Did I kill it?

[Arsenix2001]

So as a frag pack I received a purple plume gorgonian. Not exactly my forte. No experience with them. It was about 6" tall and the purple body encrusted all the way over the plug below the "trunk" if you will. It had aptasia on it and after a dip, not realizing the coral itself was crusted onto the plug ( quickly thought it was coraline due to the purple color). I cut out a 1/4" chunk of where the aptasia was. Now I realize i just literally cut the coral itself. There is still plenty of meat anchoring it to the plug and it seemed very happy and fully extended today a day later. Will it be ok? Worst part is now theres another darn aptasia that popped up.. i will hit that with a hypo needle and lemon juice

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

It should be fine.

If you want to cut it off the plug you can and just remount the base by glueing it to a rock.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

P.s. In my experience air exposure is more of an enemy to them. I try to not even let mine touch air moving to my tank and dip the bag under and pull out the coral then remove the bag and toss it. And no, that means I can't dip it. But again, air exposure.

 

[sfin52]

@najer good morning sire. Can you add any insight to this

 

[najer]

It should be fine, don't glue over any flesh.

 

[Arsenix2001]

Thanks for the replies. Its pretty encrusted on the frag so I will let it be. Seems very happy atm. Ill try and juice the remaining aptasia. This coral stuff is enough to drive one to drink lol

 

[reef lover]

Hello your gorg should recover fine. As said dont glue it and dont bury the base .
Make sure they have good back and forth flow to keep detritus off it.
And as a propogator of several species of photosynthetic gorgs i take them out of the water all the time...in fact to frag them you need to remove the flesh from the inner rod and i do all that as well.as epoxying them to new rocks and letting it set up...all out of water. Been doing so for several years.
So feel free to dip them and keep that nasty store water out of your tank.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Hello your gorg should recover fine. As said dont glue it and dont bury the base .
Make sure they have good back and forth flow to keep detritus off it.
And as a propogator of several species of photosynthetic gorgs i take them out of the water all the time...in fact to frag them you need to remove the flesh from the inner rod and i do all that as well.as epoxying them to new rocks and letting it set up...all out of water. Been doing so for several years.
So feel free to dip them and keep that nasty store water out of your tank.

That's good to hear. I've had so many people tell me not to expose them to air. At least now I won't worry so much.