Fat Button Polyp Problems?

[bobvitas]

OK, I have a colony of reddish-brown "fat button" polyps that I acquired on some live rock a few years ago. The little group grew into about 10 polyps, until last weekend. Then, I did a normal water change, and now all the polyps have flopped over, and none of the crowns are out. They look like a bunch of dead worms. Any ideas what happened?

The water change wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Water parameters were well within the existing range of the tank's left-over water.

Bob
July 18, 2007

[ChilisREasy]

post lighting & filtration specs..& pictures if possible...sounds like you have Palythoas wich are hard to kill

[bobvitas]

Specs... It's a 55-gallon aquarium that has been up and running for about 2 years (a total of about 6 years, but I moved it a couple of years ago). Lighting has been a set of 4 fluorescent bulbs: 2 32-watt actinics and 2 32-watt 50/50 bulbs. Filtration is all biological now. I have about 80 pounds of live rock sitting on 60 pounds of live sand. Water movement is accomplished by 2 120 gph powerheads inside the tank, with a Skilter 400 (running without any filter media) and a homegrown protein skimmer (Geoff's design, attached to a Maxi-Jet 1200 powerhead). Picture coming... as soon as I can get some!

[ChilisREasy]

not enough lighting...50/50.is 2 more actinic..& then you have 4 other actinic bulbs...you need sun light bulbs..not actinic

[bobvitas]

Pix! This first one is the general environment. The buttons are situated behind this trumpet coral, and next to a finger leather. The mushrooms tend to stick wherever, and there are a few more below the polyps.

[bobvitas]

Second pic... as close-up as I can get. It looks like the main stem is mottled, where they used to be a solid color.

[bobvitas]

Regarding the lighting... this aquarium had has the same lighting for almost four years, and the button polyps have flourished until this past weekend. As I said, they grew from a couple of hangers-on to a colony of about ten or more, under the lighting specs I quoted.

[ChilisREasy]

hmm unless theres a parasite killing them i cant think of anything else if all your other corals are doing fine..those polyps are Palythoas a type of Zoanthid, really hardy ive seen very few actually die in my experiance,even in the worst water conditions.

[Sndwave80]

Yeah they are not looking that good.

[Loverotties]

How old are the bulbs?

[dobejazz]

How long have they looked like that?

[ScruffyRubicon]

Any chance the flow got changed any during your water change? Powerhead or return hitting them differently?

[bobvitas]

Thanks for all the replies!

How old are the bulbs?
Depends. Some of them have been in the group about two years. There are a few smaller ones that are just a few months old.

How long have they looked like that?
About 3 days now...

Any chance the flow got changed
Could be, but not significantly. I'll go check. They are in a position where the main jet from one of the internal powerheads goes just beneath their position. The opposing flow comes from the other side of the aquarium, and passes in front. So, they've always been in a kind of "quiet zone" in the flow. Judging by the motion of the nearby mushrooms, that looks to be the case. I'll report back when I take a look.

[ChilisREasy]

bulbs are dead..change them every 6 to 12 months

[bobvitas]

I just realized that I answered the question about bulbs with an answer regarding the polyps themselves, not the light bulbs! I was trying to figure out the statement "change them every 6 to 12 months" and how it pertained to my button polyps... (insert you favorite embarrassed emoticon here!) Regarding the actual lightbulbs, the flourescents were changed in January, so they're about 7 months old and probably due for a change.