Bring dead SPS coral back to life?

[jokerman826]

This may sound a little weird and i hope the wording comes out correctly. This is for my curiosity. I had a birdsnest die on me during a water change. I was able to get my hands on another frag of the exact same one. If i put the new live frag next to the dead skeleton (touching), would the new frag "seed" the old skeleton? I know LPS can grow over (encrust) old coral skeleton, which isn't really the same, because as i understand it SPS builds a skeleton as it grows.

 

[evolved]

It will build it's own skeleton faster than it can encrust over an exisiting one.

 

[jokerman826]

i did not think birdsnest encrusted. i thought it built its skeleton as it grew.

 

[jservedio]

It will interact with the dead skeleton the same exact way as it would interact with rock. I would remove the dead skeleton just to increase water movement and remove a surface for algae to grow on. Since skeletons are so incredibly porous, algae tends to grow very quickly on them.

I have had acros recede on me and instead of fragging them, I just let them grow and they grow right back over the old skeleton - but they don't grow back over it the same way it used to be. They literally encrust an entirely new layer of skeleton on top and sometimes form bumps, ridges, etc on top of the old skeleton. Sometimes they leave "pockets" between the old skeleton and new skeleton. It can look worse than if you had just removed the old skeleton.

 

[jokerman826]

It will interact with the dead skeleton the same exact way as it would interact with rock. I would remove the dead skeleton just to increase water movement and remove a surface for algae to grow on. Since skeletons are so incredibly porous, algae tends to grow very quickly on them.

I have had acros recede on me and instead of fragging them, I just let them grow and they grow right back over the old skeleton - but they don't grow back over it the same way it used to be. They literally encrust an entirely new layer of skeleton on top and sometimes form bumps, ridges, etc on top of the old skeleton. Sometimes they leave "pockets" between the old skeleton and new skeleton. It can look worse than if you had just removed the old skeleton.

i did not know that it would encrust over, good info to know.

 

[DSP]

It would encrust a little but not cover the entire dead branch, Birdnest don't encrust as much as acros do,

 

[jservedio]

i did not know that it would encrust over, good info to know.

It isn't going to encrust like you think it will. Like I said, it'll interact with the dead skeleton just like it would interact with a rock.