yellow polp

[SassyAngel111]

Yesterday I had bought a small yellow polyp and when I had put it in my tank after acclimating it for over two hours by doing a slow drip, I had noticed that my red legged hermits started to attack it, and eating its base, is this normal or is there something wrong with the coral?

Ok everyone I just found some other post on here about the same problem, I have a 10gl tank that I will be setting up here shortly and Transfer this coral to it until it gets better.

 

[TCTFish]

Coral do not require a QT. They need the reef. The hermits on the base can mean one of two things. Either there is something on the polyp that the hermits are cleaning off or the polyp is dying and they're scavening it. How is the polyp behaving? Is it opened or is it closed all the time? Is the polyp secured to a rock? Is it eating? You can tell if it is eating when a piece of food falls on the mouth...it'll close on the piece of food.

 

[steve-s]

Anything wet should be QT's from the get go. Coral or otherwise.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

If you have a cycled QT even with average light, it might be the best place for the coral to give it a better chance. If the polyp was damaged, the critters in the tank will only speed up that degridation. It may not recover in the QT either but it will at least have a better opportunity.

Cheers
Steve

 

[SassyAngel111]

At times it will stay open and then half the time it will be closed even with the lights on. I have not tried feeding it yet, it is not attached to a rock yet. The lfs just gave it to me since it was just a piece that had broke off of the main coral. I have tried to attach it by useing the two part epoxy for lr and corals, but came home yesterday and found it laying in the sand bed, ( guess I did not attach him good enough). When I get home if you want I can post a pic of this coral. I will also try feeding him some food to see if he will eat. and then post again to let you know if he ate or not.

thanks for the replys.
Jan

 

[steve-s]

I wouldn't attempt direct feedings until you can get it to attach. It needs to be placed in an area where it will remain undisturbed for at least a week. As long as the polyp is roaming free, it will continue to be stressed and further it's decline.

Either place it in a shallow plastic dish/glass bowl with some rubble rock in bottom and some veil material over top. Alternately you can use the available QT (if properly cycled/med free), just reduce the overall flow some so it does not blow around. Make a sort of crater with some rubble rock and place it in the middle.

The less it's moved or handled, the faster it will improve.

Cheers
Steve

 

[TCTFish]

The polyp will eat on its own if it's comfortable enough and food flows its way. When the polyp is opened, most likely it is getting some food by way of phytoplankton if you supply it as the current blows the food to it.

The problem with individual coral from colonies like that is they have very poor chances of survival being alone. In the wild reef, say a storm rips up a nice matt of polyps, most of those ripped up individuals will become part of the sandbed in one form or another. Others lucky enough to float into a protective crannie for support will grow and start a new colony. It's a hit or miss chance with loner frags that naturally live in colonies.

 

[steve-s]

Zoanthuds are zooplankton consumers (carnivors), the phyto won't acheive anything. Once you get the coral to attach, it will do just fine.

Cheers
Steve

 

[SassyAngel111]

cool I will just wait and see what happens. Thanks for the info

 

[jasno999]

I have recently learned the hard way that everythign needs QT especially coral. I had sand polyps that I got from thatfishplace who is a realyl good store. I have a 10 gallon tank so I never used a QT tank.

Well after about a month (little less) the polyps all closed up and did nto come out for 1-2 weeks. So I started looking into it and examined the coral well. I have come to find out that it appears I have a Nudibranch problem. These little critters are eating and destroying the polyps and causign them to stay closed up. They must have coem in on the piece that I purchased and are not at multiplication levels that are high enought to cause real issues.

I have pulled several off with tweezers but need to set up a QT tank to move this coral into. Then I ahve to keep it there and do FW dips with iodine supplementation each week or maybe 2 times a week. Hopefully that will kill any that are alive, and eggs will have to be searched for. As for the tank I am hoping that by removign the food supply (polyp coral) the nudibranch's in the tank will die of starvation. It is a real issue. Gettig nand settign up the QT tank will be the hastle. I will do the FW dip prior to having the QT jsut to give the polyp some relief.