Green Star Polyp Coating

I took a bit of green start polyp mat from a friend. We originally glued it to a seashell and it stuck, but never adhered to the shell. Last week I saw some purple stringy algae looking growth coming from the mat. I thought I was going to lose it, so I moved it off the shell and onto some LR.

Over the next day the "algae strings" condensed and started to look like they were forming a new mat. I was quite excited and got up this morning to see what it looked like only to find my snails snacking and eating every last bit of it.

The really strange part is that when I got home from work, the purple stringy stuff was back.

Any idea what is going on? Did my green star polyp leave behind enough of itself to grow a new mat?

I have no clue.

 

there is a posibility that is is going to grom back, but i cant tell you without any pics.

star polyps are strange, i had mine for about 3 years and then one day poof!!! they were gone.