New growth from bleached acros

[seasand23]

2 wks ago, something happened in my tank. Pump was on the fritz and flow was so low, a biofilm was pooling at the surface. I messed with it to take apart and inspect (eventually replaced). Put it back and next morning 1 acro was 100% bleached. Another was 30% bleached. My pygmy angel also passed. LFS believes pump may have been overheating and released toxins (e.g. melting plastic). Either way, things are stabilizing and the 30% bleached acro is pushing out new growth from the bleached stems. Is this even possible? Any chance the white stems can also recover? Never seen this before. This was the coral before/after the incident.

 

[blaxsun]

Lucky you - free acro!

 

[seasand23]

Hard to see with blue lights but you can see new growth off the bleached stems.

 

[Falcon30]

Yes its possible and yes the bleached part will regain colors....a lot of times people forget that bleached does not mean dead...they CAN die and will turn brown and can get algea growing on them but if they stay white, they are still alive! ive had several bone whites come back.

 

[sculpin01]

If it's skeleton, then no (with the exception of some LPS which can recover from no tissue). If it's white tissue, then yes the coral can reacquire zooxanthellae and recover.