Rescue Corals

My new acquisitions. Two scollys and a blasto colony. Someone poisoned Premium Aquatics tanks a week ago and I picked these three up for $25 when I went in today. I'm fairly sure the blasto will pull through, but REALLY hope the scollys will also cause I saw them when they were healthy and they were amazing. I did a lugols dip on them and have them in the qt. Any suggestions?
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Mike Hayes
 
Ugggh! I can't believe someone poisoned PA's tanks! They always had really nice stuff.

Nice blasto! Looks like it's doing much better already! Those scolys look really, really bad, but I've seen worse pull through. Are they reacting at all...to anything? If you touch them gently, do they retract? Any feeding response? Any tissue blowing off? The best thing you can do is what you've already done - get them out of the poisoned tank (and btw, good on you for helping save these guys!) What poison was it (assume bleach?) If not, keep an eye on your other corals in case your rescues start releasing some of the poison. Keep that shrimp and crabs away from them...they'll pick at the dead tissue and usually end up damaging the good tissue too (like peeling a blister.)
 
I couldn't believe it either! I went in and their first three tanks where they keep most of their lps was empty. They didn't get the sps tank though! Scott said they think it was aspirin. I don't know why they think that. The guy said he was given bad advice from them that killed all his stuff. The scollys do eat. The bigger ones mouth stays open a lot but somehow takes the food in to where I can't see it anymore. The smaller one eats and closes its mouth. If I can save at least one scolly I'd be really happy. I have them in my qt tank, so no other corals. The shrimp doesnt bother them at all but I'll keep an eye on him. How often do you think I should feed them? What about light? I have them in a basic 10gal Walmart setup with a hood that has either a 15or 25watt incandescent bulb and I also have a little bubble wand led light in there. Is it too much, not enough, or good enough on the light? Should I trim any skeleton or wait until they're more healthy? Thanks for the advice.


Mike Hayes
 
Huh...aspirin? That's an odd choice. Maybe the coral-killer thought he was being ironic - using headache medicine to cause a headache....

I wouldn't touch the skeletons until they are much, much more healthy. I'm so glad to hear they are reacting. Usually once they quit reacting, that's it. I'd feed once every 3 days or so. They aren't bleached, so they don't need daily feeding. However, I wouldn't feed too often since they're in a QT system. The lighting is probably ok, but I'd only go a month using it. But, by that point, they should be healthy enough to move.

I'd run carbon if you aren't already...hopefully it'll help process out any remaining poison.

Man...wish I was there to try to help them out. :-/
 
Ok, thanks. I will run carbon then, don't know why I didn't think of that. I have some reefbrite led fixtures I can use if you think the may need more light. They have 6 3watt LEDs ran at 450mah. It may just be wishful thinking, but I swear they look better already


Mike Hayes
 
That's awesome! I've noticed corals in bad water conditions quickly recover if placed in a good system. Hopefully yours will be the same way. I wouldn't worry about lighting right now...just let them be. If they start expanding like crazy (usually an attempt to get more surface area for the zooxanthalle), then I'd add the LED light.
 
I'm losing the smaller Scolly that I thought would make it before the other would. It's down to only having a little flesh in the middle. The bigger one is looking a little better I think. Def hasnt gotten any worse. The blastos are starting to puff up and are still doing good.


Mike Hayes
 
I wish I would have known about super gluing the polyp earlier. I lost a nice bubble coral that we paid $150 for because a polyp got torn. Dipped it several times with no success :(
 
Hi rescuers, help me with fungia, I order some corals this week and the main coral i wanted was the pink fungia, but to take advantage of shipping i order 6 more corals, from all the shipment everything came nice, except for the pink fungia :(, it came with tissue ripped and bone exposed.

Yesterday the mouth was close, today i has it mouth wide open, i don't know what this mean but i put some food in the mouth to see if it react, but nothing have happen, this is my first problem with a coral since in the hobbie and i don't know how to deal with, help me to see if i can save it.

This is the pic of the fungia right now, as you can some bone exposed, there is some more on the right side of the fungia, like 3 o'clock:

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from the angle of the pic it looks like the mouth is gone and if so there is little to no hope... sorry....
 
Symon - I would definitely let the supplier know what condition you received that coral in. Like psirex said, it looks like the mouth is completely gone...which means there's nothing you can do other than leave it, let it die, and hope it makes anthocauli (babies off the skeleton). Whenever coral mouths are gaping and not reacting to any stimulus, you shouldn't feed them. It means they are stressed to an extreme point (or nearly dead). The food can't be digested, so it'll rot...causing nearby tissue to rot.

Sorry...maybe a better picture will show differently.
 
I don't know what I'm doing wrong at my LFS, I have honestly tried every angle possible but they will not give up a coral no matter how bad it looks for anything less than the price on the tank.

They are willing to let them die and throw them out, rather than sell them to me for even a penny less.

I thought I was lucky to have 8 LFS near me but it seems I have the worst 8 out of them all.
 
There are just some LFS like that. It's easier and better for their bottom line to claim a $100 loss than to sell it to you for $10. IMO, we all need to be responsible aquarists, and when a store cares more about their bottom line on a few pieces than being responsbile, I choose to no longer shop there.

Some LFS are also nervous to sell poor-health corals to someone trying to "rescue" them as they are worried that when the corals die, the buyers will come back and complain about the store. They aren't willing to take that risk for $10, but they will for $100 or whatever price.

Just keep trying though. Some of my LFS here took a while to warm up to me. Once they realized I wasn't going to bash them if the corals died, and that I was writing blogs on how to save the corals, they started taking me in the back rooms to their hospital tanks to give me stuff.
 
Mecheng99, or anyone else that might know. How in the world do you save a bleaching coral? I have lost a lobo and losing a couple of brains right now do to bleaching. I have tried moving to shade, moving to qt where light isnt bright, feeding, everything. It seems if I move to qt where there is less light, they bleach more. I try feeding but they won't eat like they used to. Then I've bought a couple coral that I put right in the display and they heal quickly. I just can't seem to save the others. What am I doing wrong?


Mike Hayes
 
What are you feeding? I've saved quite a few bleached corals, but for some of them, getting them to eat is difficult. If they won't eat, then they probably won't make it since they don't have zooxanthallae to give them the sugars they need.

The problem is that bleaching can have *so* many different causes: high light, extreme low light, temp, poor water quality, and possibly even the lifecycle of zooxanthallae itself.

Is your coral QT the same one you mentioned above (10g Wally world special?) If so, that would make sense that they are bleaching more in QT since the light on those tanks is next to none (and isn't the correct spectrum.) If you seriously want to rescue corals, I'd set up a good coral QT...with the correct lighting and plenty of live rock. When you say they heal right up in the main tank, I'm guessing your QT tank is the problem.

If they still won't eat, try other foods. Some are pretty finicky, and it takes several tries to get a response. Never force feed. Try amino acid dosing before the lights go out, then feed an hour or two after dark.
 
I have a question about a bubble. I recently picked up what use to be a large bubble coral that was on its way out. Just wondering how you guys brought them back ie. placement, flow, light, and what food. Heres a pic of mine. Picked it up a few weeks ago.

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