Coral resurrected!

[Gatorfreak]

This coral (never found out what it's called) came on some of my LR. The second picture is what it looked like shortly after getting the LR. Note the tentacles extended and the orange/brown color. Within a few months they died off, turning white and eventually being covered over by coralline algae.

So after over 6 months of them being completely dead, I recently noticed the tentacles extended again. A couple days later and I can see some color coming back. Well I'm certainly not complaining. The only thing I've changed is that the last several weeks I've been dosing with iodine. I'm not aware of any other changes. Current picture is the top one.

It's kinda confusing but the pics showed up in the opposite order that I intended. Top = now, bottom = 6+ months ago. Do you think the iodine brought it back? And if you have any idea what it is, let me know.

 

[dorian965]

ive got the same thing in my tank. mine are red and the tenticals are not quite that long.dont know what they are.

 

[Brenden]

I have a lot of it in my tank. tentacles are light green and some are up to 1 " long. I think the hermits you have in your sig will pick at it. Are you sure they have not been eating on it and it is now coming back?

 

[Gatorfreak]

The corals died off before I even had any hermits. It's possible that something else picked at it and eventually died. Still amazed after so long that it would come back. I got my LR from liverocks.com. Brenden, I'll be interested to hear if yours dies off in a few months like mine did or if it does ok.

 

[Fluff]

They are Cladocora sp. I don't know if the iodine is what caused them to come back though, sorry. Good luck with them.

 

[Gatorfreak]

Fluff, do you sleep with a marine encyclopedia under your pillow? Thanks!

Found this comment at EasyReefer.com:
"At this time, EasyReefer is unaware of any species of the genus Cladocora being successfully kept in reef aquariums."

Also found a little info here: http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/501-600/Species pages/567.htm

 

[Brenden]

Some of mine has been picked at by crabs etc. but other that I have been watching has doubled in size.

 

[hcuellart]

Some Fungiids, Euphyllids and some other LPS corals reproduce asexually and happens in a parent colony that has died. After some time, maybe months or years you could be able to see daughter colonies produced from the dead parents decalcified skeleton. These are called anthocauli or acanthocauli, this might explain what happened to your Cladocora. Doesn't nature amazes!!! Nice going there, hopefully this time your colony grows.

 

[mykpoz]

I have some of the same...
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=58407&highlight=coral

it has seem to do well.... I have that brown piece and a coupld white pieces that extend the same colored arms.

As well as several small patches that are growing the same.

 

[Gatorfreak]

Brenden & mykpoz... since you've had some success with this coral, what sort of light and flow would you say it's in?

"Fluffipedia" Just thought of that.

 

[mykpoz]

I have mine under t5's with medium flow... and its in the top 1/3 of the tank...

I do hit it with cyclop-eeze once every week or two

 

[Brenden]

Mine are under 14k MH. I have it in many places. I do not target feed it but I do occasionally turn off the skimmer and feed the tank marine snow. I have different colonies in different flows. I am in my office but If my memory is correct the ones that have doubled in size are mainly in low flow areas deep in tank between rocks etc. They may be doing better there because they are not in plain view to be picked at.

 

[mykpoz]

nothings been picking on mine