Sound Off: Your extended polyps are telling you something right?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

When your sps corals are happy they have extended polyps right? Or is that not always the case? I would love to hear from you on this subject and if you agree or not.

So do extended sps polyps mean your coral is healthy and thriving?

 

[brandon429]

they can still be in a state of decline with open polyps, not long term definitive. Better at predicting free ammonia than any test kit's .25? 100% effective.
Polyps never open if the slightest unoxidized free ammonia that a titration test kit can register is there

 

[vpoiu1263]

I think perhaps they're hungry.
Need to catch something to eat.

 

[BestMomEver]

Hungry and healthy. At least I hope so!

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I think it differs from tank to tank. In my tank it can be an indicator. If polyps are out, things are good. If I notice a colony with less extension than normal, or no PE, I test, and look for possible issues. It certainly isn't 100%, but more of a litmus test for my tank...

In others tanks, they may have angels or other polyp nippers, so they may not get great PE, but their corals are still perfectly healthy.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I am a firm believer of polyp extension being a good indicator of a healthy acro. If my acros don’t have polyp extension I would start testing my water.
Have you ever seen a show quality tank where the corals don’t have polyp extension?

 

[jda]

I would only look for changes in polyp extension for established corals or lack of polyp extension at night. Having, or lacking, PE during the day is a sign of nothing.

 

[jda]

Here are some instances where excessive PE is bad... High ammonia presence and the coral has to respirate more than normal. The zoox is unhealthy and not doing its job with the lights on. Water has low oxygen level. It could mean plenty of good things too.

No PE could just mean that you have a fish or invert that likes to pick on the corals. It could also mean that all kind of parameters are out of whack.

In any case, PE does not really mean much. Just look for changes from day to day... if a typically hairy coral all of a sudden has no polyps out, then look into it. If all of your SPS have polyps out to the max, then also look for some bad stuff like maybe the protein skimmer is not bubbling, or something has died and you have a bit more ammonia than normal.

 

[Dan I]

I get insane polyp extension during lights out. Lights on, just several corals have good polyp extensions. Might just be how my tank is, but I wish I got great polyp extension during light on from all sps.

 

[Hemmdog]

they can still be in a state of decline with open polyps, not long term definitive. Better at predicting free ammonia than any test kit's .25? 100% effective.
Polyps never open if the slightest unoxidized free ammonia that a test kit can register is there

I have not experienced that whatsoever. There is more pe if there is trace ammonia in the water ime.

 

[jda]

SPS mostly use their polyps for gas exchange. Other corals are better at catching food, but SPS are not really good at it - lets focus on SPS since this is the SPS forum. No/less PE during the day is because the zoox are helping the coral with their gas needs. There is more at night because they have to exchange gas with the tank water. If you see a ton of PE from some vendors, they put the corals in a perfectly still photo box and the SPS have to extend their polyps more and more in the stagnant water without any flow.

SPS do not need to catch food to thrive. There is no evidence at all that they can catch anything that we offer with any kind of efficiency. Even if they do, there is no evidence that they get any nutritional value out of it. This is why you see all kinds of world-class tanks that never feed anything. Corals can sometimes get some aminos through their skin, but they are really bad at outcompeting the single cell stuff like bacteria, dinoflagelates, etc. If you think that your SPS polyps are out more because of reef roids, chili or aminos, then quit dosing them for a few months and see if anything changes - it probably will not and only a very few have ever noticed a change and started to dose again.

 

[brandon429]

which test kits are showing you trace free ammonia in a reef tank w sps in it Hemmdog, is it digi seneye?

 

[MrObscura]

While I'm pretty sure one with PE is likely happy and thriving "yes" is too absolute and suggests one without PE is certainly unhappy.

I think a better question would have been "Does a lack of PE in and of itself mean a coral is unhappy or struggling?"

No.

 

[Hemmdog]

which test kits are showing you trace free ammonia in a reef tank w sps in it Hemmdog, is it digi seneye?

Seneye yes.

 

[brandon429]

I have yet to read of a full zero reading for any reef tank on seneye...it’s catching thousandths/10k-level ammonia as it’s being produced

Have you boosted and sustained liquid ammonia into your tank at the .25 level using the seneye

curious to know the sustained free ammonia levels that open sps polyps w tolerate, reef tanks already oxidize 4 ppm or better, a lot of ammonia had to be dosed all at once to keep it above what normal tests register as zero

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I voted not sure. While I have always had good PE and growing corals that I feel are healthy I have seen no evidence in my reefs that having good or no PE in sps is a sign of good or bad health. I also always seem to have a few sps that ebb and flow with PE.

 

[TheHarold]

More polyp than coral!

 

[rockskimmerflow]

SPS mostly use their polyps for gas exchange. Other corals are better at catching food, but SPS are not really good at it - lets focus on SPS since this is the SPS forum. No/less PE during the day is because the zoox are helping the coral with their gas needs. There is more at night because they have to exchange gas with the tank water. If you see a ton of PE from some vendors, they put the corals in a perfectly still photo box and the SPS have to extend their polyps more and more in the stagnant water without any flow.

SPS do not need to catch food to thrive. There is no evidence at all that they can catch anything that we offer with any kind of efficiency. Even if they do, there is no evidence that they get any nutritional value out of it. This is why you see all kinds of world-class tanks that never feed anything. Corals can sometimes get some aminos through their skin, but they are really bad at outcompeting the single cell stuff like bacteria, dinoflagelates, etc. If you think that your SPS polyps are out more because of reef roids, chili or aminos, then quit dosing them for a few months and see if anything changes - it probably will not and only a very few have ever noticed a change and started to dose again.

Look at what the Horniman lab did in terms of food input just to get SPS corals to successfully develop sexually. I have to disagree big time in terms of food input not having nutritional value. There's lots of other research out there, but just read up on what the Horniman lab's protocol was in terms of offering suitable zooplankton type feed to the SPS being spawned in that project and what was needed to give the coral enough energy surplus to spawn.

Now, is there a requirement to directly feed your SPS in a home tank in order to achieve success? I don't think so at all. But are SPS inefficient and incapable of deriving nutritional value from meaty food sources? IMO no, far from it. What evidence would cause you to be so dismissive of prey capture in SPS? They absolutely do efficiently capture zooplankton type prey from the water IME. I've seen Acropora and stylophora capture and process small prey items even up to mysis shrimp size, with strong mesenterial filament extension when it was too large for the polyps to ingest.

Feeding part starts at 5:26 in the video

 

[fabutahoun]

It is not always the case, my corals are happy , great color , great growth but poor PE, and the reasons are my Angels specially the venutsa Angelfish.

 

[Tangina20]

I get insane polyp extension during lights out. Lights on, just several corals have good polyp extensions. Might just be how my tank is, but I wish I got great polyp extension during light on from all sps.

I have the same problem...