Shrinking & Stretching Coral could be telling you something...

[James_O]

One of my Duncans is the canary. If it’s not extended I watch for a couple days. Usually it does this if it’s throwing off new heads or grabbed so food flying by but once an extended closure was from higher than normal parameters and sometimes the mother clown loves up on it and makes it unhappy.

Interesting. On my new Duncan, one head (out of three) is shrunk for a while, then opens back up. Could it be spouting another head?

Thanks I’ve got quite a few

Incredible!! Makes my wallet scream. ;Dead ;Greedy

 

[VegasReefer]

I think one of the most import parts of owning a reef is knowing your inhabitants and what I call a baselining. What the coral looks like when its happy, and when its not. Pay attention and they will let you know if something is off.
The other part of this is recognizing if it’s a single coral, or a potentially larger issue. A single coral might lead to an irritant, whereas multiple corals could point to parameters (sg, chem, current, temp, par, etc) being off.

 

[LatinoHeat]

Great topic!

 

[Double monti 61]

It also depends on what type of coral it is it seems to be a lot easier to see a palythoa consume mysis shrimp when feeding than a montipora. My palythoa look like onions after they catch the shrimp then they open up after consuming their meal so if they only close up intermittently then they might be feeding .

 

[James_O]

It also depends on what type of coral it is it seems to be a lot easier to see a palythoa consume mysis shrimp when feeding than a montipora. My palythoa look like onions after they catch the shrimp then they open up after consuming their meal so if they only close up intermittently then they might be feeding .

I thought zoas and palys were the 1 exception.

 

[flyfisher2]

In my quarantine I see the zoas extend but if I raise the intensity of the light then the elegance has to be moved further off to the side or he retracts. Until they are ready to be placed in the display I have to just shuffle them around.

 

[Worthy1]

My leather does this very well. When its polyps go in and it shrinks up i know i need to test. Its usually my alk that has swung so its the best indicator i have besides testing everyday.

The only problem is it naturally does it once a month or so when it goes through a growth stage, shrinks, gets a brown skin, sheds reopens looking healthy as.

 

[CompulsiveFragCollector86]

Stretching usually means light. Shrinking could mean a number of things. If it goes on more than a day or two, better start looking. My canary is bubblegum digitata and Elegance coral. If its the digitata, better start testing.

I literally got the same digi other day it's so pretty

 

[Tabbers920]

Interesting how this topic get posted today after last nights little panic. LOL. I freaked out that my torch has shrunk really bad to where its skeleton was showing. Good thing I had some water to ready since I was planning on doing my biweekly water change. Im not sure what might have caused it but so far this morning it looked great again.

What are your parameters before water change? You may be replacing ca or mag with your water change but right below things are too low?

Can also run carbon for 2 days to clear up the water and thus make lighting better. Check water color with a Styrofoam cup.

 

[Tabbers920]

I thought zoas and palys were the 1 exception.

Nope, I had one frag of palys actually totally move themselves about 2 inches higher on the rock. Pretty neat

 

[James_O]

Nope, I had one frag of palys actually totally move themselves about 2 inches higher on the rock. Pretty neat

That’s crazy! Didn’t even know they could do that.

 

[darwindiaz]

What are your parameters before water change? You may be replacing ca or mag with your water change but right below things are too low?

Can also run carbon for 2 days to clear up the water and thus make lighting better. Check water color with a Styrofoam cup.

Im thinking it was because I decided to put a clip on fan on my canopy hoping to increase my ph level. But I think it was blowing airborne chemicals from the scented plug ins my wife has around the house.

 

[Tabbers920]

Oh no, yeah, that's no good!!
I had that issue too.. ended up putting a fan in the sump area near the skimmer. Skimmer needed more air.
Also increased surface agitation

 

[ClownWrangler]

That’s crazy! Didn’t even know they could do that.

I was wondering about that. I picked up a rock from the LFS that had some type of pallys on it, 20 or 30, but none of them are touching. I couldn't picture how they would end up like that without splitting and moving.

 

[OurNanoReef]

If my zoa's ever shrink or don't fill out like they usually are I know the tank needs a dose of iodine. Next day they are fat and in tight groups again.

Why iodine? What are its properties , and what’s being rebalanced in your system?

 

[alexristaino]

Why iodine? What are its properties , and what’s being rebalanced in your system?

That I do not know. I just know that when zoa's are very stressed or fragged that an iodine dip is good for them. I went on a long vacation and when I came home noticed the polyps we're very retracted and skinny so I started dosing iodine. It fixed the issues within a week so now I dose iodine at the first sign of decreased growth or shrinking.
Not sure if when that happens other trace elements are depleted as well or what. Would love to know.

 

[Saltydog69]

Yes especially my torches. If they are shrunk up then something is off. Pay attention to your corals and they will let you know if they are happy or not.

but what exactly should I test for, all my torches have always been shrunken up, my icp test are good. I have great nutrient levels.... I removed screw it im gonna make a post about this....

 

[sghera64]

I notice Torches stretch quite a bit if light is too low but seem invincible otherwise.

Goniopora retract and shrink in short order if I forget to spot feed them regularly. Its hard to get them back into shape when that happens and they are easy to lose.

Candy canes shrink noticeably if nitrates get high, but bounce back quickly.

GSP expands indefinitely always and forever.

I've seen the same thing, but sometimes my Goni's go through an unexplained retraction phase. I find that moving them to lower light for a while, or restarting a 14 day acclimation period on my LED's helps.

What do you spot feed the Goni's?

 

[Cheche]

Well I have noticed on my purple monster is the only corals the I can see telling me something is wrong. Not only for the lights bcoz I don’t touch the settings for nothing. Like a month ago my purple monster told me the alkalinity was low .. right they didn’t write it down . But I can see they are small I check the water and yes alk was 6.8 it took me over 2 week to get it back . And at the same time I was bringing the alk up my cal was super high 578well the corals did react to this change and help me control my tank ones I see this happening.. so in my opinion they do talk indirectly

 

[nicksreefs]

Great topic. I can usually tell if somethings off by looking at my elegance and a daisy polyp who were both early residents and have thusly been stared at for much longer. Currently having new daddy problems though with a softy (Pusey) who has little random moments... just gonna keep checking methodically but odd as the canaries are doing better than ever