Green Star Polyp Getting Smaller

[Fish Novice]

Hey Reefers,
I know GSP are known as "bulletproof" but I've had some problems with them.
First of all, they have a greyish blue tint with light blue tips color (it sounds awesome but looks a little dull) and I have also seen them get smaller in the course of 2 days)
I have seen many blue legged hermits ontop of the purple mat, but nothing else terrible. I alse have a duncan and a hammer in my 20, and besides a little retracting here and there they both look healthy.

Thanks, reef novice

 

[Biglew11]

How long has the tank been up? What are your nutrient levels specifically nitrate and phosphate. They should not be zero. Nitrate 5-10ppm phosphate. 05 to .1ppm

 

[Fish Novice]

tanks been up for 8 months or so. Dont know direct parameters, LFS tests my water and says the waters good. Ill go do another test soon

 

[Kris 2020]

Gso does like more nutrients in the water. Maybe yours is too clean?

 

[Fish Novice]

Mabye, ill talk to my LFS

 

[GaryE]

I highly recommend you get your own test kit and learn to use it.

 

[Fish Novice]

on it!

 

[GaryE]

My GSP is taking over the tank. But, my water is fairly dirty.. Frogspawn also seems to like it dirty.

 

[Fish Novice]

Here are some photos of its decline

 

[terraincognita]

I had GSP in a tank that I was shutting down.

I didn’t feed the tank for a week and it looked like this.

I’m assuming similarly you’re lacking nutrients for it.

what’s your feeding schedule and what are you feeding?

 

[Fish Novice]

I feed brine every day but I just got back from a 3 day trip and it looked like this. BTW I got the coral as it looked like this. Thought it was a cool color morph. It looks rather healthy except it just lost some polyps and just got smaller. What should I do? Im already getting mysis which I think has more nutrients

 

[terraincognita]

I feed brine every day but I just got back from a 3 day trip and it looked like this. BTW I got the coral as it looked like this. Thought it was a cool color morph. It looks rather healthy except it just lost some polyps and just got smaller. What should I do? Im already getting mysis which I think has more nutrients

Photos under blue lighting are hard to get a real image of what’s going on.

they may be a color morph you may be right.

Idk. Situations like this are hard for me to offer advice.

my experiences in reefing I’ve always had a lot of bio diversity.

with our tanks as these entire eco systems sometimes it’s hard to say what’s going on without a bigger better back story and understanding.

Also is the mat base of the GSP shrinking back? Or the polyps just aren’t extended?
If just your GSP is suffering and nothing else then it’s out of my own knowledge level

 

[Fish Novice]

Yeah, its kinda hard 2 tell. I think they're ok, just maybe a little stressed. If it changes/gets worse ill post about it.

 

[terraincognita]

Yeah, its kinda hard 2 tell. I think they're ok, just maybe a little stressed. If it changes/gets worse ill post about it.

p.s. This is my GSP, on god, used to look like yours after I starved it. the tips were even longer and straighter.

Cut off a patch and fragged it

This is 2 months later, hasn't grown much on the frag did, mainly got it's color back. (the higher part on the right is the section I glued on)

IMO GSP will always revert to it's obnoxious green when healthy. even if sold as a "off color" just my opinion.

 

[Fish Novice]

Got it, and how did you "starve it" and what did you do to make sure it got more nutrients?

 

[terraincognita]

Got it, and how did you "starve it" and what did you do to make sure it got more nutrients?

Lol I legit didn’t feed it. Anything at all for maybe 2 weeks as in I had emptied the tank except the GSP and was just lazy. Also had the lights out for a week straight I think....

they're bullet proof in generally they get their nutrients from almost anything you add to the tank,

which is why I’m so confused as to what’s going on with yours.

As in if this is the only thing in your tank looking unhappy that’s really weird haha.

 

[Fish Novice]

Yeah, sure is weird. Ima keep checking up on it.

 

[Fish Novice]

Just got home, it got way worse

 

[Fish Novice]

Other Corals Of Mine:

Everything looks good! Idk why its getting smaller?! Eaten by something? Btw its at the bottom of the tank on the left.

 

[terraincognita]

Hmmmm your hammer look a bit bleached to me.

is that a Duncan? If so they don’t need a lot of light so should be fine.

But what light are you using? Your hammer and GSP will need much more

see how brightly lit my coral looks in my photo vs yours? I think you may need to up your lighting intensity

it doesn’t need to be as bright as mine by any means, but yours seems very low. But may just be the photography.