Rescue Corals

[MechEng99]

Hi Mecheng99.
Thanks for your reply.
That pink patch worries me too so I'm keeping an eye on it, so far I can't see receding. The heads around are responding and eating like pigs day and night to anything I offer... So I hope to re-populate the entire rock.

Any tips are welcome.

I think I'd dip it in a 10:1 solution of tank water : hydrogen peroxide for about 20 seconds or so. I've had a few acans die in the past from a pink patch similar to that (guessing it's pink band disease), and it seems to be contagious. I don't know what will treat it, but a hydrogen peroxide dip may be a good start.

 

[Motish]

OK. Thanks.
What's the concentration of the original hydrogen peroxide solution should be? I can get a 30% solution from work, other then that, I might get 5%-10% from local grocery stores.

 

[MechEng99]

I use the stuff from the local pharmacy/grocery stores since it's a bit safer (plus that's what my 10:1 ratio is based on.)

You could also try covering that area with regular super glue (the really liquidy stuff). It might cover and kill whatever that is since cyanoacrylate reacts with moisture by heating up.

 

[luvzz2play]

I've got a couple of questions. My chalice frag i posted pics of earlier is losing flesh same with a 2 favia frags i purchased. Now looking at my leptastrea frag it looks like it is not as healthy either. At first i could attribute the frags to not being healed when i bought them but now i have to wonder. My sun coral is looking the best its ever looked and just to add more info since i know they are sensitive, my sea apple has lost some of its feeder tentacles during this time. (since at first it was on the sand bed it could have been crab eaten but have since moved it up on the glass and lost another)
My parameters were off there for a while where my PO4 climbed up to 0.10 which could have been as high as 0.14 accounting for margin of error and my nitrates were up around 60-80. I"ve since done another water change and my last check my PO4 was a 0.03 and nitrates were non readable on API test kit.

On another note, I'm very new to this and I've briefly talked with MechEng99 about dipping corals but am totally uneducated in this and have never dipped. Would dipping help at all at his point? I've thought about getting a small 10-20 gallon tank set up so i could pull these out and treat them better which i think would be best but in the meantime..... suggestions?

My parameters on 12-27 before the change
PO4 0.06
Mg 1320
kH 10.9
Ca 430
NO3 60
salinity 35ppt

after the water change on 1-1 my PO4 was 0.03

 

[Motish]

I would try to lower nitrates before searching other solutions...

 

[luvzz2play]

k.. ill check on that

 

[MechEng99]

PM sent. If you just got your nitrates & phosphates within the "healthy" range, then I'd wait longer. Corals don't rebound overnight. If you still haven't dipped them, then I would. Just use a product like CoralRx, Revive, TMPCC, etc. and just follow the directions on the bottle. Since your main tank was having issues, I definitely wouldn't set up a second tank. Focus that energy on getting your tank stable with good parameters.

 

[debincalif]

I just thought I'd throw in an update on my rescues. I need to take some progress pics - wish I had true "before" pics.

I've followed MechEng99's advice and my neon trumpet rescue has now budded a second head and is doing great. When I first got it, the coral was mostly skeleton and was covered in flatworms and asterinas. Out of 10+ heads, there was only one with a bit of flesh left and I feel great that it's coming back! Just a couple weeks ago I moved it up in the tank and placed it next to some candy canes. So far, so good!

My galaxea has covered about 3/4 of the skeleton with polyps again and has been happy down at the bottom of the tank on the sandbed. I've been thinking about moving it to another spot on the rockwork, but haven't come up with a spot where I think it might be happy... so it might just stay where it is.

With patience, good water parameters, and a little TLC there is hope for these animals to come back to their former beauty!

 

[StephLionfish]

Tubastrea

Tubastrea by Tree_Roots, on Flickr


IMG_6988 by Tree_Roots, on Flickr

Very small tubastrea HH on the side of the rock-

Black sun coral hitch hiker by Tree_Roots, on Flickr

 

[MandarinFan]

I posted on page 12 about my purple plate that died in July. I left the skeleton in the tank and babies have started growing on it! There are about a dozen of them, when the big lights are off and just the moon lights are on they glow neon green. Attached are two updated pics, the color is off but I don't know how to adjust it unfortunately. In person the babies are a deep purple with neon green centers. The babies seem sort of flimsy and are growing near or on top of each other and look more like mushrooms but are definitely baby plates with little tentacles that are out at night.

Anyone have advice as to what I should do with them to help them grow faster? When will they grow hard skeletons themselves? I've never been able to spot feed the plate (or babies) so the only food they get is what little microscopic fragments of frozen food float down that the fish don't eat.

 

[MechEng99]

Deb - that's awesome, and yes, you do need progress shots!!

Steph - any luck on those Tubastrea?

Mandarin - congrats on the anthocauli! At this point, they're obviously growing fine on their own, so I'd just let them be. I don't have any personal experience on these, but you should be able to frag the mother up, leaving a bit of skeleton with each baby. I, personally, would let them grow larger first. My understanding is that when they are large enough, they'll detach on their own.

