Dead corals that live: yes, Virginia, they can resurrect.

[Sk8r]

Not every coral that dies can come back to life, but they're tougher than you'd think.
I've had both stony and soft coral survive a) water that traveled 20 miles in the back of a pickup truck in a January night in a snowstorm. It was ice cold when it went in. So was the rock they were attached to, which traveled in a cardboard box in the back of the pickup, wrapped in newspaper. While 62 degrees is the start of lethality for marine tanks---cold is better than high heat, because biology of death and decay slows way down in cold. Mind, this transport was not my idea. I was pretty appalled.
I was amazed that live things kept popping out of the rock, inverts, sponges, coral...and it lived.
It lived through 4 weeks of waiting for the cycle and b) it survived the cycle with definite ammonia. Fish might not have lived through that, but the coral did.

So don't totally buy it that coral is terribly fragile.

Second: scrape mushrooms off a rock and you probably have increased their numbers. They often will come back from tiny fragments left on the rock: this works with some other softies too. THis of course won't work if you paid a lot for the shroom.

Third: branching coral like hammer, when stressed or dead, can often develop little 'headlets' on the stony stems that can become more coral if you don't bother them or mess with the mama stem. LPS coral tissue retreats inside the skeleton as it dies back, but it may not all die, and may break out again.

Fourth: massive corals like brain can be totally dead and algaed over and decide to live. I had a maze brain piece I was using as structural rock---and found it re-blooming from tissue hidden deep inside the skeleton.

Fifth: things like plate coral can produce a number of plate-lings from inside the skeleton of an apparently dead piece.

Sixth: 'popped heads' of lps branching corals like frogspawn cannot be put back into their skeletons, but they can grow new skeleton on their undersides. To encourage this, first net them, put them in a shallow transparent (to let it get light) saucer on the sandbed, which will protect it from blowing off under the rockwork and dying in the dark. It needs plenty of light and immaculate water conditions. Consult the Dirt-Simple Chemistry section of SETTING UP in the stickies above to find out how to establish and hold those conditions.

Seventh: broken bits of sps coral (the colored sticks) are all capable of becoming other corals. Some seem to proliferate by being fragile: the pieces fall down and start growing...montipora, which can break at the touch of a hand, is particularly good at this. Maintain bits of coral rubble and when you break one---nab it, glue it to a piece of rubble, and expect it to grow. The mushroom rule applies: the ones you pay most for won't do this.

I cannot stress enough: do not give up on a stressed coral, keep perfecting your water conditions, and do not move corals about as if they were decorations---find out where they're happiest and glue, wedge, or putty them into security, then let them alone. And don't give up on them easily.

[FraggledRock]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Not every coral that dies can come back to life, but they're tougher than you'd think.
I've had both stony and soft coral survive a) water that traveled 20 miles in the back of a pickup truck in a January night in a snowstorm. It was ice cold when it went in. So was the rock they were attached to, which traveled in a cardboard box in the back of the pickup, wrapped in newspaper. While 62 degrees is the start of lethality for marine tanks---cold is better than high heat, because biology of death and decay slows way down in cold. Mind, this transport was not my idea. I was pretty appalled.
I was amazed that live things kept popping out of the rock, inverts, sponges, coral...and it lived.
It lived through 4 weeks of waiting for the cycle and b) it survived the cycle with definite ammonia. Fish might not have lived through that, but the coral did.

So don't totally buy it that coral is terribly fragile.

Second: scrape mushrooms off a rock and you probably have increased their numbers. They often will come back from tiny fragments left on the rock: this works with some other softies too. THis of course won't work if you paid a lot for the shroom.

Third: branching coral like hammer, when stressed or dead, can often develop little 'headlets' on the stony stems that can become more coral if you don't bother them or mess with the mama stem. LPS coral tissue retreats inside the skeleton as it dies back, but it may not all die, and may break out again.

Fourth: massive corals like brain can be totally dead and algaed over and decide to live. I had a maze brain piece I was using as structural rock---and found it re-blooming from tissue hidden deep inside the skeleton.

Fifth: things like plate coral can produce a number of plate-lings from inside the skeleton of an apparently dead piece.

Sixth: 'popped heads' of lps branching corals like frogspawn cannot be put back into their skeletons, but they can grow new skeleton on their undersides. To encourage this, first net them, put them in a shallow transparent (to let it get light) saucer on the sandbed, which will protect it from blowing off under the rockwork and dying in the dark. It needs plenty of light and immaculate water conditions. Consult the Dirt-Simple Chemistry section of SETTING UP in the stickies above to find out how to establish and hold those conditions.

Seventh: broken bits of sps coral (the colored sticks) are all capable of becoming other corals. Some seem to proliferate by being fragile: the pieces fall down and start growing...montipora, which can break at the touch of a hand, is particularly good at this. Maintain bits of coral rubble and when you break one---nab it, glue it to a piece of rubble, and expect it to grow. The mushroom rule applies: the ones you pay most for won't do this.

I cannot stress enough: do not give up on a stressed coral, keep perfecting your water conditions, and do not move corals about as if they were decorations---find out where they're happiest and glue, wedge, or putty them into security, then let them alone. And don't give up on them easily.

this happened to me.

the main 3 heads had brown jelly and died, but i had hopes the little headlets may survive, so i broke/cut off the top half of the stalk and left the bottom piece with 2 headlets remain on the frag.

i now have 2 little guys growing and i am starting to see little pink polyps going in and out =D

[Been Mired]

#truth

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Not every coral that dies can come back to life, but they're tougher than you'd think.

Scrape mushrooms off a rock and you probably have increased their numbers. They often will come back from tiny fragments left on the rock: this works with some other softies too. This of course won't work if you paid a lot for the shroom.

Maintain bits of coral rubble and when you break one---nab it, glue it to a piece of rubble, and expect it to grow. The mushroom rule applies: the ones you pay most for won't do this.

[chefbill]

My photo contribution:

[Sk8r]

Yep, chefbill, that is classic plate coral regeneration.

[amber3k]

What about bubble coral? I had a head bailout and it is now resting on some live rock. Will it grow a new skeleton? Its still very much alive.