Cali Kid Corals

green pocillopora fell in sand and partly died

Hi,

I'm a fairly new reefer so please pardon ignorance. I recently got a good size green pocillopora frag from a buddy. I dipped it, and placed it on the sand bed to acclimate. Of course being a new reefer I got tied up with some other things and forgot about it for about 4 days. In the mean time one of my gobies knocked it on it's side and part of it got buried in the sand. Last night I finally realized that I left a man behind and took it out to place it on the rock near the top. However, as soon as I pulled it out part which was buried in the sand was completely bleached and some membrane like thing just came off it and floated away - almost like dead skin. I'm attaching a picture here for reference.

Question is will this frag recover at all or almost half of it is just dead and gone? Please let me know because honestly it is an amazing frag and I'd hate to lose any of it.

I wouldn't say it's best of the pictures but you can clearly tell the dead part where you don't see any polyps (bottom left). I'll try and get a better picture tomorrow when the day lights are on.

Thanks in advance,
Manish
 

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Quick update on this thread. So after I moved it to another location the coral bleached completely. I moved it to a frag rack and have been monitoring it. While it does look a bit fuzzy and at times I do see some green tint to the skeleton I don't know if it is just algae moving in place. I'm still monitoring it closely and hoping pretty much every day that when I go look at it in the morning I'll see a polyp or two popping up. The skeleton does NOT look like it's empty anymore so it's keeping my hopes alive.

Anyone experimented with adding zooxanthellae to revive bleached coral before? Would love to know your thoughts.

Honestly it's not about the cost because it was almost a free coral which someone threw in for me to try with another frag I bought. I just want the little guy to live and not die on my watch.
 
Quick update on this thread. So after I moved it to another location the coral bleached completely. I moved it to a frag rack and have been monitoring it. While it does look a bit fuzzy and at times I do see some green tint to the skeleton I don't know if it is just algae moving in place. I'm still monitoring it closely and hoping pretty much every day that when I go look at it in the morning I'll see a polyp or two popping up. The skeleton does NOT look like it's empty anymore so it's keeping my hopes alive.

Anyone experimented with adding zooxanthellae to revive bleached coral before? Would love to know your thoughts.

Honestly it's not about the cost because it was almost a free coral which someone threw in for me to try with another frag I bought. I just want the little guy to live and not die on my watch.
A good pic under white lights would be helpful.

It’s a hardy coral but nothing is indestructible, sometimes a problem like an infection can spread.

A bleached coral has the normal coral tissue, but it’s white. These can potentially recover. A coral part where you see hard skeleton without overlying tissue isn’t bleached, it’s dead.
 
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