bird of paradise

so Ive had this a couple of months.. the first stage it doubled in size in a few weeks.. then it paused.. now it has turned nearly white and everywhere there are white polyps, there are bumps protuding from the branches?? has it just gone into turbo mode? I have been feeding it super fine mysis paste/water. I don think it is bleaching. It should have bleached out a month ago if it was right?



also this unknown coral I rescued from a lfs for 5 bux has popped 2 new heads in the same time period. I feed it the same stuff but some bigger chunks.. It was all white and almost gone when I got it.. it is starting to get some color back. its been about a month in my tank. Anyone know what it is?

 

The unknown coral looks to be a mussid family coral, I would guess one of the caulastreas (candy canes).

As for the BoP, I'm guessing that it's either getting enough nutrients from the feedings that it's not relying on photosynthesis as heavily, and is cutting back on the amount of zooxanthellae, or that it's growing faster than it can make more zooxanthellae to fill the larger surface area.

 

yeah when all this growth really started, it started loosing its green hue.. the purple in the polyps has stayed around, but now its really gone nuts this week, should I lower it and cut back on feeding?

 

Yeah, I would cut back on the feedings, and see what happens. It might color back up pretty quickly once it realizes food alone won't sustain it, and it needs to crank up zooxanthellae production.

 

BTW, it should be a caulastrea echinulata.

 

are you dosing anything?

 

just water changes 20g weekly.