An amazing encounter

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Part of my dead swollen brain is actually coming back from the dead! Was doing a casual survey of my corals this morning by turning on the actinics and noticed something I didn't notice before. A harder look uncovered 2 miniscule daughter satellites on the right side emerging from the dead portion of the coral (accidentally destroyed by the stinging tentacles of my Elegance Coral about 5 months back). This is just like the article I've read in FAMA about corals coming back to life.

I've not noticed it all this while as I see the tank mostly with the lights on and with the coral expanded. Also, the angle of the coral was such that the ugly dead part was tucked slightly facing the back to avoid being seen by guests and to some extent...by myself.

The amazing thing is that these 2 daughter satellites are actually isolated from the parent colony and are coming out independently from the skeleton when normal reproduction among these kind of corals is asexual in nature. Amazing! So this phenomenon does happen after all!

Here is the pic I took this morning showing the daughters. The other pic (taken last month) show how it looks when expanded. Can't really see the daughters from that pic though.

[Stenopus Hispidus]

This is how my swollen brain coral looks when expanded. Pic taken last month. Can't see the daughters here. That's why I didn't suspect anything.

[Phang]

Hi Stenopus,

The image above looks more like a Blassatoma......

The Second Pic has one in the background too but of a different sub species I think..."mer -something.."...

BTW, You sure have really nice looking corals....

[Achilles Tang]

Yeah... that is not a brain species...

Blassos will grow well when conditions are good. I love them!

[Tanzy]

Ya, looks like Blastomussa, not Favia or Favites.

There's always hope.