Torch turned stubby

[s_tempest]

I wonder if anyone could help explain what is going on with my torch coral. Below are two pictures from Oct 6 (pics are poor and zoomed in b/c I didn’t predict needing these), and then a third from three days ago. The coral just seems ... stubby.

A month ago:

and the stubby one

 

[Salty Lemon]

Have you tested your water? My torch shrinks, flattens, or isn't as pretty when I start neglecting my tank.
Edit: Also, it looks like it may be splitting. How long have you had it? If you have had it awhile, that could be the case.

 

[s_tempest]

Tank details:
130 gal
2 Hydra 26 lights
Sal 1.026
pH 8.2-8.4
All 7.8-8
Ca 410-440
NO3 8-10
PO4 unsure but LFS measured <.05 (my kit ran out.
These are the parameters (and range) with measuring at least 1x/week for three month. Pretty stable.

Tank has been set up since early Aug , and torch came over from 3yr old prior tank. Torch looked like in the first two pics from start up until about 3 weeks ago.

There really hasn’t been any big change. So I’m wracking my brain as well as people at my LFS. The torch seems healthy otherwise, not retracting, not showing skeleton below the polyp.
Any ideas?

 

[s_tempest]

Have you tested your water? My torch shrinks, flattens, or isn't as pretty when I start neglecting my tank.
Edit: Also, it looks like it may be splitting. How long have you had it? If you have had it awhile, that could be the case.

I was typing the tank parameter part as you wrote. Things have been both stable and in good range.

 

[Salty Lemon]

I'm guessing here -- I think your torch wants a sibling and is in the process of splitting. He might be stubbing up while this process happens. So long as your water conditions are good, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Keep taking pictures. This will be fun to watch if that is the case.

 

[s_tempest]

Thanks.
I wondered about splitting. That was one thing I read when searching.
The blessing & the curse of all this online info at our fingertips is that you can find someone somewhere who’ll confirm your suspicions or report on some similar observation caused by x, y or z.
So for stubby torch, I found:
too high flow
too low flow
too much nutrients
too low nutrients
too much light
not the right light
pests
splitting
trace elements missing
trace elements overdosed
waning crescent moon
jupiter in retrograde
gremlins
poltergeists
bad taste in music
cilantro
and bed bugs


I will watch & monitor things. And try to not let worry lead to trying to make changes. I’d love if it were splitting!

 

[s_tempest]

I have a hammer & two smaller torches, and they are not being stubby.
But I also have an elegance (probably 2 1/2 years old) that went stubby at the same time.
It went from this (poor quality b/c it’s blown up from larger photo):

to this:

 

[s_tempest]

The guys at my LFS thought maybe the torch & elegance were adjusting to higher light. Could be.
I didn’t keep great notes on when I made lighting changes, but I did increase things after taking some PAR measurements early in October. Could “stubby” happen ~2 weeks after a lighting change more or less overnight?