HELP: New Leather Coral Shriveling up

[dancin_trancy]

Hey guys...I purchased a small frag of purple leather coral from my LFS about 4-5 days ago...there was a small portion of it that did not have any showing polyps...but the rest looked very healthy. After having it in my tank, it seemed to be flourishing...until this morning...when I glanced in the tank early this morning, it was fine, polyps extended....that was around 5:30am. I turned the lights off and put on the lunar lights, as usual....around 8 or so this morning..we had our power go out for about 10 minutes or so....I was keeping an eye on my tank..and was going to insert a battery operated air pump in the event that the power outage lasted any longer...but it came back on..and all systems were go!

Its now 11:00am....and for the first time since Ive gotten it...the polyps are all retracted...the surface is smooth..and it is starting to shrivel and shrink...

My water per. are in good condition...and nothing really has changed except for power outage issue. I live in Florida, so our power goes out often, and it has never caused an issue with any of my tank inhabitants...

That, and the day prior to purchasing the leather, I purchased "purple up" coralline algae supporter....Im giving a little less then the recommended dose...just to insure I dont OD my tank...I checked my calcium levels etc..all is well..


could it be that it was on its way out when I purchased him (he didn't look bad or I wouldn't have purchased him, with the exception of that one very small area on the edge that was smooth without polyps showing....but if that was the case, why would it show such improvement prior to today?

I only have a 20g.....he is towards the top of the tank, and is directly beneath the water flow coming out of the power head, so there is somewhat less movement in that area.

Any ideas...any suggestions? Anything...I have a small tank, so I don't want to wait to long to find that it is a goner...anything that dies in my tank that I leave in there for too long, could totally throw off my system..due to its size...what to do?

[crappyballer]

what kind of flow do you have and what is your salinity at? also leathers and such just close up sometimes. do you have any shrimp or anything of the sorts, that would jump on and cause the polyps to close. my cleaner loves to hop on and annoy my sinularia

[baugherb]

mine does that often. usually for 4-5 hours then its back to normal.. Mine mostly does it when a crab has been climbing on it. It should return to normal in a short amount of time. Mine gets alot of waterflow and it has been fine.. I'm pretty new at this, so this info is just from my experience. Good luck,,,,

[omard]

Completely normal. Mine do that everytime there is a light change...couple of times a dsy.

[dancin_trancy]

You guys were right...perfectly normal...hehehe...you know...I have had plenty of corals by now, but I do that every time...I go into panic mode when something changes...even though I know its going to happen...I guess because after I transferred him into my tank...he (like its a person didnt retract his polyps until then...I thought he was going down hill or something....I usually never get the same coral twice...so every behavior is new to me..and I still think something is going wrong...thats why you guys are here! Thank you...

He is doing great....all is well. Thanks again for your input!