Star Polyps

[reefracer]

How to control them, they've left the original shell and seem determined to overtake the reef!

[DaveK]

I'd trade them to the LFS for credit.

It does show that you are doing something right, so don't feel too bad about it.

You can usually scrub them off of LR or scrape them off the glass. It can be a lot of work to remove them. Un less they are encroaching on something else, you might consider leaving them alone.

[reefracer]

Thanks DaveK, oh yeah they seem to be good and healthy which is good and I love the way they stand up and way in the currents, do they grow over the sand too? I guess they may not like the bottom of tank since they grow so well up top. I guess coral is just like shrubs and puppies, if they do well they grow up fast. But I don't really want them to take up any more space that something else could go

[Wolfgang8810]

if you put them on the bottom they will expand onto the sand aswell. ive seen reefers actuallt have them look like a lawn lol. Do they retract at night?

[sebastian]

mine is like a small piece of lawn... hehhe....they retract at night but....not all of them.... half of my lawn is open during the night....maybe the moonlights??

[Wolfgang8810]

i jsut added a fairly large rock of them today and sofar noe have popped open is it just a waiting game? My water is decent no ammonia or nitrite. 10 nitrate ph 8.3 salinaty 1.024.

[sebastian]

hmmmm.... those are extreme hard animals..... they should open soon , no panic....but test water for changes..... let them get use to your water overnight...and we will see tommorow

[Wolfgang8810]

ill jsut wait the mat is still extremly purple so i think it was just stressful durring acclimation. I did the turkeybaster thing but then there was some deterius on them so i gave them a squirt or two of wwater to remove it before i put it in my tank. The squirting was done with the water int he bag.

[reefracer]

I've got three different colonies of the them and one of the them is really going crazy growing over the live rocks, spreading the mat too quickly. I hate to go in and destroy (scrub it off) but I have to find a way to stop the spreading. Of course the smallest colony is the one that has pretty neon green color. Any good ideas?

[naperenterprise]

In my opinion (I may be wrong) But if you put the stars as high as possible that may stop some quick growth. I feel these critters like to grow to the light. Or put it near the side and let them grow up the glass...

[dobejazz]

Speaking from experience I wouldn't just leave them be

If you can move the rock to the sand bed that would be the route I suggest

I let them be in the past and had a 24g tank of GSP for the most part

[Witfull]

glue it to the back glass and grow a wall of GSP. also makes it easy to frag...scrape and glue to a piece of rubble and sell to friends or LFS~