sps polyp extention

nope. They're in a pitch black room at night. The favia, acro, monti and candy cane keep their polyps fully out ( monti and acro) or partly/sporadically out (candy cane and favia).

Rhetorically reaction is much greater at night for the lps I mentioned, but they still partially keep them out during the day.

 

Are you feeding them, do they show this feeding response after you introduce food for the fish to eat.

 

No. the sps have their polyps out during the day and retracted at night. Same with the lps, but they almost always have their polyps out a little ( nothing like it is at night though).

 

I wouldn't worry about it. If you have good coloring, then the coral is most likely happy.

Not all your SPS have the same length of polyps. They could be fully extending and they just look small to you. I have had one that was almost 3/4 inch long polyps down to just a little fuzzy showing. Both corals were very happy, just different.

 

Be sure you check for pests (red bugs, AFEW, etc). They can decrease your PE, and they only feed on some corals and not others.

 

Without reading what everyone else has said, here's my .02. Polyp extension, in sps, can actually be a bad thing. I can actually mean you are lacking in it's #1energy source which is DRUM ROLL PLEASE.........LIGHT! If you are lacking in light, the piece will turn to the next best thing which is actually feeding out of the column. Since sps don't have a lot of flesh to maintain, no need for much in physical food. Does that make sense?

 

Sorry, but I really couldn't disagree more. Here's my thoughts from experience.

- If you have fish that maybe perching or nipping at the corals, you will not have polyp extension. However, you may have polyp extension at night when nothing is bothering it.

- If you've ever done any kind of diving or snorkeling where these corals come from, they have polyp extension all day and all night long. They will feed whenever possible, whether there's light or not, via food from zooxanthellae, or capture from water flow.

- I used to get the same kind of explanation from majority of people for many years (I've been keeping sps for almost 10 years now). The truth is, almost always, when I don't have polyp extension, something is wrong. If I don't have polyp extension on all my corals, something is really wrong. If I don't have polyp extension on just a few corals, often times they start to RTN, these are signs of poor health to me. I have polyp extension on every single one of my sps corals now. Feel free to look at a few pics I've posted (http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-corals/grateful-141753.html). I purposefully disturbed the coral in the 3rd picture (pink coral and blue coral), so I can show the colors due to so much polyp extension that you could not see the color of the body or coralite.

I've learned that adding fresh made salt water to the tank is not enough, these corals need stable parameters, perfect amount of calcifying elements (alk/cal/mag/etc), pollution free water (meaning 0 toxins), adequate food source from light or water, and lots of random water movement to deliver the food to their bodies (not sure if you've noticed, but they don't have legs to go after food)

 

I have checked many times over very closely for pest with no signs,but unfortunately since this thread started more than half of my frags have either rtn'd or stn'd.After having several pm discussions with a few sps keeping friends on here,I believe we have it narrowed down to two things.

1.I added the frags very shortly after the cycle,the tank is not mature enough and I also believe all the new rock and sand is leeching phosphates and silicates still,my test read 0 but my diatoms,cyano and algae is telling me different

.My plan is to add no more until my tank is past the "ugly phase" lol,coralline starts taking off and I see how the remaining frags are doing.

Surprisingly most frags lost were most of what would be considered "easy or starter" sps due to them being a little more forgiving.Most of the ones that are remaining and seemingly doing very well are most of the higher end pieces,lol,go figure.

2.I also believe I under estimated the intensity of my LEDs and have found most all of my corals in general are much happier since I have turned them down to 60%.(I did light acclimate,but I still believe I had them turned up too high)

Like mentioned,i'm new to sps,it's a part of the learning curve and I believe I jumped the gun a little too quick,I am going to keep pursuing sps,but the plan for now is to slow myself down,let the tank mature a bit and let it grow.

 

You could be right about your tank being premature.

Not to under estimate the pests issue though. Unless you've dipped them in some sort of anti pest medicine, you almost always won't see them. Especially if you're not familiar with what they look like.

 

Yes,all have been dipped in coral rx,also some of the frag plugs had a red hair type algae that I did not want to introduce into my tank,therefore I snipped all frags at the base and glued onto rubble rock.And yes I have researched both redbugs and afew's and know exactly what (and when) to look for.I do not believe pest to be a factor.Two that rtn'd just the other day were a green birdnest and a bird of paradise,which should eliminate afew's.