Trouble With Green Star Polyp

[CatoeSc]

We have one of these guys in our tank. It's been there about a month and has done well. Yesterday, it didn't really come out and today only a very few polyps came out. These are the things I have done that are potential reasons:

I added 2 zoa frags. I've heard they can release chemicals that bother other corals. I also added some Alkalin 8.3-P. Not a lot. It was dissolved in a cup of tank water and added to the sump. Our frogspawn and candy cane corals are fine and the zoas look great. Any thoughts?

 

[bribo12]

What are your nitrates at? Green Star polyps are a pretty resilient coral and are a good indicator of high nitrates if they are not coming out. I'd give it more than 2 days to come back out, in due time it should come back out.

 

[Mebbid]

I was having the same problem a few days ago. I added some all buffer and they started coming out almost immediately.

 

[CatoeSc]

What are your nitrates at? Green Star polyps are a pretty resilient coral and are a good indicator of high nitrates if they are not coming out. I'd give it more than 2 days to come back out, in due time it should come back out.

My nitrates are very low. I just checked them yesterday and they were close to 5 ppm according to the API kit.

 

[bribo12]

Hmm, I'd just leave it be for the next couple of days and see if it comes back out. IMO it is pretty indestructible.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

Mine have done that before, come to find out it was an emerald crab picking at them. Could be a number of things like stated above.

 

[CatoeSc]

Mine have done that before, come to find out it was an emerald crab picking at them. Could be a number of things like stated above.

I don't have an emerald crab, but I did notice my hermits seemed to antagonize my zoas when I first added them. That seems to have gotten better.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

Is it getting enough flow?

 

[CatoeSc]

Is it getting enough flow?

I think so. It hasn't been a problem before

 

[Mightyreefer87]

Anything else looking down?

 

[CatoeSc]

Anything else looking down?

All is well. I lost a snail, but everything else is great.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

It will most likely perk back up, something prob just disturbed it.

 

[CatoeSc]

Thanks. I'm hoping it is okay. It's been doing great and is beginning to spread nicely. Just shut down for a couple of days.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

Did they ever perk back up?

 

[CatoeSc]

Did they ever perk back up?

As of last night, no. If nothing today, then I'm going to do a water change:

 

[Mightyreefer87]

Let me know how things are going.

 

[CatoeSc]

Let me know how things are going.

Will do. I can't imagine doing anything that would cause me to lose that one but nothing else. I test regularly for ammonia, pH, nitrate and nitrite. I also have the RedSea A, B, and C elements. I haven't added any because I haven't tested for any of it. I'm expecting the test kit Friday.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

There's been times when mine have acted like that too, what type of lighting, and what sort of lighting do they have?

If nothing else is acting up in your aquarium I'd think its something of then water quality since GSP is very hard to kill

 

[CatoeSc]

There's been times when mine have acted like that too, what type of lighting, and what sort of lighting do they have? If nothing else is acting up in your aquarium I'd think its something of then water quality since GSP is very hard to kill

The light fixture is a total of 28 watts: 1 14 watt T5 actinic blue and 1 14 watt T5 10,000K.

The tank is a 25 gallon and the frag is about smack-dab in the middle of the tank. There is no shade, it has full light for about 12 hours a day.

 

[Mightyreefer87]

I have mine under 120w LEDs, approximately 10" from the top of the water and 16" from the light fixture. I have it slightly positioned in the shaded area. Once I placed them here they have never acted up once.

Also they have tripled in size since adding them about 2.5 months ago.