Colt Coral Issue

[jerrinehart]

Hello all,
I recently bought what was told to me to be a colt coral. I do not have access to a camera at this time. It seems to be the short fingered stubby kind, as it really has no stalk. Just a bunch of stubby fingers no more than an inch tall. I have had it about 10 days.
My question is this. The brown polyps that come out of it sometimes are all out. Then I will come back and they will all be inside of it and it will be completely white. I have tried all different areas of the tank and no matter where I sit it, it does it on and off. Today they have almost all been inside for the entire day. I am afraid something is wrong with it, but I cant find any info as to what to do to help fix the issue.
All of my water parameters are fine and every thing else, fish, inverts, and corals are good.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appriciated!

 

[jerrinehart]

Ive been searching online and I can't find any help from any articles anywhere. Any help at all would be great guys.

 

[ChrisRD]

It's normal to see some polyp retraction - particularly with a new specimen - but also on a regular pattern with established corals. I wouldn't be too concerned yet. Personally, I would stop moving it around and give it some time to adapt.

 

[mr_X]

i have a colt. when i got it(about a year ago), it quickly grew to mammoth proportions. it split into 2 colonies, then all of the sudden, one of the colonies kind of shriveled up and turned very waxy/leathery looking. sometimes the polyps come out and it almost looks happy, but other times it looks ill.
the other colony is also not as "open" as it used to be, but it doesn't look any where near as bad as it's partner.
my parameters are next to perfect- .5 nitrate on the tanks' worst day, 400+ calcium, no nitrite or ammonia present. .025 salinity.


i have sps colonies doing very well, and growing like weeds. also various lps and soft stuff like shrooms and gsp, xenia and the like, all doing great.
nothing is near the colt, so it can't be another coral stinging it or anything like that. my colt gets alot of light, but it's not directly under the halides...it's kind of under a center brace between 2 bulbs. this first pic is how it was for the longest time-

this pic is the colt on a good day now-

 

[jerrinehart]

Thanks for the info guys. I was worried something was really wrong with, as opposed to it just trying to adjust. I hope to have the camera this weekend so I can post some pics of everything.

 

[camaroracer214]

sometimes soft corals can slough off skin. it would cause the polyps to retract for a brief period until all the skin is sloughed off. it happens every once in a while and is normal.

 

[Brian5000]

I had a Kenya Tree (same thing?) for a year. It was fine for a while until it suddenly stopped opening up and slowly disintegrated down to nothing over the course of several months.

At the time, I was doing a LOT of water changes trying to combat certain algea issues, and I noticed all of my soft corals were withering away just a little. The only thing I can imagine is that my water changes were depleting the water of something, and I was somehow starving them.

When I moved everything to the new tank, everything sprang back again. The only problem I have now are that my zooanthids don't really spead like I see in other tanks. Each polyp seems happy, but in a couple years, I have very little new growth.

What do these things need to thrive? Should I be feeding them?
_________________
Honda Express

 

[mr_X]

i just changed tanks also. it hasn't helped the shriveled giant. i do 20-25% waterchanges per week, and dose calcium as necessary.
i have kenya trees as well. i sold off what i could, and just when i think i am rid of them, a couple pop up out of no where. i cut them off at the base and toss them in the sump into a rock rubble pile. they grow like crazy in there 8O . i wish my colt acted the same.
i doubt very highly that the colt sheds skin. i have seen the more "leathery" corals doing this plenty, but i have never seen a colt or kenya tree do this.

 

[brandonberry]

jerrinehart,

How much does your temperature and salinity fluctuate? These are 2 factors that I have seen affect a lot of soft corals.