Yellow Polyps help!

I had bought a rock full of yellow polyps (yes, yellow polyps not star polyps or star burst or sun polyps) that seemed to be doing nicely, until my LFS informed me that I should be feeding them. They suggested phytoplankton, which I bought and tried giving them. When I did the couple times I did, they immediately closed up and wouldn't open back up until the next day. Now they have been dying 1 by 1. I've stopped feeding them, but they still are dying off. Any thoughts on why they'd be dying off or how to stop it? My water params are fine with the exception of my nitrates which still sit at about 20 ppm, but they were that way before when the polyps were doing fine too. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I never feed my yellow polyps, they are photosynthetic but will glady accept morsels of food. Are they touching any other corals. These are aggressive stinging polyps, could they be fighting with another coral? Also what type of lighting do you have?
Try moving them to another spot in the tank!

 

They aren't near any other corals and never have been. I've got 260 W power compacts. You think they need to be moved up closer to the light maybe?

 

My story

I had the same problem. Bought aquarium w/yellow polyps. Guy said he never fed them (photosynthetic.) Had for 6 months and they were multiplying. I moved them to a slightly more agitated area of the tank (put a ricordia where they were) and they started dying. Moved them back and they continued to die off. All gone.
A biologist friend bought some 9 months ago. LFS said no need to feed. Soon they started to die off. He went to his books and book said feed them (although they are photosynthetic). He fed them and they are now multiplying.
So, I don't know what to tell you Mr. Bond! They seem to be highly sensitive to position or change of location? Logically, I have to think they would not have tentacles if they don't need fed. Many other marine animals are photosynthetic, but still use other means to acquire sustenance also (corals, clams, anemones, etc.) When I get more I will feed them.

Live long and prosper.;D

 

i think feeding them will depend on how much light they get. if they arent gettin gmuch light they will probably need to be fed. however i dont think you should target feed them. i have known people to have good luck with adding baby brine shrimp and phyto. jmo

 

The polyps you have dont even have a sp. name yet, i forget the genus. They are highly touchy, more so than any other coral i have. I had the same experience of them doing very well, moving them, and watching them die off. I never fed mine and they took over 1/4 of a 5 gallon under 26watts of pc, moved them about 4 inches and the never recovered.

 

You can never go wrong with feeding the tank as a whole The "Marine Plankton" (cousin of BioPlankton) is really good for the bigger guys

 

I just picked up a nice frag today. 20+ yellow polyps and a zoo colony with button polyps. All one big happy family. I'm gonna attempt to spot feed them Sunday and update you guys on how well they respond to feeding.

Before this frag, I had another small frag of yellow polyps. Moved them up high to the light, but still died. I really think these guys need a feeding once in a while. Maybe it was my crappy lighting setup I had before, but I did notice that once they are dying off, that's it, you will not be able to bring these polyps back.

 

My experience with them is that they are really picky about water quality. I've had Yellow polyps for well over 2 yrs now and the only seem to retract when the water change is due, or when the salinity is out of wack. Bare in mind that I have moved twice since having them in the tank.

They are photosynthetic. However, I will also include that during the time that I had sunpolyps in with them they seemed to be doing best. They seemed to enjoy when I soaked the cyclopeeze (in a brine shrimp net) for the sunpolyps and the phyto.

But they were doing fine before that as well. The one thing I do know for sure is that they are really demanding of high water quality.

 

Hello,
I have yellow polyps as well and i have to tell you they are pretty hard to figure out. Light wise, I have 5 watts per gallon in my two tanks. At the time, they were doing fine along with all of my other corals. Then I started losing my polyps slowly but surely. I finally realized what the problem was. My light had not been changed in about 9 months. And for pc's they need to be changed around that time...the lights may still be bright, however, the power(lumens) decreases drastically. What i'm trying to say is that light has an impact on polyps.
The other thing is that i feed my button and yellow polyps brine shrimp from a feeder(like an eye dropper). They love it and grow big and spread pretty fast. Try coaxing them to come out as you would with sun polyps by offering them brine shrimp. Trust me it will work!
best of luck!
tom