Hollywood stunner dead or alive? Tips on care?

[Jorshae]

Hi everyone,

I received some coral and the guy gave me a piece of Hollywood stunner that had broken off when he moved stuff in his tank. This is my first time withthis type of coral but he looks bad. I had him at the bottom and slowly moved him up but is it dead? I can’t tell. Any advice??

 

[Jorshae]

Btw my water is testing good and evethung else is happy and healthy!

 

[Caseyoidae]

Alive, when they die all you will see is the white skeleton. I’d leave it toward the bottom. Low light

 

[sde1500]

Looks alive to me. Don't move it up too high, it isn't one that likes high light in my experience with it. What makes you think it isn't doing well.

 

[Jorshae]

Looks alive to me. Don't move it up too high, it isn't one that likes high light in my experience with it. What makes you think it isn't doing well.

It just seems really brittle and I haven’t noticed any growth (but I haven’t had him every long either) and it’s turning brown??

 

[Daddy-o]

Stunner is a brittle coral and will grow like a weed. We got rid of ours 'cause it was killing its neighbors.

 

[35ppt]

It's still alive unless it's white skeleton. Micro frags of stunner don't tend to do well IME and when they start to turn brown they're not likely to come back. It's normal for stunner to be super brittle. I see pieces this size in my sand from time to time, they live for a while but end up as shoring for my pistol shrimp's tunnels. I would just leave it be and if it comes back it comes back. But like Daddy-o said, stunner grows like a weed and is highly aggressive. It's a great beginner coral but like a lot of beginner corals they can be a nuisance later on.

 

[living_tribunal]

Hi everyone,

I received some coral and the guy gave me a piece of Hollywood stunner that had broken off when he moved stuff in his tank. This is my first time withthis type of coral but he looks bad. I had him at the bottom and slowly moved him up but is it dead? I can’t tell. Any advice??

For sure alive. Let him recover. I’ve recovered chalices exponentially worse than this. It takes a lot to completely kill a chalice.

Not sure why you think something is wrong with him but this is exactly how a new chalice frag looks.

 

[Saltyreef]

Nothing special to keeping hollywood stunner just make sure your alk stays above 7 or the flesh will start sluffing off.

Heres mine bottom left. Size of a dinner plate. Been growing great for years while other stuff ive lost. Super hardy

 

[JCOLE]

Like others have said. Move it down and let it sit for a little while to recover. Parameter stability is key. Once happy it will take off and is highly aggressive. I recommend putting in on the sand or it's own rock on the sand.

This was mine before I broke it off the rock. The middle bump was the frag size and this was about 6 months of growth. Had long sweeper tentacles that tried to sting nearby corals. It now lives in my frag tank.

 

[Rilo]

Glue the frag down somewhere and feed it reef roids to promote growth.

Should take off. Others are right on growth. It grows like a weed.

My smaller frags of that size took longer to grow then my larger frags.

 

[35ppt]

For sure alive. Let him recover. I’ve recovered chalices exponentially worse than this. It takes a lot to completely kill a chalice.

Not sure why you think something is wrong with him but this is exactly how a new chalice frag looks.

I would assume because it's brown when it's suppose to be green. I disagree that this is exactly how new chalice frags look. I've never had a piece of stunner brown out unless it was tiny and lacking a fully formed mouth like the OP's and they always die IME. In fact, when it comes to any type of echinopora I've never had a healthy frag do anything but grow like crazy. Echinophillia on the other had can be much slower and finicky IME. Look at the photo, it's only got three little tiny mouths. Probably not even fully formed. I think you have to at least get one fully formed mouth when fragging these. However I have had them grow on my frag racks and I scrape off all I can just to find little polyps of stunner growing a week later.

 

[living_tribunal]

I would assume because it's brown when it's suppose to be green. I disagree that this is exactly how new chalice frags look. I've never had a piece of stunner brown out unless it was tiny and lacking a fully formed mouth like the OP's and they always die IME. In fact, when it comes to any type of echinopora I've never had a healthy frag do anything but grow like crazy. Echinophillia on the other had can be much slower and finicky IME. Look at the photo, it's only got three little tiny mouths. Probably not even fully formed. I think you have to at least get one fully formed mouth when fragging these. However I have had them grow on my frag racks and I scrape off all I can just to find little polyps of stunner growing a week later.

