No corallites on SPS, what to do?

[Alice]

Do you mean they had polyp bail out?

 

[Nathan1]

I mean that the SPS growth head at the tip of the branch turned into a regular polyp and there were no more "growing" heads left. The coral existed for about 6 months like this; not growing and then it just died.

You know; there are two types of polyps, those at the tip which actually grow and those around the stak which don't do anything but feed.

I had a period of bad alk/ca levels which may have contributed to this.

-Nathan

 

[Greg Hiller]

Nathan,

Let's clear up some definitions before we continue on this thread. Coralites are the solid calcium carbonate structures (skeleton) that surround the coral polyps. It would be impossible for the coralite itself to disappear unless you put the coral into an acid bath, or some type of coral eating critter physically ground the structure off.

You did not mention what species or genus of SPS you are talking about. Only Acropora (and a few other rarely encountered genera) have terminal (axial) polyps.

>You know; there are two types of polyps, those at the tip which actually grow and those around the stak which don't do anything but feed.<

No, both axial and radial polyps can grow. Your coral most likely died due to the low Ca/alk you spoke of. There was likely no way to reverse such a death once it has started.

- Greg Hiller

 

[Nathan1]

I had two SPS mini frags that lost their corallites and because of this they spent 6 months doing absolutely no growing...and then died. How would I have gotten them to regrow the corallite ends so that it will continue to grow? Should I nip off the tip end with pliers? Will this force the coral to develop new corallites?

-Nathan

 

[Nathan1]

Ah... Thanks Greg.

The two corals were A. Nobilis (one small 1" frag) and a A Chesterfieldensis (three small 1" frags)

The alk/ca levels were low for a month or so, but even after that it didn't grow. I'm just wondering if I could have saved them if I nipped the terminal end off. But you say that the two frags were pretty much doomed...

The strange thing is I have other frags that I bought at the same time and they are still alive and growing, just these two failed.

I have recently bought a Ca reactor so I won't have this problem again.

-Nathan