Toadstool and poly extension question

[wcfost]

Hi. I've had a couple of toadstools for 4 months or so, and up until a week and a half or so ago, all was well. It would extend its polyps daily, retract them and shed a mucous layer every couple days, reopen again, etc. Ten days ago though, it retracted and hasn't opened since. This is the odd thing, though:

After 9 days I fragged one of the fingers and within 4 hours the polyps had extended on that little frag. Why would the main colony not extend for ten days (and counting), but once severed from the colony, the frag extends almost immediately?

Thank you!

As a quick note, the flow and light between the location of the colony and the location of the frag seem to be the same. There are a couple other frags from the same colony in various places around the tank, and they all look good.

 

[mike007]

My toadstool opens up and closes several times during the day. I moved to bottom of tank and it seems that he is staying open most of the time. Are your water parameters good?

 

[Tahoe61]

Sacrophyton are just weird that way. They can stay closed for longer periods of time then most soft corals.

If algae or detritus is allow to collect on the crown they will stay closed longer.

Always watch out for the bite marks of predators such an nudibranchs. Nudibranchs will leave a dusting much like worms or saw dust.

Sometimes a simple water change is enough to get those stubborn Sacrophytons to reopen though.

 

[wcfost]

I'm surprised less by the length of time it has stayed closed than by the fact that a frag of the closed coral effectively immediately opens up

 

[Planedoc]

Mine do the same thing. Once I had one about 6 inches diameter. I didn't open for a couple weeks and pieces started Falling off it. All the pieces would open up right away. Finally I trimmed it with razor blade down to 4 inches and it opened the next day. No idea why.

 

[wcfost]

Sounds like exactly what mine is doing. It's almost like cutting them accelerates a natural reproductive cycle that they'd otherwise undergo slowly (over multiple weeks?) with the polyps retracted. Problem is I'm not really interested in having a dozen small leathers...

There are actually two separate leathers undergoing the same process directly adjacent to one another. Maybe I'll cut one up and leave the other intact to see what eventually happens if I don't cut vs if I do. Thanks!