SPS Q&A Thread

[zanoshanox]

I thought I'd start a thread where we could post questions and get info on SPS corals. So i'll start it off,
1.) Whats causes browning out? What does it mean?
2.) What causes SPS bleaching? What does it mean?

 

[teen]

stress usually causes both. it can be anything from the coral just didnt ship well, or your parameters were a little bit different compared to that of the tank it came from. it could be a number of other things such as chemicals leeched from soft corals, improper flow, high levels of trace elements or something such as high nitrates or phosphates. could also indicate a pest such as AEFW, red bugs, black bugs, monti eating nudis. possibly too much light. big temperature swings, a fish picking, another coral growing too close.
theres plenty of reasons why a coral will brown or bleach, but those are usually the main reasons.
ive had one or two brown outs and both came back to better than original color within a few months.

 

[zanoshanox]

Thanks teen! So your corals have come back from borwning out? I have a 2 inch tall brown acro frag that has good polyp extension, but it brown. Does that mean that it coudl have browned out? Or is that possibly just close to its natural color?
Also, once an arco bleaches, can it gain its color back?

 

[fishgeek01]

Once an acro bleaches in my experience they are usually done for. When they brown out they still have some of the beneficial algae living within its tissue. when they bleach, they are usually done for.
A lot of times what you see in acros especially, is that when a wild colony is harvested it will turn brown when it reaches its captive environment. This is usually only temporary, but it may never regain its color. The same goes for frags, when you frag it it will stress it causing it to brown out, and frags for wahtever reason are much more hardy, and usually color back up. I have 2 frags of "green slimer" although I dont think they are that have browned out, they are now coloring back up, and a a bright green, but look like none of the green slimers I have ever seen. I will post a picture of them. The 3 frags in the middle of this picture are the ones of interest. The one in the front is a bi-color that browned out, but is now colored again, the base is a greenish color and the tips are a bright blue. Picture does not do it justice. The two frags in the back are the acros in question. the polyps are a bright neon green, but the bases are still brown.

 

[teen]

wild caught colonies have a better chance of browning out. aquacultured will be more hardy and usually more forgiving.
i won a purple rimmed monti cap at my last local meeting. it was cream with a purple rim. it browned out becasue i had no epoxy or superglue to put it in the rockwork so i left it on the sand bed while i went away snowboarding. two days later when i got back it had turned brown with like a green rim. the frag is about 1" x 2" and its still that browned out color, but the growth is now purple. in a few more weeks im sure most of it will be back to its nomal color becasue its really starting to grow now.
it really depends on your tank conditions and the coral itself. some brown outs may color up in a few weeks, others a few months, others could take years or never come back to original color.
heres a millepora frag i bought from a lfs. i thought it was a washed out red with yellow tips, which may turn to a bright red. for $20 bucks i bought it. now, 3 months later it has totally changed colors. it really hasnt grown much (besides the base, which is encrusting pretty rapidly), but im sure it will take off soon. heres a before and after shot. the first pic is in like late january when i first bought it, second pic was taken in april.

 

[zanoshanox]

wow! That's incredible....it changed colors completely...Okay here's another q. Have any of you had experience with RTN? I work at a LFS and my boss has been letting me go down to the wholesalers to pick out corals and many of the acro colonies i have got for ym tank and to sell (all wild caught) have died from RTN within days....not all fot hem, but many. Is this just caused from bad collecting?

 

[viper_930]

RTN and STN is caused by general stress. Many times it won't be at all apparent why a coral would RTN out of the blue, but if multiple pieces are necrotic there must be something wrong with the system. Wild caught colonies get RTN more often than aquacultureds or even maricultureds, but it's not because of the way they were collected.

 

[teen]

agreed. you may never figure out why a piece RTNed of STNed, but its more common in wild colonies, which is why many people tend to buy aquacultured pieces.
RTN can usually be stopped by fragging the piece a decent amount into the healthy tissue. this will hopefully stop the tissue necrosis from spreading to the tissue that is still healthy and attached to the corals skeleton.
ive also heard of people applying super glue to pieces that were STN'ing from the tips down. you apply the superglue to the parts where the tissue was already lost and spread it so it meets where the healthy tissue starts. ive never tried it so it may not be 100% accurate, hopefully somebody else can clarify that one.

 

[zanoshanox]

What is meant by maricultured? Are they just wild cought colinies that have been growing in captivity?

 

[teen]

i think theres two different types of maricultured. i believe what you said is method one, and then places such as pacific east aquacultures. they basically have coral frams in the ocean that they harvest there corals from.