Green Star Polyps pouting

[Octoman]

I've had my GSP for about 4 weeks. It has become more open and full since I put it in, but 4 days ago the polyps closed up and didn't come back out. I haven't made any changes or added anything else. There is a main mat on the rock that is closed up, but there are two other smaller pieces that aren't connected to the main mat and they are open.

Is it normal for GSP to pout for a little while?

These are my most recent test results...

NO3 - 1 mg/L
PO4 - 0
Ca - 350 (yikes!)
Alk - dKH 10.7, 3.7 meq/L
pH - 8.28
I - 0.01 mg/L
SG - 1.026 (34ppt)
T - 78.1 F

My Ca is low, but would that make the GSP mad? I'm already working on bringing that up. It's a new batch of IO, and I've heard others talking about low Ca, so I'll have to test my newly mixed water...

My Iodine is low too, I thought this might be the culprit. I quit dosing Iodine a while back because I overdosed and killed some stuff. But, I added some xenia at the same time as the GSP and I think it is sucking up my Iodine. I did a water change and dosed a tiny bit of Iodine and I'll do another water change tomorrow. I would rather do more frequent water changes than dose that stuff.

What really gets me is the fact that all the GSP is not affected, only one contiguous mat. I wondered if closing up for a while is normal, like when leathers close up. I'll put a picture up in a few minutes.

 

[Octoman]

Here's a side and front view. You can see the smaller colonies that are on the back side of the rock that are still open.

And this is from about a week ago...

 

[lcstorc]

Sometimes it just pouts for a couple of days.
Mine never came out of it's pout and died but we never figured out why.

 

[Whiskey]

I have had star pylops pout forever and die as well,.. however the star pylops I've had forever also pout from time to time and refuse to open for a few days.

Whiskey

 

[goldenmean]

I have had mine pout for a few days to about a week even.
I have one big colony and a couple of smaller pieces and Like you I have had the smaller pieces open and the big colony pout.
I have also noticed that they pout if I handle them too much.
The last time I was adjusting their postion on the the LR as they had slipped down and was covering Mantis #2 home hole. While I was adjusting they took a tumble. They then stayed close for a good week. Then they sloyly started to open. 3 days later the whole colony was out.

 

[hoppy]

I have some that my condy took up residence on for about 2 weeks... when I got it to move they slowly opened back up in about 5-6 days... all are good!
They seem very resilient

 

[Octoman]

Thanks everyone! I'll keep an eye on them and let you know what happens.

 

[Octoman]

On 4/2 I cleaned the stolon mat off because it was getting a little algae buildup. On 4/3, there was one little polyp poking out. 4/4, they were all peeking out a little bit. And today, they are all back out and looking good! It looks like they have even colored up a bit in the mean time.

I don't know if cleaning the stolon mat had anything to do with their re-emergence, but I read some recommendations to keep the mat clean if they close up. They said to use a soft toothbrush to brush them off and it seems like it might have helped.

 

[Octoman]

So they closed up again about 5 days ago. On day four (yesterday) I gave them the old toothbrush scrub again. And then they all popped their little heads back out the next day!

So there seems to be a strong correlation between brushing them off and them reemerging. Perhaps they get a buildup of something on their mat and they close up in hopes that the current will blow it away or some CUC will clean it off for them? The soft toothbrush works very well and doesn't damage the mat at all, it makes it a nice sparkling clean purple.

 

[JT101]

So they closed up again about 5 days ago. On day four (yesterday) I gave them the old toothbrush scrub again. And then they all popped their little heads back out the next day!

So there seems to be a strong correlation between brushing them off and them reemerging. Perhaps they get a buildup of something on their mat and they close up in hopes that the current will blow it away or some CUC will clean it off for them? The soft toothbrush works very well and doesn't damage the mat at all, it makes it a nice sparkling clean purple.

Hi Mark,

I understand this is a very old thread but I came across it because I am having a similar issue with my GSP.

When I first got it, it was basically just a solid "lump" of purple stolon mat. Almost immediately upon putting it in my tank, all the polyps sprouted and it was a beautiful sight to see for months. Over time, the mat has grown all sorts of "fingers" and extensions and now is really almost like a bush with branches. When all the polyps were out, it was really amazing to look at.

However, within the last couple of months my tank has developed a brown algae issue that I am fighting with various methods. At the same time, I noticed my GSP wasn't "sprouting" as much as usual. Just a little while ago (after seeing this thread) I turned the lights on and noticed that the solid purple mat doesn't look as vivid as before. Upon closer inspection I noticed that in some places it was actually covered with a very light layer of the dreaded brown crud! I took a medium-bristle painter's brush (that I use to clean off LR) and, with much worry, proceeded to brush off the stolon mat. I was amazed to see what has been "hiding"! The mat is now a bright, solid purple! I guess over time the algae had grown over the stolon mat so gradually that I never noticed it! I turned off the lights and I now await the morning when they go back on automatically. I am looking forward to a return of the great display of polyps it had before - I'll keep all of you posted.


John

 

[JT101]

Well, the cleaning seems to have turned the trick!

This morning the polyps that hadn't opened in a while (the ones with the brown algae on them) started to open up! As of five minutes ago nearly the whole thing is sprouting!

Now all I have to do is figure out how to keep the stolon mat clean without having to resort to brushing it...

 

[Dragonne]

Honestly? Higher current. I had a mat of GSPs in a mid current level of my tank for a long time (6 months or so) and had to do almost a weekly brushing. During that time, they would close up after about 6-8 days and stay in until they got a brushing, and they weren't growing much at all (nothing like I had read about everywhere). I had tried to move them to a high current area, but after a week they still hadn't come out. A month or so ago I mentioned my weekly routine to the owner of my LFS and he looked at me like I had 3 heads. He said to leave them in the high current as long as they take to adjust, because they will. Apparently he was right, after about 2 weeks, the polyps came out slowly, a little more each day, until they are now so full and spreading so fast I've got them spreading onto a nearby tonga LR branch and have fragged off a piece which I banded to another high section of the tonga LR branch. I'm going to have the most interesting tonga branches in a few weeks! Oh, and I haven't had to clean the mat since the move.

I'll probably end up returning or swapping the original roughly 4" diameter mother colony at some point. I won't need it anymore (I'll have more than enough from spreading and clippings!) and I'm sure someone else would love to have a nice healthy GSP mat. I'm in northern NJ if anyone was thinking about picking up some GSPs this summer. Got some colorful shrooms? Wanna swap? hehe