Question about corals

[Frogspawn]

i would like to know why corals hide at night. i have a plusing xenia, torch coral and toadstool leather and all 3 hide when the lights go out for about 2-3 hrs then come out? is this for safty?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Corals expand primarily to feed. When you see them open during the day, essentially that is why they are open and that is what they are doing. The more inflated they are, the more access to light they have and the more light gets to their zooxanthellae, which is the primary food source for most corals. The opposite is true for most stony corals, that feed at night. When the lights go out, there is no need to stay expanded because there is no light to gain energy from.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Ziggy953]

Couldn't have said it better myself!!!

 

[Frogspawn]

cool so does every ones coralsdo that? i have a toadstool and in the morning takes a few hrs to come out. thats great info. thanks i will kep that in mind. mabey my nest coral will be a stoney one.

 

[MSU Fan]

My Xenia, Green Star Polyp, Mushroom, and Elegance all "sleep" at night by tucking in. So I am under the impression that is what will happen every night...

 

[Ziggy953]

That sounds about normal to me...temp swings will effect your corals too...keeping a constant temp be it 78 or as high as 82 consistancy is the key....

 

[Frogspawn]

well yesterday my toadstool opened up about 2 hrs after the lights came on and today its been about 6hrs and still he has not opened up. i dont know if hes sick or if hes just getting use to the tank. should i worrie? mabey hes just not hungry :?
what sould i try? his placment is on the bottom of the tank and a maxi jet 900 is semi pointed on him. like yesterday. any ideas?

 

[melosu58]

and today its been about 6hrs and still he has not opened up.

Leathers every once in a while will do what we call sloughing in which they dont open up and plain look bad. But usually the next day though they are back looking better than ever.

 

[Frogspawn]

cool he just came out.. i am happy now. my stomach sinks every time i think ones of them are sick. then i panic. thanks again for the great advise

 

[melosu58]

You can look forward to that happening every few weeks. It happens with mine like that.

 

[Frogspawn]

its ok i can deal with that now. its been a few hrs since the light went out on my tank and hes still out. i am happy now . i am thinking about buying a mushroom coral pack from dr.fostersmith.com to add some color. any one know how fast they grow. i heard from some one on here that mushrooms seem to take over your tank . is that true?

also i wanted to know how fasts to fish grow? (Ocellaris Clownfish)

 

[melosu58]

I started off with one mushroom and have sold hundreds of dollars of store credit to my LFS and they are still all over my tank. Here is one rock I still have in my tank. My LFS wants it pretty bad and says he`ll give me 150.00 for it but I dont want to part with it.

 

[Frogspawn]

wow thats a nice one there. how do they grow? it looks liek they grow in a clump or do they grown flat on rocks? but again thats pretty. nice job

 

[melosu58]

They have a jelly like substance that runs down the rock and they grow from that.

 

[Frogspawn]

cool so they reproduce fairly quickey then?

 

[melosu58]

Like weeds