Green Nepthea soft coral frag now a hard coral? pic inside.

[sasscuba]

Ok so I took a frag of Green Nepthea about 3 weeks ago and put it into a hole in a piece of LR in the hopes it would attach itself. Well the next day I seen it float loose and the powerhead washed it behind my LR out of sight. Now 3 weeks later I find it only this time it is not soft, it is as hard as a SPS coral...:eek2: ....so I glued it to another piece of rubble. It has not lost any color. Will it return to a soft coral or grow as a hard coral now, or is it dead with color? Here is a pic...weird....

 

[atzak]

that's not a nepthea, sorry

 

[sasscuba]

This is not Green Napthea?

 

[atzak]

Are those the same coral? The first pic looks like a dead acro branch or something, the second pic looks like nepthea

 

[gflat65]

That may be what some sell as a green Nephthea, but the first pic shown is not. The first pic shown looks like something a green slimer. A softie can't just change to a hard coral unless you grossly overdose on magical fairy dust... If we could switch from one thing to another like that, I'd be your avatar for at least a week. Not meaning to be an a$$, but a specimen from one genus can't change to a different genus...

 

[sasscuba]

Well I did break an Acro about 6 months ago and did not find all the pieces but the only one in my tank like that is brown....can it go from brown to green and do you think it is dead? Maybe it was a piece of that old Acro???

 

[aquarius77]

Yes it could go from brown (alive) to green (dead). The brown you describe would be the flesh of the coral, the green color it is now is the skelaton of the coral that has soaked up phosphates from your tank water.

 

[gflat65]

It could have colored up, too, if it was brown to begin with and is green now (coloring up after you dug it out from the rockwork). Does it show polyps? If so, (I think I see something gree of of the skeleton near the top right side fo the coral-not much, so I may be seeing things), you may have saved it and have a new healthy frag. If no polyps, look close at the skeleton to see if it has any texture in the skin area. If not (and the corallites are empty holes), it's a goner.