A week ago, my GFCI tripped, leaving my tank without power. The water level in the tank was left lower than an acrylic shelf I had that held some frags (including my purple gorgonian stick and some frag workshop acros). Well, I wasn't surprised to find the part of the gorgonian that was dry dead (it now looks like a purple corn dog on a stick) and some of the acros dead, but I was amazed that some of the acros just bounced back, even after something like 6-7 hours (according to my light timers, which were showing around 12pm when they stopped) out of the water!
Oddly, I have two frags of an sps that were from the same mother colony (not frag swap corals) and one totally bleached out and died the next day, while it's sibling recovered. One of the ASAP supplied frags from the workshop (on a plastic bolt) was dried, but has also gone back to it's previous shape (with polyps not fully extended).
I'm amazed at that picture, and really surprised that they can sit in the sun like that. But, I suppose the truth is that they are NOT FISH, and so they "breathe" differently. Amazing... Great pic!
V