gsp not opening - reasons?

ReefGuy1234 · Mar 18, 2022

I just got a ton of green star polyps but they will not open... I got other corals too that are fine - just the gsp. Also take levels good, only concerning thing is phosphate at 0.2. Its only been in there for less than a day but everything else is doing fine and not one on it is open. Is that normal?

gavinz · Mar 18, 2022

ReefGuy1234 said:
I just got a ton of green star polyps but they will not open... I got other corals too that are fine - just the gsp. Also take levels good, only concerning thing is phosphate at 0.2. Its only been in there for less than a day but everything else is doing fine and not one on it is open. Is that normal?

Probably just getting acclimated to the tank still since it’s only been in less than a day. Give it some time. I’ve had mine for 3 months and it closed for like 3 days for no reason then opened back up. But since yours is new I’d guess it’s just acclimating still

rhostam · Mar 18, 2022

ReefGuy1234 said:
I just got a ton of green star polyps but they will not open... I got other corals too that are fine - just the gsp. Also take levels good, only concerning thing is phosphate at 0.2. Its only been in there for less than a day but everything else is doing fine and not one on it is open. Is that normal?

My personal experience with GSP is that they take a beat or two to acclimate. My GSP close for days and weeks when they get introduced, annoyed, moved, etc. As long as algae aren't growing on them and detritus isn't settling on them and their color looks healthy, they'll be fine. Let them acclimate and pop out on their own. If you see algae start to grow and the color looks good (i.e. taking a long time to open!) take a fine pipe brush and gently clean the algae off.

In my original tank, they took about two weeks to open when I got them. Then it took them months before they started to take off and grow. About the same when I moved them to my new tank.