What's happening to this colony?

[Marc Weaver]

I have a maricultured deepwater colony I bought back in April. This was part of a group buy from Indonesia which came right to us. Recently it is been expelling zooxanthellae (I think.) I'm not sure whether it is changing from green to its original color or whether there is something wrong. I have seen white stringy things all over it for the last few days, especially when the lights first come on. Any ideas?? Tank parameters have not changed. I use glass under my halides to keep heat down and it's pretty grungy. That's the only thing I can think of that changed. Other corals near this look fine and are growing.

 

Some pics:

 

This is how the colony looked when I received it (beautiful I think!!)

 

This is it after it turned green. Picture was from Sept 16th

 

 

Here is a picture from a few days ago. It is turning a pale purplish-brown.

[Ryan S]

wow. never seen an sps change colors like that. so dramatic. following along to see what the sps experts have to say!

[Marc Weaver]

It's common for maricultured colonies to turn brown or green from what I have read. Some never change back to resemble their natural colors.

[epleeds]

Have no idea but I like the growth pattern. How long did u have it before it turned green?

[Marc Weaver]

After the first month, the colors started deepening to brownish. At the 4 month mark, the colony turned green over the course of a few weeks and growth finally started to happen, albeit SLOW growth. I have not seen any growth over the past month since this started happening. I take growth shots of everything every month to track progress.

[surf&turf]

I think it still looks good. I have a acro. Yongi that throws out long strings when I fed Jans food. I always thought it was a feeding response.

[Der ABT]

Very nice looking coral, color changes often happen with the mari and straight wild colonies

Ive had a few that did nothing, almost died for over a year...then suddenly turned into something very nice. I have one now that i gave up on and after two years the frag that survived is turning into one of my favorites

 

if the growth has stopped or you just think it has, Frag off a couple of branches towards the outside. fragging encourages new growth and it will also let you see how the frags do (if any different)....you can dip one and see if any unwated fall off etc....

 

when i fragged the above mentioned coral (technically dropped it on the ground) that was when the new growth took off and new color came into play.

 

Very cool growth pattern though, id be happy to take a frag and see how it does in a different tank

[Jan]

Looks like it was stressed from shipping in the first photo. Looks like it finally settled in and is showing its true colors. It's very pretty.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Jan's Reef Foods