Why does the Coral do this?

[fachatga]

Hi. This is my acrophobia coral. I’m very new to all of this so I know I’ve messed up plenty but want to know why the coral does this. The stuff stringing off of it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[hds4216]

What are your current parameters?

 

[fachatga]

Nitrates are high around 20-25 but I’m getting it down slowly. Everything else is pretty good. I can’t remember all the names yet but I do test every few days since the nitrates did spike. If you want them all I can go through them all and write it down. It seems this happens whenever I feed the fish.

 

[Timfish]

Looks like sweeper tenticles to me.

 

[fachatga]

There was an issue shipping the coral. I saw it was dropped off outside. They never rang doorbell. Box was sideways. Water was cold. Whatever water there was. Almost all of it was drained out. Half the coral turned white in a few weeks. Only a tiny piece died. The rest is white but polyps are Alive and well it seems. It’s even regrowing over the small part that died and turned brown. So I figured that was a good sign the Coral isn’t completely messed up. Just some extra info

 

[Timfish]

Sounds like you had some bleaching. If it's still doing ok and is feeding odds of a full recovery are good. But be patient and don't move it round, it likely will take weeks to months to fully recover.

 

[fachatga]

Thanks. I hope so. I also did notice that I think autocorrect misidentified my coral. My 7 year old daughter named this one rainbow dots. So I hope some color comes back. It still has some left tho. The pic makes it look whiter than it really is. Half of it is a light beige.

 

[fachatga]

Are the sweeper tentacles something to worry about? Does it mean I’m doing something wrong?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Are the sweeper tentacles something to worry about? Does it mean I’m doing something wrong?

Nothing wrong , the coral is saying hi and if the sweeper tentacles touch another coral then the stinging begins

 

[Timfish]

Corals extend sweeper tenticles to catch food and to sting other corals or because they are stressed by something. How worried you shopuld be depends on why they are extended. My guess is in this situation based on yor description it's using them to feed.

 

[fachatga]

Thank you. Good to know they can be used to eat. I’ll watch out for any changes in when it happens to see if it get stressed. Appreciate the replies.