Soft coral question

I have a soft coral that has not had its polyps extend in 4 or 5 days now. I have had the coral for about 4 weeks. Up untill now thew polyps would come out everyday. I tested my water and had 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia. PH is fine sg is at 1.026. Is it normal for this to happen. My GSP and mushrooms are going great.

 

Hello, could you give us some more info!! Give us what type of soft coral, how long tank has been established, what you dosing/feeding. We could help with that type of info!!

 

If you're talking about a leather which I suspect you are, it's very normal. Leathers will close up for days at a time. As long as everything is fine in the tank and things haven't changed, it will eventually slough off some "skin" and then open up nice and wide, a little larger than before.

Irritants that could cause a leather to close up when it normally wouldn't would be things like fish harrassing it, chemical warfare from other corals like a hydnophora place upstream from it (however more often than not leathers are the ones that bother other corals with chemicals, not the other way around). Etc.

But as long as nothing has changed in the tank, I'd say it's behavior is normal and nothing to worry about right now.

Good luck.

 

If it is a leather, like JP said give it time (up to a week). Its probably just molting. Mine does that every month. Nothing to be worried about. IF ITS A LEATHER???

Marc.

 

If it's a leather this is normal. a few weeks ago mine did the same thing just as I added a colt leather. Well the colt didn't fare so well which I believe irritated the finger leather. It took two weeks to slough off everything and it's still getting back to normal. My leather must have had some damage from the colt (which broke apart in my tank) because it has taken 3 wks for it to start standing up straight...it still isn't as high as it used to be. Be very patient, soft corals particularly leathers can be finicky.

 

It is a leather. Sould I direct more flow to help the skin come off. The tank has been up for a year. I dose Sea Chem reef complete and corbonate 1/2 of recommended dose(as suggested by GARf) I can try to get a picture so you can see the coral.

 

Just make sure it is getting enough flow or else it will not slough. That happened to me, I thought there was enough flow but I changed it around and that's when the leather started to shed. Is it a finger leather? is it dark in colour?

 

I believe it is a stubby finger leather. It has short pointy fingers but it has a greenish tint to it. I am not good with names.

 

Either molting or something is aggravating it. A moderate water flow will eliminate the molting as it will keep detritus etc. from accumulating on the top of it!! Molting is its way of cleaning itself!

 

oh forgot to mention when it's back from molting try blowing water with a turkey baster on it once a week. This helps keep detritus from building on it. Mine is a finger leather and yes they get aggrivated easily. Mine immediatly starts shrinking when my hands are in the water, water changes, bags floating etc. Don't get too worried they are pretty resilient. Make sure it's not being touched by another coral.