Smoking Polyps???

[goavs21]

I just added a couple of pieces of LR, given to me by a friend who had been neglecting his tank.

He gave me ~ 10lbs of LR, a small colony of star polyps, and a small brain coral (which I think might be on it's way out).

Two questions:

1st- Are my existing fluorescent green star polyps pissed at me?? They have not fully opened today, and the few that have are smoking.

2nd- Can I help this brain?? Part of it is still brown-fleshy colored, a good portion is white, and some is even coralline covered.

Please tell me I did not make a huge mistake trying to help some poor little creatures. :?

 

[Anonymous]

is it possible that the polyps are not opening because of the other dying animals in the tank, or did they refuse to open prior to the new additions?

 

[goavs21]

I think it must be the new additions. They had opened fully, every day, since I acclimated them 10 days ago.

 

[Anonymous]

lets clarify, the polyps, are they a new addition as well? or are they 10 days old?

if you have dying livestock in your system and your system has not matured to a point that it can handle healthy livestock then i fear you to be in trouble.

i don't know the size of your tank but water changes are going to become a good portion of your days for a while until this levels out. these situations where everything is stressed to the point of bleaching, and retracting polyps, tend to run their coarse until only the strong survive.

what do you mean by "smoking"?

i hope you have adequate lighting.

 

[goavs21]

Thanks for the quick replies!!

Sorry, I should have given a little more background info.

I have been running a 55 for 13 months, 4x55watt pc lighting (2 - 6700K, 2 - 03 actinics) ~5" sand bed (mixed: bagged LS / Aragamax oolitic sand), 45lbs of LR, CPR bak pak II, and a few misc ph.

Added 10 days ago :arrow: small fluorescent green star polyps encrusted rock, one good sized Hawaiian feather duster.

Received today :arrow: ~ 15lbs of LR, another sm star polys rock, and this damaged brain.

Now, the "smoking" polyps are from the colony I added ten days ago. Very few have opened up at all today. Of the few that have, they seem to be letting off some sort of dust or smoke. They will release this film / cloud for a few seconds, stay open, then another catches my eye and the process repeats. The new additions were added round 2pm. Lights were off until 6pm, actinics for an hour before the daylights.

 

[Anonymous]

i have star polyps in one of my tanks and i have yet to see them "smoke" as you have described. i hope they are not releasing their zooxanthellae. this can look like smoke like.

if this is a normal star polyp process i hope someone will chime in.

your brain will need to be elevated to a high section of the tank. is it bleaching rapidly? i have a platygyra sp that is quite hardy but when i first aquired it i had problems with bleaching likely from acclimation. it went fast but luckily i managed to stop it.

i suppose you have a good deal of skimmer output?

 

[goavs21]

I have not done any research on it yet, but what might releasing their zooxanthellae mean??

My skimmer does a pretty good job, thinking I might need to upgrade soon.

Not sure on the bleaching rate, as I have not seen my friend's tank in some time.

 

[Anonymous]

hermatypic (light needing) corals such as yours, need light to feed symbiotic algae that resides within their bodies. this algae has been termed zooxanthellae. its a hermatypic corals lifeblood, so to speak.

 

[Anonymous]

can you post a pic?

 

[goavs21]

Still working on finding a reasonably priced digital camera, any suggestions on that one??

 

[ReefLion]

I have no idea how star polyps reproduce, but the smoke could be sperm. Seems unlikely with something so new in your system, but it's possible. When snails do it it definitely looks like little puffs of smoke.

Tim

 

[goavs21]

I've seen this with a few of my snails as well, releasing gamets.

I would like to hope this could be something similar, but I'm afraid it's not.