Bleached frag recovery

Tyler_Fishman · Dec 28, 2017

can a bleached frag recover? I received a red montipora online and the heat pack failed, the water reached approximentally 40 degrees and the frag is bleached, I still see red dots which I assume are the polyps, the seller said let it acclimate to your system, but I don’t Think it’s very... alive?

malacoda · Dec 28, 2017

It may recover, montis are pretty durable. Depending on how bleached it is though, and how well it adapts to your tanks parameters, it could take quite a bit of time. Hard to say without seeing a pic of the damage though...

Tyler_Fishman · Dec 28, 2017

malacoda said:
It may recover, montis are pretty durable. Depending on how bleached it is though, and how well it adapts to your tanks parameters, it could take quite a bit of time. Hard to say without seeing a pic of the damage though...

Red dots are polyps I think

malacoda · Dec 30, 2017

I don't think that looks too bad at all. The darker dots are indeed polyps. The flesh around the polyps looks like it has lightened in color a bit, a but is still intact and appears fairly healthy.

Other than the very white area at the very right of the frag, it appears pretty intact. As long as your tank parameters are in the normal acceptable ranges and stay pretty constant, it should recovery nicely.

BoomCorals · Dec 30, 2017

It’s hard to tell how bad it is from the pic. I do think it can recover, but it’s going to take a long time. How did the heat pack fail? Was it a hand warmer or an actual 40 hour heat pack? 40 F is crazy low unless it was a diy styrofoam box or something.