JGT
5000 Club Member
So I’ve been doing reefing for a long time and have come to understand that corals, while finicky at times can also be quite resilient. But this recent example, stretched the bounds of that resiliency even for me.
Had a HG Micro I got from TCK for several months, doing well, budding new heads, etc. Not a cheap coral either. All good.
One night, either my fish, a shrimp or a crab, dislodged the frag and it fell into a crevice in my live rock. I could see it but no matter what I tried, I couldn’t reach it. I could also see it was laying face down. I wasn’t about to tear my whole tank apart to get it so I just chalked it up to losing a somewhat pricey coral. Over time, I would periodically check on it and could see that it still was face down but didn’t move at all to where I thought I might be able to get it. After a while, I kinda forgot about it until one night I was looking at night with my flashlight and I saw a frag plug near one of my pistol shrimp caves. My first reaction was “ oh which one is this now”. So I went in with my long forceps and retrieved it only to find out that it was the HG Micro I lost 4 MONTHS AGO!!
I figured there’s just going to be white skeleton and nothing more but when I retrieved it I was astonished to see that all the flesh in each of the corallites was intact. The flesh surrounding the corallites had died and overall it was very bleached but it was definitely still alive. I put it on a rock in an area with indirect lighting so as not to shock it and each day it’s been getting better and better. Pic is now 3 days after I found it. Pretty amazing.
Had a HG Micro I got from TCK for several months, doing well, budding new heads, etc. Not a cheap coral either. All good.
One night, either my fish, a shrimp or a crab, dislodged the frag and it fell into a crevice in my live rock. I could see it but no matter what I tried, I couldn’t reach it. I could also see it was laying face down. I wasn’t about to tear my whole tank apart to get it so I just chalked it up to losing a somewhat pricey coral. Over time, I would periodically check on it and could see that it still was face down but didn’t move at all to where I thought I might be able to get it. After a while, I kinda forgot about it until one night I was looking at night with my flashlight and I saw a frag plug near one of my pistol shrimp caves. My first reaction was “ oh which one is this now”. So I went in with my long forceps and retrieved it only to find out that it was the HG Micro I lost 4 MONTHS AGO!!
I figured there’s just going to be white skeleton and nothing more but when I retrieved it I was astonished to see that all the flesh in each of the corallites was intact. The flesh surrounding the corallites had died and overall it was very bleached but it was definitely still alive. I put it on a rock in an area with indirect lighting so as not to shock it and each day it’s been getting better and better. Pic is now 3 days after I found it. Pretty amazing.
