Coral Coming Back To Life?

Chef G

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2014
Location
Sarnia, Ontario
So I had a green encrusting monti frag that I thought died and left it in my tank anyways and after a month of being bleeched it started being pale green...then it went red and 3 weeks today the green started to come back and is slowly recoloring itself! my question... can corals go from 98% bleached with no sign of hope to survive and all of a sudden bounce back like nothing happend!?

Im new to the hobby when it comes to coral but slowly getting there (6 Months old 70gal system) been grateful to the community for all the guidance and wisdom thus far! :)
 

Skim

Active Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Location
Brantford, Ontario
Well I'm not a Biologist put I have watched a few Videos on Coral Bleaching and they said it is possible and happens quite often on the reefs when they bleach from high temps.

Skim
 

scubasteve

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 4, 2014
Location
Cambridge, Ontario
So I had a green encrusting monti frag that I thought died and left it in my tank anyways and after a month of being bleeched it started being pale green...then it went red and 3 weeks today the green started to come back and is slowly recoloring itself! my question... can corals go from 98% bleached with no sign of hope to survive and all of a sudden bounce back like nothing happend!?

Im new to the hobby when it comes to coral but slowly getting there (6 Months old 70gal system) been grateful to the community for all the guidance and wisdom thus far! :)

my aussie lobo stung and killed my red encrusting monti about 90% and it all came back after about a year.... it has since happened a second time (damn turbos knocking stuff over) but is recovering again and 3/4 healed so far.

They grow faster over the old skeleton than lr or anything else. With a monti as long as it still has tissue it will come back with good water
 

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
Bleached means the coral has expelled its symbiotic Zooxanthellae out of the tissue and the coral is still alive. In order to survive it needs to uptake new Zooxanthellae by actively feeding. Once it has gained enough Zooxanthellae you will see the tissue start to darken as the populations within the tissue build. In this time you should up feeding as the reduced Zooxanthellae count can only supply so much nutrition for the corals daily needs. The feeding adds to the daily energy budget and allows for the coral to heal and build denser population of algae. Some people reduce the light thinking they don't want to damage the coral anymore then it is. But remember if you reduce the light to much you are also reducing it for the renaming algae. So You should reduce it to the point that it is lower then the level it was at but not to the point you impact the renaming algae population. After all as the algae population rebound it will need more light.

In time you will learn what dead vs bleached tissue looks like and start spot feeding to speed the process up. I have seen bleached corals take 6 months to regain full color. It all depends on how much of the Zooxanthellae was expeled.
 

Nonuser

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Location
Brantford
Bleached means the coral has expelled its symbiotic Zooxanthellae out of the tissue and the coral is still alive. In order to survive it needs to uptake new Zooxanthellae by actively feeding. Once it has gained enough Zooxanthellae you will see the tissue start to darken as the populations within the tissue build. In this time you should up feeding as the reduced Zooxanthellae count can only supply so much nutrition for the corals daily needs. The feeding adds to the daily energy budget and allows for the coral to heal and build denser population of algae. Some people reduce the light thinking they don't want to damage the coral anymore then it is. But remember if you reduce the light to much you are also reducing it for the renaming algae. So You should reduce it to the point that it is lower then the level it was at but not to the point you impact the renaming algae population. After all as the algae population rebound it will need more light.

In time you will learn what dead vs bleached tissue looks like and start spot feeding to speed the process up. I have seen bleached corals take 6 months to regain full color. It all depends on how much of the Zooxanthellae was expeled.
Do you know what happens when a coral, like a SPS darkens in colour? It was mentioned in another thread about corals changing colours. I was told that the water chemistry was not clean enough.
 

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
Usually it is caused by denser populations of algae. If the water is not as clean the algae population density can explode and cover the color. It can also be a stress related thing.
 

BigReefer

Super Active Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Location
London, Ontario
yes thank you guys... for the information .... it just sooo weird how things look amazing and then you do a water change and like 2 days later it goes off coral ... when the monti plate was bright birght i mean bright green.....
 
Top