Saving a Favia

[tanker]

I see Favia corals at LFS all the time. Some round pieces are half dead (only half the polyps are still alive). Owners are will to sell cheap.

Will they grow back?? Some have no growth on one side so I may buy and put against another rock in stead of out in the open.

But main question is will they re-grow back on cover the dead parts??

 

[Tang Salad]

Generally speaking, no. They will not regrow flesh over the old skeleton. They may, however, regrow new skeleton and flesh over the old parts, but it's just as likely they'll grow in another direction.

 

[robertifly]

Would corals tanker mentions be good canidates for fragging? I mean if you cut off small pieces of the "good" section of coral, would it then grow out a complete good coral?

 

[tanker]

I have heard of people "sawing" or cutting a piece in half to make two and they both re-grow, but I cannot get myself to try this.

 

[quazi]

"Generally speaking, no. They will not regrow flesh over the old skeleton. They may, however, regrow new skeleton and flesh over the old parts, but it's just as likely they'll grow in another direction."

Perhaps generally speaking. However, my Favia was torn apart by me by mistake during a move. It did in fact regrow over the skeleton. The other piece has grown nicely in the shade of a huge frogspawn.

FWIW, my Favia is extremely hardy. I have had it in my 55 gallon since 1992. It has survived 3 tank crashes, several cold spells (loss of power), and other insults and abuse. It is so large, I will have to remove it from my tank within the year, as it will soon touch the rear and front of the tank.