color loss

[Soulja221]

Hey gang, plenty of experience in here so i'll just put this out there to see what you guys think

I've got a frogspawn culture that had great color up until a few weeks ago, i had to go out of town for work and when i returned home i realised that my timers werent setup properly for my lights and that my lights were on the entire time, my water temp was in the high 80's. Needless to say, my frogspawn had pulled itself into itself and was very slim. After a water change and some decreased lighting it decided to blossom again, this time without the color. Now my radiant baby is bright white, thriving again, but bright white. Any ideas?

I'll post pics in the mornign when the lights come back on... :?:

[Geoffrey3029]

Sell it as a new morf... er well.. not sure what you should do.. Im thinking the zooplankton or whatever causes the color either will return or it wont.. Time will tell. just try to keep the paramiters in line and see where it comes out.

[FishinInTheDark]

It bleached. There is a small chance that you can save it, but it is unable to sustain itself as it sits (without zooanthellae), so you will have to be diligent. You should move it to a shady spot. It's basically an albino coral now, so won't tolerate light well. You will need to hand feed it bits of meat. Use small bits of krill or chopped seafood soaked in marine vitamins, and try to get some in each mouth. Do this at least every other day, and you might see color start to reappear.

GL,

[Geoffrey3029]

Ah that was the word I was looking for... Zooanthellae... Forgive me but I am working midnights this week. :)

[MikeS]

put some fiberglass window screen above the tank, 3 layers or so...keep the lights on the normal cycle, remove one layer of screen every week or so. This should help any remaining zoanthelle to multiply. Also, feed the coral directly during this time...use cyclopeeze or something like that...

Mike

Agree with all. I have had this happen to a number of SPS corals and I was alble to save all of them and color them back up. Some snapped back better than others, hope this will work for you too. As FITD said, with no Z algae its a very delicate coral and could easily be lost...

Good luck with it!