purchasing "hospital coral"

[DarthPookie]

What do you guys think about buying "sick coral"? I know of an awesome LFS that deals in all sorts of coral, and they have a hospital section that contains injured or sick coral. They write on the glass "not for sale - unless you insist". Does anyone think it is worth buying coral in this manner? Maybe to get something special at a reduced price, just to bring home and nurse back to health and eventually add to your main tank? Has anybody done this with success? Under what conditions would you avoid buying, no matter what type of coral it is?

[archer772]

It might help to know if and what coral you are thinking about because some corals might be easier than others to bring back and what seems to be wrong with the coral.

[DarthPookie]

It might help to know if and what coral you are thinking about because some corals might be easier than others to bring back and what seems to be wrong with the coral.

I don't even have any saltwater, so it is just a general question. I am just trying to learn as much as possible about saltwater and this was something that piqued my curiosity. Under what conditions might someone decide it is a good idea to buy unhealthy coral?

[Grins]

Depends what they are sick from.

[Reefscape]

I agree with the above..It is al dependant on what the coral is, what it is suffering with and how far gone it is from the illness...

Niko

[SHK_ATK]

I have bought 2 corals @ 10 bucks a pop one is a candy cane and the other is a plate the candy cane has 2 nice heads on it (originally it had 7) the plate is def looking a heck of a lot better. Not to sure what was wrong w/ them It might of been due to inproper lighting.

[Pufferpunk]

I would definately QT it for a loooooong time!

[Grins]

Let me give a pictorial answer.
This is Kip Peeler's 225 Reef when it was named Reefkeeping's ToTM:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/totm/index.php

AND this is a recent shot of some of his acros.
http://kipsreef.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5770&postcount=86
for those that don't have access that post, it is photo he sadly calls the graveyard since it is a large bucket holding the skeleton remains of his acros.

Kip is in my local club. Very knowledgable, and his troubles with the acros this year are well known on various sites. The point of sharing this isn't to say that you can't rescue a sick coral because he has done so successfully as well as many many others. But rather the point is to say there are some things that are just unknown when it comes to coral illness, the case with his acros is one of those unknowns. Gorgeous healthy corals and then all of a sudden things change. Sometimes you can know a coral has monti eating nudibranches, or red bugs, or RTN, but sometimes you don't know what is wrong with it..you just know something is wrong with it. And if something is wrong with it you're better off qt'ing it as PP said. Otherwise you could be dealing with something that wipes out your healthy corals too.

[Pufferpunk]

I've heard of folks QTing seemingly healthy corals for months, before adding it to their main system.