Yellow polyps not doin so hot

[Nugg]

I just put some yellow polyps in my 40G reef this past week (Tues. I think) and they're not very yellow or extending as long as they were at first. I have 2 pc bulbs (one white one actinic) on 13 hours a day and decent current, and my colt and green star polyps seem to be doing fine, so I'm wondering what's up with the yellers. Could they still be acclimating to my tank after this much time?

Thanks,

Jeff

[horge]

A week?
Yes. In captivity they can be very slow to get used to new water chem (biopollutants particularly). Even long-settled colonies go into moody periods of withdrawal that can last a week or more.

I've also seen this happen in nature (among Tubipora musica and Clavularia spp), in the summer months when certain kinds of landlubber dust get blown out to the reef. Other times, dust actually promotes expansion (--for feeding?), but I digress.. Moodiness in the wild usually takes only a couple of days, what with cleansing currents.

I guess you re-check your chem params, check neighboring corals/anemones for excess sliming, and wait

[Raszagil]

What Horge said.

I have the same kind, they do much better if fed every day or every other day. I give them frozen beefheat and brine, they really seem to go for that. Mine are chugging along nicely, and have been reproducing much more quickly since I started feeding them.

Good luck!

Raz

[nosy-naso]

I HAVE YELLOW POLYPS, DO I NEED TO FEED THEM. I THOUGHT THEY'LL DO FINE BY JUST ADDING TRACE ELEMENTS INTO THE WATER?

[horge]

Hi noisy-naso...

Err, hehe, typing in ALL-CAPS indicates shouting here in cyberspace

Anyway, you can certainly try feeding your colony. Parazoanthus (the Genus routinely granted the commercial epithet 'yellow polyps' ) are certainly capable of nabbing very small morsels out of the water. I think there's even a video on the web of one polyp capturing a well-known plankton substitute granule.

You can get away with not feeding if you're simply after keeping them at low-energy survival levels, at least for some time.

There is evidence that corals and anemones will resort to absorbing compounds directly from the water ONLY when ingestion of food is not possible or insufficient to provide the animal's vitamineral needs. Probably makes sense that if it's eating enough good food, there's no need to tap other sources...

A lot of additives are (in)famous for their ability to encourage algal and/or bacterial blooms. Such blooms either provide food outright, or support populations of higher plankton that the coral can exploit. Heck, you could even dose a tank with a bit of sugar to promote a nutritious bacterial bloom like Dmitri Stepanov once proposed. (Not for novices of course. Bacteria are sometimes not the most benign of live foods)

Tentacular capture of morsels aside...
If you see a trail of stringy mucus from the 'mouth' of a polyp, it is most often a sign of active feeding: a mucus 'net' is paid out to trap bacteria and motley goop, and then reeled back in.

HTH, and don't be a stranger around here.

[horge]

Oh yeah...

For the great majority of corals/anemones, photosynthetic nutrition --by which term we mean the nutrition derived from symbiotic dinoflagellates (AKA zooxanthellae)-- is at best good enough only to support the basic metabolic processes like respiration, etc. of the coral/anemone.

For tissue construction and repair, moreso for reproduction, it certainly doesn't hurt to bring food into the picture

HELP!!! I can't stop yakking!!
Doug!! Alice!! Dick!! Bill!!
Get a muzzle on me!!!!
quickkkkkk!!!!

horge

Hehehehe Good points, if it has a mouth feed it chunks that will fit. As Horge pointed out theres an awful lot of stuff that uses very diverse clever, means of trapping nutrition, As I recall DR Shimek hammers the point that a lot of corals and relatives have around 80% of their structure devoted to prey capture or feeding thru some means

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I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[Alice]

"If it's got a mouth and gut, it's there for a reason."

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[just an observer]

When you feed individual polyps , do you find it benefits the entire colony?

[Alice]

Each polyp is an individual and they don't share the means to process food, however, it's possible that they share some type of common system (or it may just be a chain reaction chemical response) that makes them open and close in unison during feeding times, etc. I think as long as some food is *broadcast* in over the colony that they will all get enough food here and there to take care of their needs. These don't need to be fed heavily or too often.

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[nosy-naso]

Thanks Horge for the info. I do see the stringy mucus from my polyps. Does this mean it needs more food or just a sign of a healthy appetite? Also, I was too lazy to take the caps off.

[horge]

Hi nosy naso,

Mucus AND good polyp expansion indicates an appetite. (If the polyp is shy and you see 'mucus' --that's another story: the ejection of mesenterial 'gut' tissue as a defensive strategy}. An appetite is there to be satisfied!

Short term solution would be a plankton substitute, or perhaps some of the home-brew coral foods the members of this board might vouch for. It's "short term" because, it's only good for one feedingat a time.

Long term solution would be to install a refugium and a live deep sand bed. Both, in time, encourage constant, natural generation of planktonic larvae (from crustaceans, algae, molluscs, worms etc.) that most of your corals will love. It's not for beginners, but even beginners should try to understand the concepts behind 'fuges and LDSB's.

Alice is right to hint at the need to at least try to feed all polyps evenly:

There's a fair amount of intracolonial energy- and nutrient-transport via the basal tissue connecting the polyps (and evidence it gets 'priority shipping' to the colony's growing edge). Still, corals are mostly shameless gluttons in the wild, so you might as well target as many polyps as possible, eh?

horge

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So like, George W. Bush dies and goes to heaven, okay?

In heaven, St. Peter eventually shows George a humongous hall filled with clocks and explains that they're 'dishonesty clocks'. One for every person living or dead.

St. Peter points out the saintly Mother Teresa's clock which has never ticked at all, meaning total honesty. St. Peter points out Abraham Lincoln's clock, which moved only two seconds in his entire life, meaning remarkable honesty indeed.

George W. finds his own, and the clock has moved a full 50 years worth in George's lifetime --rather depressing. George sags, looks around and says, "Where can I find Al Gore's clock?"

St. Peter frowns and says, "Oh, you won't find it here. The Lord has it up in His study: He's using it as a ceiling fan."





[This message has been edited by horge (edited 11-13-2000).]

[Alice]

Hehehe, funny twist on the lie clock joke, Horge Thanks for the info; I knew that polyps like Clavularia sp shared their food/nutrients didn't know that regarding the yellows.

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[Nugg]

Update: my yellow polyps STILL aren't getting any better, in fact they're looking worse. They're not extending their bodies hardly at all like they're supposed to and they're not as yellow as they should be. I don't know what to do with them. Everything else in the tank is doing great. Any suggestions?

TIA

[BA]

Just to rudely fly in the face of the advice of some very knowledgeable reefers on this board:

I have two colonies of clavularia-type polyps in my little 37 gal tank and have never attempted to feed them. Despite this, they have tripled in area. I do have fish in the tank and I do feed them, however.

Who knows?

Best,
BA