Coral head removal tips.

[messiah023]

I have a torch coral and one of the 5 heads has died.
I thought it was just stressed, but it is sliming out now and I want to remove the head as the other 4 are fine.

I have never done this before and wanted to know if anyone has or has any tips?

Let me know any steps / tools you guys have used. If I figure it's too much for me to do, I will wait for the LFS to open and have them do it.

Any word on what a sliming dead coral does to the water quality? How long can I leave him in there like that?

Thanks for the heads up info!

 

[yote]

To frag off the dead head.Just take an old pair of wire cutters or nippers used for shodding horses and cut the dead part off.Or if the skeleton is weak enough,you may be able to just snap it off by hand.
I would try to get rid of the dead part.Any thing that dead and rottening is going to effect your water quality.

 

[reeffreak]

If the slime looks like brown jelly then you need to do this asap.Bone cutters,wire cutters is what I would use.The cut needs to be made where two heads split and it needs to be fully separate heads with an 1'' or more stalk.

Maybe a pic would help us more?

 

[Bifferwine]

A good pair of pliers will cut the head off fine too.

 

[new2marinetanks]

will that hurt the coral? I thought it was all one living thing?

 

[daugherty]

each head is one animal they live together in colonies

 

[Doc]

will that hurt the coral? I thought it was all one living thing?

as long as the cut is made just below the head of the coral, it will be fine.

-Doc

 

[messiah023]

Thanks for all the great tips. My torch head slimed out before I could cut it, so I suctioned it out of the head, now I have an empty head (that's what my wife has been telling me for years)!

I am checking the water quality with no apparent problems thus far. I may just keep the empty torch head there, it looks kinda cool.

I will let you know what happens and take some pics when I return from my vacation.

I am heading to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, then off to Chattanooga for a week. If I take some good pics, I will post them for everyone.

Again, thanks for all the tips. I have my cutting tools ready for next time I do some fragging.

 

[Doc]

ask to see if you can get a special tour of the filtration and take some pics. I want to see how many protein skimmers they used on a million gallon tank. they probably cheat and use ocean water.

-Doc

 

[yote]

While your in Chattanooga,stop be Bermuda Triangle and 5th Day Creations.
Dont forget Ruby Falls and Rock City either.

 

[RyanG]

Messiah you and Fishfan can race to get the back-stage tour!

 

[messiah023]

Thanks Yote, yeah, we have plans for the Falls & Rock City....I will look into the others. My wife's family lives there, so we should be in good hands. Doc, maybe they are running thousands of small Remora skimmers all in sequence or have some crazy 5 acre refugium underground.....I'll bring my sleuth kit and let you know!