Sick Green Bubble Coral.

[rustybucket145]

On a trip to the LFS this weekend I was given a sick Green Bubble Coral. The LFS had it in a 70degF tank with one NO Flourescent light and no skimmer. They don't know how long it had been in the tank but it looked very sad. The coral has MAJOR tissue recession. The only remaining tissue is between the middle 'plates' of the skeleton.

I very slowly acclimated the coral to my 80deg water (for almost 7 hours). Lightly shook the coral in the bag to rid it of dead/rotting tissue. Then put it in my tank.

I have never had a bubble coral before and I have a few questions. Is leaving it alone the best thing for me to do? Should I try a Lougals or Iodine or Sea Chem Reef Plus dip? Should I use a turkey baster to remove any new dead/rotting tissue from the coral?

And lastly with this much tissue recession is there any chance that the coral will survive? Or did I just get a future coral skeleton?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I hate to see it die, it is looking better since in my tank but it is still in very bad shape. As I said this was a free coral so I won't be too upset if it doesn't make it. But I would like to learn and do anything necessary to keep it alive.

Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[Amphiprion]

Leave it alone. If all goes well, it can regrow from tiny tissue fragments. Once/if it recovers a little more, then begin feeding it to speed recovery.

 

[rustybucket145]

Do they like meaty foods, or are they planktivores (sp)?

 

[Amphiprion]

Well...both actually I would feed them meaty foods, mainly (usually less of a mess). Any planktonic type foods you feed your fish will work well, however. BTW, what kind of plantkton? They will not eat phytoplankton, but zooplankters, mysis, cyclopeeze, etc. are fine.

 

[rustybucket145]

Yeah, I normally feed a slightly different schedule every day. The norm is home brew phyto, freshly hatched baby brine, mysis and a seafood blend (pretty chunky). And occasionally regular brine shrimp.

 

[Amphiprion]

sounds fine to me.

 

[rustybucket145]

Thanks, hopefully the little (big) guy will pull through.

 

[ewaldm]

Any updates? I always am curious about coral recovery...

 

[rustybucket145]

It is looking about the same. I hope to take some pics of it tonight to post. Pretty much nothing has changed. A little more tissue has sloughed off but I'm pretty sure that it was dead when I got the coral. It did actually look like one piece of tissue near the middle was trying to 'bubble' up yesterday. I'm pretty sure that is a good sign, any ideas on that? The coral tissue that is remaining has a very nice green color to it so if the coral recovers it should be a very impressive piece.

 

[Amphiprion]

Yes. Any remaining healthy tissue will try to resume normal behavior. Give it plenty more time--if everything is ok, it will come back.

 

[jasutton]

the fact taht it is trying to bublle is a great sign...these corals are photosythetic and regulate there photosynthesis by the amount of "bubble" they make. In other words: big bubble=big surface area=big photsythesis...so its good. i would put in an area with LOW flow, these coral dont like flow and will expand larger if less flow.

good luck, i am currently nursing one back to health same as you, but not as extreme as you.