Crazy Skeleton on Acanthophyllia Coral

[MechEng99]

I received this nearly dead Acanthophyllia in order to try to save it, and I couldn't believe the size of the skeleton on it. Acanthophyllia are the largest solitary polyp coral, and I've never seen one come into the hobby with this large of a skeleton. I wonder how old it is!? I'll try to save it to keep it growing!

It's about 5 inches tall (most I've seen are about 1-2" tall):

Here's the face of it...just for general interest.

 

[betamed]

wow. I'd love to see how it looks if it recovers.

 

[MechEng99]

It's not recovered, but it's trying.

This is today...day 4:

 

[joe3196]

sweet looks like it has potental good luck

 

[chrisfont23]

Nice. Keep posting pics of progress.

 

[Jblank44]

How do you recover it?

 

[MechEng99]

How do you recover it?

I check it for pests, give it a few various coral dips to treat for infection (and pests), cut any diseased/decaying tissue off, seal any unattached tissue with superglue, give it a healthy home, and then feed it until recovery...that's the short answer.

The long answer is in my thread "Rescue Corals."
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1918483

The thing that surprises me the most about this coral is how narrow it is, but how tall it is. My guess is that it was in a pretty high flow environment to grow like that. :hmm4:

 

[chrissreef]

This and scoly's are my fav... that is amazing! I have some large ones, I'll have to flip them over and see if their skeleton was cut. How wide is the skeleton itself? My current largest is almost 12" and the skeleton is like a baseball... again, not sure if it was cut. Good luck!

 

[MechEng99]

Please let me know - I'm definitely interested! My other acanthophyllia has a teeny skeleton that just goes down to a point - wasn't cut. The diameter of the skeleton is only about 3", so it's like a long tube. Pretty funny looking.

 

[Ferguson1977]

what dips do you use to treat infection? I have dips for pests, am curious what works best if you have a wound or some recession on a part of a coral.

 

[MechEng99]

Ferguson - I actually use three separate treatments. Coral Rx seems to work pretty well on corals dealing with infections/injuries. Bayer Advanced Insecticide (stuff at your local hardware store) works wonders on pests. Then, I use a 10:1 tank water:hydrogen peroxide dip. That kills off a lot of the nuisance algae.

It's a pain, but it works really well. I haven't had a problem with doing all three dips on a coral.

 

[staindsoul]

Ferguson - I actually use three separate treatments. Coral Rx seems to work pretty well on corals dealing with infections/injuries. Bayer Advanced Insecticide (stuff at your local hardware store) works wonders on pests. Then, I use a 10:1 tank water:hydrogen peroxide dip. That kills off a lot of the nuisance algae.

It's a pain, but it works really well. I haven't had a problem with doing all three dips on a coral.

Do you do these dips all in a row or spread them out?

 

[MechEng99]

All in a row. I vary which one I do first, second, and third. I do all three b/c by themselves, things get by...and I'm not ok with that.

 

[staindsoul]

thanks for the info.

 

[Ferguson1977]

Cool, thanks for the reply

 

[luvzz2play]

how long do you do in each one? and, do you do all three even on injured corals?

 

[kingfisher62]

Tagging along ! I want to see this coral as it progresses.

 

[MechEng99]

So, I talked to Aviad from Red Sea on Tuesday about this coral. He said the only way to guestimate age is to take a core from the coral's skeleton and denote the seasonal changes in the skeleton. I don't think I want to know that badly. Maybe one day someone will document the skeletal growth rate for this species.

 

[Jblank44]

How does it look?!

 

[MechEng99]

Booo...

It got some sort of weird infection (I guess?) and it just kept receding on one side. I tried absolutely everything (not my first rodeo.) I think that was definitely the worst I've ever felt losing a coral.