High Tide Aquatics

Favia Stripped Down To Skeleton

GDawson

GDawson

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I picked up a pink eyed favia at the swap. Last night the plug fell upside down into the rock work. The lights just came on and I fished it out with some long tweezers. Something during the night stripped the two polyps down to the skeleton. There doesn’t look there’s anything left of the favia to save.

1) Can the favia grow back?
2) What could have stripped it down that fast and completely?

-Gregory
 
It could have just RTNd. Do not throw away the skeleton. I've been impressed at how little tissue is required to regrow. Toss the skeleton in low flow, and moderate light. Jeep things gentle and check back in a month. By then, it will be obvious how much tissue is viable and re-growing.
 
What a great choice…RTN or peppermints.

Could be the peppermints as the frag dropped on what we call “The Gates of Hell”. It’s an arched area in the rockwork that when you look in there will be 6 or seven peppermints staring back at you, glowing red, and just swaying back and forth.

Either way hopefully there’s enough cells left for the frag to recover. It’s pretty stripped.

-Gregory
 
That's a lot of peps for one tank, I use one or two at the most, they find their way around and eat Aiptasia, otherwise they get hungry and bad things happen.
 
tuberider said:
That's a lot of peps for one tank, I use one or two at the most, they find their way around and eat Aiptasia, otherwise they get hungry and bad things happen.
Click to expand...

yup, I do 1 as well.
 
tuberider said:
That's a lot of peps for one tank, I use one or two at the most, they find their way around and eat Aiptasia, otherwise they get hungry and bad things happen.
Click to expand...

The idea behind all the peppermints was to clean up after my psycho anthias. The anthias are getting fed 5 to six times a day, yes they're nice and fat, so the peppermints were to clean the tank AND provide an addtional micro food source in the way of scattered eggs and larvae. Serpant and brittle stars were the other option, but I'd like to get some clams in the future (bad experience mixing those in the past...).

The peppermints shouldn't be very hungry. Oh well I guess when food fell from heaven into their abode....


-Gregory
 
Pretty sure they don't scatter eggs and the eggs hatch off the female. Serpent stars are not known for being an issue with clams and only a couple Brittle stars are. Just don't get a typical Red/green/orange/yellow brittle star and you'll be fine. A nice red deepwater serpent would be an excellent choice.
 
It's worth noting here that the camelback shrimp is often sold as a peppermint shrimp and by reputation is less reef safe than the peppermints. I think in your case you'd have had more problems but I thought I'd add it to the discussion since it seemed like useful info.
 
Pretty easy to tell the difference for those that don't know :)

Camel Shrimp: notice the camel hump, coloration and eye structure? Also note the claws on this puppy!
F6BEF2C4E750452CB7B701AA0F7D4FB4C.jpg


One of a few "peppermint shrimp"
Peppermint%20Shrimp.jpg
 
The camel back shrimp are a lot cooler looking! Yeah, these are peppermint. They came from ORA. (Unless Bookfish is sneaking some wild caught animals into his inventory).

Good to know about the camel back though. With that colouration they would have caught my eye.

-Gregory
 
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