Clove polyps not happy?

[jmNoles]

Anyone reason for clove polyps to stay retracted for extended periods? I added a frag last Sunday and they opened for a few days, but have remained closed since around Wednesday. Currently in a low flow/medium light area of the tank. For comparison, all other corals (green hammer, GSP and superman rhodactis) are open and happy.

Cal: 460
Alk: 6.7 (I'm slowly raising by .5 every 24hrs)
Mag: 1270
Nitrate: 2
Phosphate: under .02
Light is a reefbreeders photon at around 35% power

 

[Jaden9933]

Anyone reason for clove polyps to stay retracted for extended periods? I added a frag last Sunday and they opened for a few days, but have remained closed since around Wednesday. Currently in a low flow/medium light area of the tank. For comparison, all other corals (green hammer, GSP and superman rhodactis) are open and happy.

Cal: 460
Alk: 6.7 (I'm slowly raising by .5 every 24hrs)
Mag: 1270
Nitrate: 2
Phosphate: under .02
Light is a reefbreeders photon at around 35% power

What is your salinity at? Also, how stable do you maintain it?

 

[jmNoles]

What is your salinity at? Also, how stable to you maintain it?

1.025 and it stays pretty stable

 

[Jaden9933]

Anyone reason for clove polyps to stay retracted for extended periods? I added a frag last Sunday and they opened for a few days, but have remained closed since around Wednesday. Currently in a low flow/medium light area of the tank. For comparison, all other corals (green hammer, GSP and superman rhodactis) are open and happy.

Cal: 460
Alk: 6.7 (I'm slowly raising by .5 every 24hrs)
Mag: 1270
Nitrate: 2
Phosphate: under .02
Light is a reefbreeders photon at around 35% power

How long have you had it in its current spot of the tank? Is it possible it hasn’t had enough time to fully acclimate ti the lighting and flow?

 

[jmNoles]

How long have you had it in its current spot of the tank? Is it possible it hasn’t had enough time to fully acclimate ti the lighting and flow?

Not counting today, 5 days. I sat it on the sand bed in a corner to light acclimate for 3 days then moved it onto its own rock nearby, so it may just hate the new location.

 

[Jaden9933]

Not counting today, 5 days. I sat it on the sand bed in a corner to light acclimate for 3 days then moved it onto its own rock nearby, so it may just hate the new location.

It’s hard to judge lighting and flow when I can’t see the tank obviously. That being said, the corners of my tank have never had enough light to support my clove polyps. It’s possible that they may not have had enough light at first, and then the move to brighter light shocked them. Personally, I would leave them where they’re at and see if they adjust in another few days. I’ve had a single zoa polyp take three weeks to open before. If nothing changes or they seem to start doing worse, you could try moving them to a shaded section of lighting. Somewhere they will get enough PAR, without being blasted by light. A lot of softies seem to prefer this kind of lighting IME.

 

[Jaden9933]

That’s a hypothesis, but, in reality, there’s a million reasons why it may not be opening. Have there been any other visible changes to the coral itself aside from being closed? As in shrinking or browning polyps?

 

[jmNoles]

It’s hard to judge lighting and flow when I can’t see the tank obviously. That being said, the corners of my tank have never had enough light to support my clove polyps. It’s possible that they may not have had enough light at first, and then the move to brighter light shocked them. Personally, I would leave them where they’re at and see if they adjust in another few days. I’ve had a single zoa polyp take three weeks to open before. If nothing changes or they seem to start doing worse, you could try moving them to a shaded section of lighting. Somewhere they will get enough PAR, without being blasted by light. A lot of softies seem to prefer this kind of lighting IME.

Here's a photo of them right now with light 2/3 of the way ramped up

 

[Jaden9933]

Here's a photo of them right now with light 2/3 of the way ramped up

They don’t look too good. Definitely shriveled up. I would maybe try moving them to lower light. I can’t tell by the picture, but when my zoas start to shrivel and shrunk it’s typically because of too much light.

 

[Jaden9933]

This is what mine looks like. It’s a hitchhiker that I never got rid of. I have it in lower light than most other corals in my tank. I’ve had it even further to the right and it’s fine firm there too. I would assume too much light before assuming not enough. If it starts to stretch toward the light, then it needs to be in higher light.

 

[jmNoles]

They don’t look too good. Definitely shriveled up. I would maybe try moving them to lower light. I can’t tell by the picture, but when my zoas start to shrivel and shrunk it’s typically because of too much light.

Gotcha. I'm going to lower the light intensity some today and see how they respond, since there aren't many other places in the tank that would have lower light

 

[jmNoles]

A bit of an update: those 2 polyps ended up dying, but a BUNCH of new ones have since sprouted from their remains. So, the colony lives!