Odd Alveopora behavior

bdejong1112o · Jan 18, 2018

I have a good sized Alveopora with 4 heads. I have had it about a month and its been pretty happy so far. However, recently it appears that each head is taking turns not opening for a day or two. The remaing heads are fully extended. The next day or so a different head will remain closed up.

When closed, the polys are just at the surface. Again, all the others are fine and when the head opens up its like nothing happened. Wide open and open for business.

Here is a picture from today showing three heads ipen and one closed.

Alk at 8.0
Phosphate at 0.9
Nitrates at 10
Amonia at 0
Calc at 430
Mag at 1320
Salinity at 1.025
Temp at 77 to 78

nautical_nathaniel · Jan 19, 2018

Is anything messing with them? My shrimp will sometimes do a little digging in my corals as it looks around for food and this will cause them to close up for a little while.

bdejong1112o · Jan 19, 2018

@nautical_nathaniel, I have been watching when I can to see if there are any critters messing with them but other than the occasional fish swimming by and brushing with a fin I have not seen anything else.

I have a fire shrimp who mainly stays to himself on the left side of the tank. I have not seen him venture that far away from his little ledge. Not to say hes not a night owl and roaming the tank at night.

I have a coral banded that gets around quite a bit. Maybe he is scavenging for food late at night while its closed up and irritating it.

I would think that any irritation from scavengers wpuld not result in all day long closed up behavior but what do i know...lol. have not spent much time as a coral, lol...

Here is an early morning shot. No tank lights are on yet, only the ambient light from the living room. Will be interesting to see who is open and closed today.

nautical_nathaniel · Jan 19, 2018

I don't think it is something to worry about too much. I would only start to get worried if they all started closing up longer than a day. It actually looks pretty healthy to me, no discoloration on any of the heads and no tears or anything.

Peter K · Jan 19, 2018

How far do the polyps extend when they are fully open?

bdejong1112o · Jan 19, 2018

@Peter K , fully open they are an inch or more....

Peter K · Jan 20, 2018

bdejong1112o said:
@Peter K , fully open they are an inch or more....

Ok I'm going to assume it's a short neck alveopora (I have some long neck ones that extend 3-4", but the short neck ones are about an inch), as nathaniel already pointed out the tissue is healthy and has good coverage over the skeleton. I wouldn't worry too much now, I feed ours about 2x a week with gonipower and it seems to help them so if you aren't feeding them maybe give it a try.

bdejong1112o · Jan 20, 2018

@Peter K. I do feed the coral about once a week, or so. I use a combination of reef chili and reef roids. Is there something in goniopower that is unique to that product and not in the two i already use? I dont mind getting some but would like to keep it simple if possible.

Thanks!

Peter K · Jan 20, 2018

That's more than fine, I've used a bunch of different foods and don't see a particular benefit from one to the other. I run my tank at a bit lower nutrients than yours (nitrate 2-3, phosphate .03) so I feed a bit more heavily to compensate for lower nutrients but 1x a week with your parameters is plenty in my opinion. As long as the tissue on the heads doesn't start to recede I think you should be fine, a month isn't that long for an alveopora so just give it some time.

bdejong1112o · Jan 20, 2018

Dont know why i cant edit my origional post..... but had my phosphate number wrong. Missing a 0.... its been running 0.06 to 0.08 using the hanah ULR phosphorous checker.