acan question

lars · Feb 24, 2014

About a week ago I was given a couple of acans from a friend that took his tank down. At the time it was over run by bubble algea. The worst I've ever seen. So bad it covered the entire visible reef. Because of this the polyps on the acans stretched out really far. Now that there cleaned up in my tank the polyps on one are flapping in the flow. One of the polyps is hanging on by a tread. I've moved it to super low flow but it doesn't seem to matter . I guess the question is should I consider it gone? The polyp looks great and will even eat but I can't see how it can reattach. I've also never heard of a loose acan polyp regrowing a skeleton after its been disconnected. This thing is fire red and hot pink and I'd hate to loose it but I can't see how it could recover. I just thought I would see what you guys think. Thanks for reading.

Mike J. · Feb 24, 2014

Polyp bail out with Acans is normally due to too much flow or too little light. The polyp being real large also indicates not enough light. I'd try giving it more light. And, you're correct, once the polyp leaves the skeleton it has no chance.

A picture in this case would speak a thousand words.

lars · Feb 24, 2014

Yea I figure it's a goner. It probably wasn't getting enough light in his system. The other acan I got from him was extended but it looks ok now. The polyps have laid back down on it and they look solid. Here's a pic from my phone and even though its a bad pic you can see the polyps are loose. Thanks for the reply.