Yellow Polyps Not Extended Fully.

[ZeroKoolNYC]

I just recently added a frag of Yellow Polys into my 180 gallon Reef Aquarium and since I have added them they have not fully bloomed and extended themselves. My water paramters are within the recommended range and they are being provided with 436 watts of T5 High Output Lighting. The coral has been positioned within the mid section of the tank. I'm curious as to what I am doing wrong and what I can do to have them fully extend like I saw them originally.

[graveyardworm]

How recent is recently, and what exactly are yellow polyps? Can you provide a picture?

[ZeroKoolNYC]

Above is a photograph of what Yellow Polyps (Parazoanthus Axinellae) are and how they should be extended. My Yellow Polyps have been added just about 1 week now and have remained hiddin in their stalks with very minimal extension if any at all.

[graveyardworm]

How much flow are they getting? I have some similar polyps, and they seem to prefer low - med flow and regular feeding. How were they acclimated?

Also have read about the toxins associated with that type coral. You should wear gloves when handling them, and always thoroughly wash hands and arms after handling, they can make you very sick, and possibly cause death. Do a search on palytoxin there are many threads, one member even lost his dog to it.

Here's a link to a good discussion about palytoxin with some other links in the first post.

[ZeroKoolNYC]

Graveyardworm, the coral was acclimated over a period of 2 hours using the normal drip method then removed using a specimen container and added into the aquarium. Their is pretty good flow within my aquarium I have 4 Marineland Penguin 1140 powerheards rated at 300gph each. I just gave them a spot feeding of Marine Snow yesterday and they didn't respond to it. :-(

[graveyardworm]

Are they placed near any other corals that could possibly sting them or wage some sort of chemical warfare. Mine prefer meaty food so if you some frozen brine or mysis you could try to thaw a cube mix it with a little tank water and squirt some at them. What kind of flow are the polyps themselves being subjected to?

[ZeroKoolNYC]

Graveyardworm, I'm not really sure how to measure to the flow that they are being exposed to. They are actually my first coral addition to my Aquarium so no other coral is in the tank with them.

[graveyardworm]

This should've been my first question, howlong has the tank been setup? Do you have LR in there? Can you post your water parameters, more specifically ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, PH, Alk, asalinity, and temp? Also how are you measuring salinity?

[ZeroKoolNYC]

My tank has been setup for about 3 months now. I have about 80lbs of live rock (yes I am getting more) and a 5 to 6 inch Suger Grain Size Aragonite sand bed. Water Parameter are as follows.

Salinity Level: 1.020 I'm gradually raising this but the store has theirs at 1.018 and they were extended. (measured with a hydrometer)

Amonnia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
Nitrates: 0.0
PH: 8.3
81 to 82.7

[Harold Edwards]

I have a yellow tang that niped at mine until thay were all gone!
I would get the Salinity Level to 1.024 and the temp to 80.

[graveyardworm]

One way to judge the flow would be to add some food and watch how fast it passes the coral. Try to count by seconds how long it takes for the food to pass.

I would get the Salinity Level to 1.024 and the temp to 80.

1.026 would be closer to natural salt water (NSW) levels. 82.7 is probably about as high as you would want to go.

Aside from the salinity nothing there really stands out.

Possibly like Harold said something is harassing them when your not looking?

[ZeroKoolNYC]

Thanks for the info.

[Ken-21]

Sometimes it takes a while for a coral to open.