Free Floating Brain

[aj]

I have a brain which left his hard skeleton (sounds funny) <-- Pun intended...

It's still doing great... But I have it in confinement in my hospital tank now because I cannot afford to have it free float in my reef since it will get stuck between the rocks (which it did) and probably die...

Any recommendations to have it stick to any rocks? I've placed it in a plastic container and 2 rocks underneath. It refuses to stick!

Attached is an image before it left the hard shell.


Any advice?

Thanks...

[yardboy]

I've never heard of such a thing. Could you show pictures of it's empty "shell" and in it's free-floating form?

[aj]

I'll take a picture tonight

[horge]

It sounds like 'polyp bail-out', which is often a reaction to severe stress
Usually terminal too, though back in the 80's I observed a polyp of Caulastrea lift off its algae-infiltrated skeleton, float around for about a week, and then disappear.

Months later I found it again behind the rockwork in a less-lighted portion, devoid of color but with a small new skeleton. It must have been hoarding calcium carbonate as it floated around, until it got heavy enough to fall out of the water column. Of course, I relocated it to the front, and it promptly died for good.

Figures.

hth

[aj]

Here's the picture of it next to it's skeleton

[aj]

Another image from my reef

[aj]

All 60 Gallons of it

[ruhspolostar]

so the brains survival % is slim and none or what?

[aj]

The funny part is that It slowly left the skeleton, and when I found it in the back of the tank I placed it in my smaller tank which is probably more stressful since it usually has higher Nitrate levels. (My reef is fine in terms of Chemical levels and euch) and after the move, it's still thriving and doing great!

I'm unsure as to the survival rate since it has nothing to hold it down... But it looks like it's doing better than when it was on the skeleton!

Remains to be seen I guess

[ruhspolostar]

hmmm, keep posted this is trippy

[Clownfishman]

That toadstool coral looks awesome!!! I have one it is still small, probably take it a while to get that big

[yardboy]

How long's it been like that? I've had several trachyphyllia's for quite a long time and have never observed them doing that. Seems like it must have been unhappy for some reason. Looks like you're doing about all that can be done. Maybe it'll regrow it's skeleton. Good luck!

[specialk]

This is just a thought & I am not sure if you could do this, I hope others will chime in and say yea or nah.
Could you super glue the edges back onto it's skeleton?

Kaye

[aj]

It's been like that for 6-8 weeks now... I cannot believe that it's still doing so well!

As far as glue that would be impossible since the body of the coral is really slipperly.

Honestly, I even tried to force it back to stick on the rock by placing it directly above it, in a low tide pool and it refuses to know the meaning of stick!

As Wallace said once... "FREEEEEEDOM"!!!

[dark horge]

Keep it well lit, and if you can feed it a bit, so much the better.
If all is well, it may start building a new skeleton out of calcium gathered from the surrounding water.

The odds, however are not in your favor.
Good luck.