sad bleached hammer frags. On the latter, improvement would be any sort of color.

 

[Sk8r]

Progress report: I can't report that the color is outstandingly better on anything but the poor abused acan, which is showing more orange. (Orange and purple acan). On the other hand, also positive, a tiny, tiny tightly compressed pair of what may be kryptonite candycane is showing a little expansion. All hammer corals, (4, 3 different color types) have shown expansion, but the two that are in good condition are insanely expanded. Also the hammers have all begun to cycle strongly between lights-out phase (drawn in a bit) and lights-on phase---expanded. Coral availability in my area has been pretty chancy, and most of mine (since I sold off my others) have been local rescues in bad shape. The improvement since the dose of PhytoCure has not been dramatic, unless you count the two healthy hammers. I'm not familiar enough with acans to know what healthy looks like, but something is changing. The polyps are larger, and the orange is increasingly bright under actinic.

 

[PupChow]

I thought pulling zooxanthellae from a healthy anemone and injecting them into a bleached anemone is already done with certain Carpet Anemones. At least from what I read in the Anemone forum.

 

[lu9103]

This is very interesting, Ive read and talk to some hobbyists and they say that if your coral is unhappy then dowsing any product wont help. But this is very interesting reading everones experience or take on this topic.