Can anyone describe what's we're seeing here?

[Walt71100]

Attached below are two pictures of the same soft coral.

One picture was taken with the lights on, and the other was taken the next morning before the tank lights turn on.

I think I have a basic understanding of it, but I'd be interested to hear a more in-depth description if possible.

Thanks in advance!
Walt

 

[Milkmanskid]

I'm not an expert but all my corals including my anemone do this. As soon as the blues are on, its night night time for everything in the tank. I just purchased a Kenya tree like yours but smaller and I thought something was wrong until I noticed it was acting like the others do. Certainly nothing to worry about for sure.

 

[Mike_J]

Lights off = asleep. Lights on = wake up! Perfectly natural for softies especially to shrink down and shrivel up with low or no lights.

 

[cameronh]

Perfectly normal! All corals sleep. Sometimes they will even close up with the lights on, usually if something touched them or they are angry.

 

[Tahoe61]

Corals deflate and inflate, water exchange, removal of waste and gas exchange, uptake of nutrients all routine and natural.

 

[Walt71100]

Yes, a couple of my soft corals do this.

At first glance it seems like it's the same type of effect you'd see with a garden variety flower, closing up at night and then opening again in the morning once the sun is out. Presumably it was resting from a higher energy photosynthesis process that took place during the day. But as was pointed out above, it also shrivels up when it collects a high level of nutrients from the water, like right after feeding the tank, or for protection, like when a cleaner shrimp who can't keep his legs off anything in the tank, crawls across it.

This mundane colored coral is one of my favorite in the tank!