Quick SPS question

semigodd154

semigodd154

Member
I just started keeping sps and was just wondering what the average time is before an acropora will extend its polyps once it is moved to a new tank I have heard up to a week however i have a green acro with brown polyps that opened by the next day but i have to brown/green acros (they were this color when I got them) that have yet to exhibit any polyp extension whatsoever BTW the is no tissue necrosis or bleaching at all i also have 2 pocillapora frags that also have polyp extension that seem to be doing fine. And while i'm at it a friend gave me a 1 inch hydnopora (SP?) frag honestly i know nothing about them except that they can have really long sweepers does anyone happen to have a pic of a healthy specimen they can post it would be really appreciated thanks in advance.


Shaun
 
wooddood

wooddood

the wood dude
sorry semigold dont know the answer but im going to try my hand at sps very soon so im tagging along for some info.thank for the question.dave.
 
mojoreef

mojoreef

Just a reefer
Shaun maybe I could help a bit.
Coral polyp extention is not really something to worry about. A Coral uses thier polyps for many reasons (ie: reproduction, food gathering, defence, offence, light gathering and so on). Most SPS will only extend thier polyps during the dark periods for fear of things nipping at them. I have had corals that had so much polyp extention that you coldnt see the structure, then after moving them up farther in the light column the polyps never came out. The coral continued to grow and was very colorful. Anyway I would not put to much on if they are out or not.
Hydnophora is a nice SPS but with a nasty way of protecting itself so give it lots of room, they caan cook another coral in a heart beat. Thier are many kinds of Hydnophora so below is a link to our id research gallery. Go to the lower part of the page, thier are about 5 I think listed.

http://www.thepsas.org/reviewpost/showcat.php?cat=21

hope it helps


mike
 
Cosmic

Cosmic

Member
The truth is, noone really knows WHY SPS polyps extend. Some believe it's indicative of water quality, others for opportunistic feeding. It might be as simple as too much/little light than it's old environment. Same could be said for water flow.
Might also be possible they are next to a coral that releases chemo-toxins (allelopaths) that may be stressing the new corals.

FWIW, I've had some corals open up in the first 5 minutes of being in my tank, while others took weeks like you mentioned. Of more concern is the tissue necrosis, and bleaching. if these aren't apparent, then I wouldn'tbe overly concerned for now.

Also, a hydnophora doesn't release long sweepers. It re-gurgitates onto close (1") neighboring corals, quickly killing them off to gain territory for growth. As long as corals are farther than 1" away, they should be fine.

-HTH-
Cos
 
JB NY

JB NY

Member
The only thing I would add is. Look at the coral 30-60 minutes after the lights go out. The acro should be extending it's polyps at night. I have seen few that don't, but for the most part, all healthy acros will extend their polyps from the axial corallites at least a little. IME an acro that does not do this, after time will generally die. But most times you have weeks to try and fix the problem. With new additions this is most common, and generally the coral will extend it polyps at night, anywhere for a day to a few weeks after being added to the tank. IMO the lack of polyps being extended during the day has a lot to do with light, I'm found that corals receiving not enough light extend their polyps more. And those with too much light don't extend at all. If the rest of the tank looks good than normally it is just a matter of time before the acro's polyps are extended.

HTH
 
semigodd154

semigodd154

Member
well i must say thank you guys for all the info pretty much describes everything i've seen in the tank within the last day or so looks like everything is doing fine and will hopefully continue to do so again thanks for the info. karma to ya all. If i could figure out how to give it lmao.
 
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