Why to palythoas fold themselves?

[Pinecone_Jeff]

Hey There!
Why do palythoas (sp?) fold their polyps down occasionally? It's like an umbrella closing only the tentacles say radiating outward. Any ideas about why this is?

[mdhyde]

that would be when it has caught something worth eating and it is chowing down on it. :)

[Pinecone_Jeff]

No, no... it's not closing upwards. It's closing like an umbrella with the oral disk at the very top. Exactly the opposite way from how it eats.

[Pinecone_Jeff]

^^
Bump :)

[melev]

Two guesses:

It's stretching out because it is very very happy.

It is shaping itself into an umbrella because of imminent rain (lots of water! :lol:)

Sorry, not helping much, am I? At least I can tell you this, they don't die from doing this.

[harbingerofthefish]

http://nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11570

[melev]

So the bottom line is "we don't know" but "it isn't bad". I can live with that. Thanks for the link.