help! snowflake coral closed

[jenwebber3]

I have had this fantastic lime green snowflake polyp for around 6 months or so. He’s been happy, though smaller than when he started, which I attributed to constantly being brushed by shrimp and crabs. On Sunday, I did a tank clean, and stirred up a lot of gravel, trying to get rid of some red bubble algae. he hasn’t opened since, just looks like a big stone with holes in it, his tentacles sucked in deep. I don’t want to wait it out and find I waited too long and lost him. I shot him with a turkey baster to make sure there wasn’t any gravel sitting in him, and also fed last night. a couple tentacles are protruding ever-so-slightly, but otherwise he is shut tightly. Is there anything else I could be doing? The lights were recently changed, so don’t think light quality is an issue, I’m sure it has something to do with the tank cleaning. Any thoughts? Don’t want to lose him, he is very cool, (and expensive), and the stores in my area don’t get coral like this very often (ok, they don’t get good coral hardly ever). I hate feeling helpless when the living things I’m in charge of aren’t doing well!

 

[reeferman]

give it a little more time,sometimes corals close up for weeks and pop back out.i wouldnt wait weeks,but it should open in a few days if your params are good.

 

[jenwebber3]

yeah, i tend to panic quickly with this tank, usually for no reason, though i did lose my yellow polyps, which are supposed to be easy to keep (my kenya trees, the proverbial canary in the reef tank, are happy and spreading, so i figure the water can't be that bad).

on the negative side, i did a little more digging and found out these are not snowflake polyps at all, it is a flowerpot coral, which are supposedly impossible to keep (though i did just fine for 6 months). so he may be toast. next time i'll take that $80 and buy a crapload of mushrooms instead!

thanks for the reply!