Green Star Polyp question

[FlyGTI]

Hey, here's one for the reefers...anyone ever bleach the green out of green star polyps?  I had a small rock of them in my 28g bowfront (is that still nano?) and over about six or so months, they sorta bleached out.  The arms didn't turn white or anything, but a little more reddish.  I'm not pleased.  Is there anything I can do to reverse this?  I used to have this beautiful green afro in my tank, and now it's just sorta pinkish red.  I'd much rather have the green.  Any advice would be helpful.

[kryptonite]

What kind of lighting do you have?  Where were they located in the tank?

[Delph]

(Edited by Delph at 10:17 am on June 3, 2002)

[FlyGTI]

28 gal bowfront tank, 25 lbs. of live rock, 110w PC, CPR BakPak IIR.  I moved the polyps yesterday to a position about halfway down the tank (eight or ten inches from the light, perhaps a little bit more) in a low current area of the tank.  Good move?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Fly

[pulpsmack]

Good move IMO. Let's see what the polyps say this week.

[CroceaMaxima]

My green star polyps lost color over a few month.

 

29G tank with 65W smartlight(10K+Actinic),

Just added second smartlight 55W.

 

Star polyps half way high.

Now it's totally brown!  Lost fluorescence color completely!

 

What's going on?

 

 

I just moved it to my 10G clam tank 70W MH with 26W actinic.  Hope it turn green again!

 

[pulpsmack]

As much as I can sympathize with your anxiety and can understand your desire to move it, I feel that these constant relocations with drastically varying intensities may work against you. If you are going to halides then the little guys need some aclimation (I know, easier said than done when you have to keep a clam happy too). Check the integrity of the polyps when closed maybe a worm (I doubt it, but what the hell)or parasite is disturbing them. What salt do you use? do you use active carbon (I'm thinking malnourishment) Do you feed it planktonic foods? how about temp?

[SD619]

Pulpsmack brings up some good points.  I think the introduction of planktonic foods to their diet might make the biggest difference to your star polyps gaining their color back.  I have seen a discoloration occur on my star polyp colony as well and an about to try feeding them some phytoplankton to try and regain some color.

 

I have an ALife 5 bowfront with 27 watt lighting.  The I have the mother colony of star polyps placed at the top of my tank and a 3"-4" frag sitting on the bottom of my tank.  Both of which are getting discolored.  This fact alone helps me eliminate the lighting issue (i.e. I don't think it is the lighting intensity that caused them to discolor).  

 

I have 2 scooter blennys 1" long and 1/2" long.  The 1" scooter blenny likes to sit on the mother colony and stay on top of the polyps for a few seconds before moving on, but the polyps do not seem to get disturbed by the movement at all.  He is also not sitting at the part where the discoloration is occuring.

 

My tank temp has always been constant, and I've used RO water with my salt for my water changes.  I also switched to using ocean water before any color changes began.  The only effects I've seen from switching to ocean water is my gonipora looking healthier and my giant protopalythoa propagating like crazy.

 

Everything has been checked except for malnourishment.  I will be posting some pictures of my tank soon and keep you guys up to date.

[Dummmmy]

I also have been kind of having the same problem except that mine havnet even opend yet period sometimes they slightly open up but just like 2-3 of the whole lot of them.  I dont know what it it all the water parapaters look ok and the 2 little shrooms i have have gotten bigger and look good but these things wont open up? might it be that i need to feed them?

Matt