Noob question

[Mrsoftball24]

I am super new to aquariums so please forgive my ignorance. My tank has cycled so I ordered a couple of beginner corals online. After acclimating them I went to glue a plug to a piece of live rock and the fleshy part of the coral blew off in the current. Does that mean it's probably dead now? Here is a pic of what's left. One pic shows the plug and the other what blew off.. Thank you in advance.

 

[New&no clue]

What kind of coral was it?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Although I can’t really ID the coral from the photo, I would say ‘no, not dead—just lost it’s hold.’ But if it was on a plug, it probably won’t be happy just being blown around the tank, so ty to get it stabilized again.

 

[Mrsoftball24]

Haha...well it's either a glove polyp or a blue cespitularia...those are the two that came today and neither were easily identifiable compared to their pics on the site.

 

[Mrsoftball24]

Sorry...the cylinder thing on the plug looks to be the hard body of the coral and the fleshy part blew off and is laying in the sand. Looks dead. Maybe it wasn't actually part of the coral and something they added to it when shipped?

 

[Mikedawg]

Yes, reglue or place somewhere on rockwork where it will not fall off. Will probably recover if healthy to begin with.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Right? Looked gigantic on the website; arrived needing a magnifying glass! Lol.

Personally in that case I would glue it/them back onto a plug, and grow them out a bit before attaching them to a rock. The reason is, you might need to keep them in a place of lower flow and lower light at first and then gently move them around until they really get happy. Then somewhere down the road you can glue them onto your rock in their final position.

 

[Mrsoftball24]

Maybe this pic will be better. The piece that blew off was in the spot that blue/Grey color is

 

[FishyFishFish]

I'm new to this too but it is my understanding that, to save gluing the coral directly, it is not uncommon to allow it to grow onto a bit of rubble, then frag it and glue the rubble that it is on to the frag plug.

I could be wrong but, to me, that looks like a bit of rubble and not a bit of the coral.

 

[Mrsoftball24]

That could be. The piece that blew off was super tiny. It blew into a little hole in some live rock. Maybe it will attach there and grow, it not already dead?

 

[Jekyl]

Welcome

 

[Mrsoftball24]

Kind of disappointing to have that happen right off the bat. I live in an area where there is only 1 local fish shop and it's 30+ miles away with not much selection in coral. Thought I would try online since I got a gift cert for Xmas.

 

[Mrsoftball24]

Thank you all! I appreciate your time!

 

[Mrsoftball24]

So this is what it was supposed to be. blue cespitularia - they gave me a refund. They said it was not unheard-of for them to dissolve in shipping. Thanks everyone for trying to help!