Does sps bleaching occur in branches, polyps or both????

[duganderson]

Does coral bleaching in sps generally refer to white branches and/or white polyps?

I have a couple sps (pink birdsnest, neon green birdsnest ) that have become pretty white in the branches but still have colorful polyps. Are they likely bleaching?

OR would the polyps be turning white too if they were bleaching?

 

[leveldrummer]

When I have experienced it, it happens in both the flesh and the polyps.

 

[duganderson]

When I have experienced it, it happens in both the flesh and the polyps.

Any idea what the problem might be if my polyps are pink and the flesh is white?

 

[Reef Raf]

That is interesting. I have almost always had it happen with both too. Right now I have a cool one. Well...as cool as bleaching gets anyway. I have a large Miami Hurricane Chalice. I moved a couple frags of other things on a frag rack. That allowed a more direct line of flow to hit the chalice....just a little line up the face of it. That spot, like a wedge of pie...totally bleached EXCEPT the eyes.

So the stripe is bone white....the flesh is there just white. But the eyes stayed bright yellow and orange. This happened a month or more ago. I thought it would die. My LFS had this happen before and they always died. But over the last 2 weeks...around the white wedge....there was some speckely color...and I realized the color is returning. The white spot is fading from the outside in.

Real neat to see.