evidence of coral hardiness

[drbronx]

I have two stories to illustrate the survivability of corals. As most of you know, I recently had a tank wall crack that deposited over two thirds of the tank water onto my basement floor. My rockwork in that tank went to the very top rim. Therefore all of the corals in the top two thirds were out of the water, possibly for hours. I know this since the GFI circuit tripped from the leakage and the water was quite cold by the time I discovered the leak at about 3;30 in the morning. Other than the sps frags that were nearest to the top of the rockwork, all of the other corals that were out of the water including zoos, duncans, torch corals, various leathers and sinularia....all survived. They looked like hell for a couple of days but nonetheless pulled through.

The next day, I had a shipment of ricordea, crabs, and zoos arrive from Sealife.inc that got lost in transit and were supposed to arrive several days earlier. They were thus in transit for five days. I opened the box expecting to see that everything had perished but amazingly everything was fine. The water in each plastic bag was cold and completely turgid such that you could barely see the contents. And yet no losses.

So on one level, we think of corals as extremely delicate and fragile, and yet they occasionally seem to be able to tolerate very toxic conditions. On the other hand, i've had seemingly healthy corals suddenly bleach out for no apparent reason. Go figure!
Certainly we know that many corals at low tide in tropical reefs, can be out of the water for periods of time so i suppose this shouldn't be so shocking.

 

[fatrip]

just out of curiosity were there any ricordia that were out of the water from your tank cracking? if they lived that would be interesting due to I believe they in the gulf are much deeper and never come out of the water naturally. Just a thought since most of the sps grows on reefs that come out of the water so naturally you would speculate that they would survive but something that isn't out of the water ever naturally you wouldn't expect to survive. so that if it did or does that I think would really show the true hardiness of these creatures. Not saying that your experiences here jerry don't show the hardiness already.

 

[drbronx]

You make any excellent point Vince. No, in fact all my ricordea were deep in the tank and therefore never out of water. I agree with you that it would be surprising if they were to live out of the water for any length of time. The corals that survived were able to retract their polyps into their exoskeletal structure, or were able to protect themselves with a mucosa film. However, the ricordea that survived the shipping delay was quite a surprise since the water they arrived in was cold and nasty.

 

[DON CORALEON]

I have seen ricordea shipped dry with a damp paper towel around them several times at LFS that i once worked at,with no casualties from a reputable wholesaler.

 

[reefscape15]

thats pretty crazy stuff! The only thing I've had is a bubblegum chalice that got totally bleached out when I switched tanks and moved it to the top (stupid me!). But going from this:

to this: every part except the somewhat shaded parts totally lost color.

but after all the stress, I ended up with this beauty!:

believe it or not, this IS the same exact coral in all 3 pics. Now in my friends tank for storage, it's still probably my favorite I've ever owned.

 

[fatrip]

I have seen ricordea shipped dry with a damp paper towel around them several times at LFS that i once worked at,with no casualties from a reputable wholesaler.

that is pretty cool. i'd figure the dampness would definitely help alot, i wish they weren't so darn expensive and not fast growing, cause if they were like mushies i'd make a test for out of the water time...

 

[Dave VG]

That is pretty cool DON CORALEON. Natures way Survival of the Fittest. Sometimes it surprises us.

 

[drbronx]

Very cool Jim! Now if you ever want to part with some of that chalice so that Vince and I can do some experiments.....

 

[reefscape15]

Hahaha I just broke off a frag for Matt, and my stuff is all in my friends tank as I am moving and taking down mine for a bit. It'll probably be ready to frag again once my tank gets set back up. I'll post some a frag thread or something when it's ready.

 

[Dave VG]

Jerry how was Sealife.inc to deal with and would you order from them again? Did everything end up surviving from this order?

 

[pimpinitup6969]

Jerry if you want a frag of that LMK. I had a piece get thrashed by my todds torch and its made a really nice recovery.

 

[drbronx]

Dave: I have placed two orders with Sea Life and have been very happy both times. I have received crabs, snails, all their ricordea selections and most of their gorgonia. Their prices and service are excellent. You are also supporting their efforts to repopulate the reefs off Tavernia Key in So. Florida with hard coral (Elkhorn and Staghorn corals which have largely died off in the Florida waters).

 

[drbronx]

Matt: Thanks but I just received a huge honking piece off what appears to be that same or similar chalice from St. James.

 

[Dave VG]

Thanks for the info Jerry. Nice to hear they are a good source for corals.