how to revive a brain coral

[B.rian]

i picked up a brain coral that was in pretty bad shape yesterday. they had it for $5 so i figured that i would give it a shot. i came home and placed it in the sand bed so that it wasn't getting blasted by a pump. i woke up this morning and found a couple of crabs on top of it, they seemed to be picking at it. so now i am trying to figure out what i should do for it. does anyone have a suggestion? i know that a few different people have had luck reviving brains before, so your knowledge would be appreciated. i have thought about removing it to a 10g QT tank, but i didn't know how good of an idea that would be. the lighting on the QT would just be Flo lighting. thanks for any help.

 

[B.rian]

bump

 

[Greg Hiller]

I've had hermit crabs clean diseased tissue off corals and stop at the healthy tissue. As far as what to do with the coral it might help to see it. Getting it into a healthy system under moderate light with a moderate current will likely help of course. I have on rare occasion (once only) treated an LPS with a 48 hour neomycin bath. It worked, but it will really depend upon what the problem is with your coral.

 

[B.rian]

this coral is in bad shape. i am unable to take a picture as of right now, but i will try to get one posted. basically you can see the hard skeleton as the rim of the coral and the flesh part is on the inside of the rim. the flesh part still has red and green coloration. i see feeder tentacles though. so i am going to try and feed it directly to the mouth. i am not sure it has enough flesh to bring food towards its mouth if it wanted to. how do you know when a coral is done for? when it is actually dead?