Nocturnal leather

[Tango2]

I have a leather in my tank that is not opening at all during the day, but early in the morning I notice a few of the polyps open when the lights are still off. It is on a coral plug in the sand bed, and not directly under my kessil 360, which is running up to about 40% max intensity during the day.

This has been going on for probably 2 months now, and I can't figure out what gives. No other corals within 6" of it, so no warfare going on, and although it has shrunk up considerably smaller than when it was originally extended, it looks healthy otherwise. A few SPS and LPS in the tank, and all are growing and doing well.

Only having polyp extension at night initially made me think the lights were too bright, but I've tried shading it and didn't see any change.

Any ideas?

 

[kimba]

I have 2 toadstools and one opens almost as soon as I put the lights on. The other was more like yours. Only a few little polyps open. I started spot feeding 3x a week. I did it as soon as the first one opened up. After the first week or so, they both open now. Good luck

 

[Tango2]

That's good to know. What are you spot feeding with?

 

[kimba]

I use Phytoplex. The directions say to place it in front of the flow, but I use a dropper and squirt it over their polyps (I unlpug the pump) I use maybe 1 mm and squirt it over the 2 toadstools and my GSP. I have noticed a difference since spot feeding. I started about a month ago. I give it maybe 5 min then plug the pump back in

 

[Tango2]

I've recently been feeding MarineSnow, but my leathers polyps aren't typically extended when I do. I'll have to give this a shot and look for improvements.