Is this frag dead?

[mharmon]

So I have these four frags that I picked up from the TMAC fragging demo. I carefully acclimated the frags and put three in my display tank and one in my nano the night after TMAC.

It's been a little while and I can't see any change in any of the frags.

Are the frags dead or am I being impatient? What should I look for? Am I polluting my tank?

Here's a picture:

http://mlharmon.googlepages.com/PlateFrag.jpg

[mama]

I have the same piece of plate coral from my auction winningat TMAC...I thought too that this was going nowhere, but TODAY I finally see it starting to color up and turn more of a purple in color. You can tell if it is dying by flipping it over and looking at the color...it should be white and then of course the SMELL!! I am the one who lost the heliofungia and the bottom has gone from white to brown and the flesh is falling off daily :-(...but I read that you should just leave it, not discard the piece, and it may return one day. I monitor my water parameters to check for ammonia spikes and so far, it can stay!!

[seatrueblue]

I didn't know you could frag plate corals. How is it going to grow if it doesn't have a mouth to eat anything?

[dpotts]

It looks like it's supposed too I think. I won the big bag of that stuff (have since shared most of it) and mine looks like that. During the day I can see tissue inflating and it's starting to grow up over the skeleton. They said at TMAC that these corals are very slow growing and would take up to 6 months to grow back. I say leave it and just wait!

[ReefCube]

the frag looks like its almost dead

[Ping]

I cant tell from the pic, but I have had corals come back from what appeared to be only one polyp. The polution has already happened. I would wait and see what happens.

[Pennies2Cents]

Or if u want put it under your actinic light to see if there is any color floresing ( sp) this might help in determining if it's alive.

[OrionN]

That coral is alive and will grow slowly. I would remove the Caulerpa from this coral as the runner can dig into and damage the coral.

[mharmon]

Thanks for all your advice. I do appreciate it!

The frag is under 260 watts of actinic (& 500 watts M/H) and removing the Caulerpa is the next thing I'll do. The other three frags have no Caulerpa anywhere near.

I will continue to be patient...


Thanks again,

Mark

[brewercm]

I would think if it were dead you'd have nothing but a white skeleton.