It looks more pink than brown to me. People name corals common names even when they are different. Op, do you have a pic of when you originally got it? Regardless, browning out for a week or so after being fragged isn’t necessarily a bad thing, pretty typical.

New corals in my system change colors sometimes. Regardless, that’s definitely a healthy chalice.

 

[living_tribunal]

I would assume because it's brown when it's suppose to be green. I disagree that this is exactly how new chalice frags look. I've never had a piece of stunner brown out unless it was tiny and lacking a fully formed mouth like the OP's and they always die IME. In fact, when it comes to any type of echinopora I've never had a healthy frag do anything but grow like crazy. Echinophillia on the other had can be much slower and finicky IME. Look at the photo, it's only got three little tiny mouths. Probably not even fully formed. I think you have to at least get one fully formed mouth when fragging these. However I have had them grow on my frag racks and I scrape off all I can just to find little polyps of stunner growing a week later.

I’ve received frags and have fragged chalices that barely had one mouth that recovered just fine. Most of the nice chalices I purchase these days come with a single eye and are the size of a dime.

 

[Saltyreef]

A one eye hollywood stunner would be like the size of an eraser head lol.
Even my 1 " frags typically come with 20-30 eyes.
But, i concur, ivr had a small piece of one eye stunner that grew over a vermatid snail tube, break off( looked like an acro branch) and glued it to a plug where it slowly encrusted/plated. Now it looks like a witches hat.

I also have had one eye frags of watermelon, pink *******, miami hurricane that grew excellent from one eye. They were just a bit bigger specimens.

 

[35ppt]

It looks more pink than brown to me. People name corals common names even when they are different. Op, do you have a pic of when you originally got it? Regardless, browning out for a week or so after being fragged isn’t necessarily a bad thing, pretty typical.

New corals in my system change colors sometimes. Regardless, that’s definitely a healthy chalice.

Well of course corals sometime change colors but when they turn brown that's an issue imo. Looks like a browned out stunner under blues to me. I've been fragging stunner for years and only ever see them brown if it was an accidental frag that was too small. Brown =/= healthy imo.

I’ve received frags and have fragged chalices that barely had one mouth that recovered just fine. Most of the nice chalices I purchase these days come with a single eye and are the size of a dime.

A one eye hollywood stunner would be like the size of an eraser head lol.
Even my 1 " frags typically come with 20-30 eyes.
But, i concur, ivr had a small piece of one eye stunner that grew over a vermatid snail tube, break off( looked like an acro branch) and glued it to a plug where it slowly encrusted/plated. Now it looks like a witches hat.

I also have had one eye frags of watermelon, pink *******, miami hurricane that grew excellent from one eye. They were just a bit bigger specimens.

Fully formed mouths no doubt. I don't think the mouths we see in the photo are fully formed. Look at the snail in the photo, that frag is like 1/2" or less and IME when (specifically) hollywood stunner breaks off that small I never see them live. When I first started out I would try to save them but now when I see pieces that small in my sand I don't even bother anymore. "Chalices" are a hobbiest grouping of several types of coral. My comments are specifically aimed at echinoporas like stunner. I'm well aware other corals can be fragged plenty small. I've just never seen a stunner frag that small live.

 

[Saltyreef]

I agree the frag is small and likely a piece of rim.
But if water params are in range and stable, and lighting isnt an issue....this should pull thru no problem.

When i first started reefing i couldnt keep a 1" piece of stunner alive to save my life but water parameters and instability had everything to do with it.

 

[35ppt]

I agree the frag is small and likely a piece of rim.
But if water params are in range and stable, and lighting isnt an issue....this should pull thru no problem.

When i first started reefing i couldnt keep a 1" piece of stunner alive to save my life but water parameters and instability had everything to do with it.

Yeah, normally I would agree but I've seen this with stunner over and over again. I'm surprised no one else has had the same experience.

 

[Saltyreef]

Yeah, normally I would agree but I've seen this with stunner over and over again. I'm surprised no one else has had the same experience.

Fwiw, i have tiny pieces break off every now and then, floating around for months. Still fully intact with eyes and flesh lol.

I think this is a completely salvageable piece. But not in an unstable tank.

 

[Saltyreef]

And heres my witches hat lol.
The piece i ended up gluing was a super tiny branch with only one or two barely noticable mouths. It took about a month before it started encrusting.
Its on a 3/4" frag plug for reference.

Like i said...with ideal parameters that piece should have no issues recovering.