 

[MechEng99]

Lobophyllia 14 July 2012

Lobophyllia 6 January 2013

 

[Mhayes462]

I think I lucked out on this find! I'm almost certain it's a dragon soul favia. We have a lagoon at work that's like a small swimming pool. About 3' high and 10' around. We put various coral in there that just don't sell well or distressed corals. I was looking around and spotted this one, so I bagged it up and took it home with me. It seems to be doing really well. When I took it out of the cooler when I got home, all the polyps were swollen with feeder tentacles. So that a good sign. I'm gonna feed it today. I think it was just neglected and receded, but should bounce back quickly.

Mike Hayes

 

[Charley Diesing]

Lobophyllia 14 July 2012

Lobophyllia 6 January 2013

This is definitely one of your more impressive rescues, just by the before/after picture. Very nice indeed. I always come by this thread about once a week looking for updates, and I enjoy them very much. I know you don't always have tons of comments but people are always looking. Keep up the good work!

 

[MechEng99]

Aw, thanks so much Charley!! Either that one was just oddly easy to rescue, or I'm starting to really get the hang of rescuing now...not sure yet!

I cut the dead skeleton around it off with a band saw. That skeleton just made me nervous, and I didn't want to take a chance. Then, I dipped it in a diluted hydrogen peroxide mix, followed by a Bayer Advanced Insecticide dip, followed by a Coral Rx dip. Doing all three does stress the corals a bit, but it seems to give the coral a higher chance of survival...at least in my mind.

MHayes - another great find! Yeah, that one doesn't look bad at all (considering...) It looks like it was neglected...maybe had some sedimentation issues. It should fill back in quickly, especially if it's eating.

 

[moatdaddy]

Mech, thanks a ton for all your hard work!! I have a couple requests. Would you be able to show a before, treated, and also after photo. You pick up a coral in the hopes of saving it. You take a before photo. Then your going to treat it. Photo of dipping it with your supplies and materials. Then you cut it. Photo of before and after cut and why you chose to do it and how you did it. I know a feeding photo would be tough but you can show us your feeding tools, premade food and how you make it in step by step and more detail on how much you try to feed both in amount and times per week. All specific to one type of lps. Yes I know you have given guidelines but think of this as a documented save from start to happy ending. Then I can review your hard work. Copy most of it and hopefully save my coral. I see two types of posts here. People like you, and people who are searching for help that is needed now. Maybe even make a new thread and link it from here. Also I would love to see this superglue technique. Can you display a how and when to use this treatment as well as glues to use and others to avoid. I have the diamond bandsaw and love it. Great purchase. Was $ 200 4 years ago no idea now. Lastly if you do any of these things I would like to say a sincere thank you from those of us with less experience. Your knowledge may save more coral than your aquariums or time will!!:celeb1:

 

[StephLionfish]

Steph - any luck on those Tubastrea?

Definitely, it's starting to open before I even feed the tank. (They are non-photosynthetic, to anyone who didn't know.) Although, a couple of heads fell off that were barely attached to the skeleton. I'll take an update shot after progress is more noticeable

Outstanding work on the Lobo, btw. Inspirational. :beer:

 

[MechEng99]

Mech, thanks a ton for all your hard work!! I have a couple requests. Would you be able to show a before, treated, and also after photo. You pick up a coral in the hopes of saving it. You take a before photo. Then your going to treat it. Photo of dipping it with your supplies and materials. Then you cut it. Photo of before and after cut and why you chose to do it and how you did it. I know a feeding photo would be tough but you can show us your feeding tools, premade food and how you make it in step by step and more detail on how much you try to feed both in amount and times per week. All specific to one type of lps. Yes I know you have given guidelines but think of this as a documented save from start to happy ending. Then I can review your hard work. Copy most of it and hopefully save my coral. I see two types of posts here. People like you, and people who are searching for help that is needed now. Maybe even make a new thread and link it from here. Also I would love to see this superglue technique. Can you display a how and when to use this treatment as well as glues to use and others to avoid. I have the diamond bandsaw and love it. Great purchase. Was $ 200 4 years ago no idea now. Lastly if you do any of these things I would like to say a sincere thank you from those of us with less experience. Your knowledge may save more coral than your aquariums or time will!!:celeb1:

Point well taken. I do have a website (you can click on my homepage for it) where I try to do a better job documenting coral progress. Unfortunately, I had to temporarily tear down my QT tank, so I don't have any new rescues planned for about the next month. Next time, I will definitely try to get more photos along the way. I must admit, doing this on a large scale (several hundred each year) makes remembering to get enough photos a bit tough! I am also working on an extremely in-depth rescue guide that should make rescuing more simple. If you need specific help, please feel free to PM me. Thanks again!!

 

[MechEng99]

Definitely, it's starting to open before I even feed the tank. (They are non-photosynthetic, to anyone who didn't know.) Although, a couple of heads fell off that were barely attached to the skeleton. I'll take an update shot after progress is more noticeable

Outstanding work on the Lobo, btw. Inspirational. :beer:

I think I owe you one too! Nice job! :beer:

 

[Shawn2012]

This is an awesome thread. Have literally spent hours reading and looking. What do you guys do with all these rescued corals? I would love to purchase some and give them a new home.