Corals at night?

I know I haven't posted for a long time.. So hello everyone.

I want to know what your corals look like at night. My corals are great during the day. Opened swaying in the current but at night they shrivel up and look kind of sickly. I know that they are supposed to shrink but like my hammer coral that is really healthy in the day droops down and his mouth gapes. My acro's seem fine the zoanthids close but look ok. My mushrooms shrivel up allot and look droopy. Anyone have this same problem. Is this how they are supposed to look?

 

Welcome back! It's Normal, same thing happens to all mine

 

no light = no energy. Only makes sense that they chillax and cut loose while nobody is looking ;P

 

I scuba sometimes but never been on a night dive. I wonder if they look like this in the wild. I should go check it out. (oh but the fear...... black water) I wondered if a Ph change has anything to do with it. I think I'll check what my levels are day and night.

 

pH definitely fluctuates from day to night. However I would assume the change in the corals behavior is due to a dramatic decrease in lighting. Regardless, It would make a great science experiment!

 

Here's what my candy cane coral looks like in the day.


And here is what is looks like at night.

 

Thats its feeder tenticles. most LPS do that at night time

 

Pheonix yea I have corals like that. And they look great at night.... I love yours btw. But things like hammers and mushrooms really don't look that good. You have any night pictures of yours? I'll try and post some of mine.

 

Your tank should change at night - perfectly normal. I scuba a lot and I love the ocean at night - my wife and I video the day and then do the same dive at night and its simply wonderful when you look at the changes. The Ell's come out and play and the corals sleep - fish hide (for their lives) and the shrimp are in the thousands. Often I will scan the area with a light and all I see in the distance in the reflection of hundreds of shrimp eyes.

Install some moon lighting on your tank and kill the lights early enough so that you can enjoy the night aspect of your tank. The day to night changes are fantastic and all part of your adventure.

 

Most corals close at night in self defense. If there is no light to collect there is no reason to be open and ready to be nipped at by fish. A lot of corals also use this time (like candy canes) to filter feed.