Brown Button Problem

[PFB]

A couple of weeks back, my buttons were all opened.

 

This is what they look like lately.

Lower right hand side of tank.

 

Question, what could cause only half of them to be open?

I am thinking current, but placement of PH has never changed. Lighting has not changed – 18 watt combo.

 

FYI, LFS checked water and said all parameters are fine. Small frag in lower left side of tank are all open.

Candy, Shrooms, Stars and Anthelia are all open.

 

Is this just something they do from time to time?

 

Thnks.

[LiQuiD]

The zoo's exist as a colony. The bases are all attached in a mat, sort of like one big organism with many heads. It looks like you have 2 colonies of zoo's on that rock and that one of them has recently went through some trauma. I don't know what kind of shrimp or crabs etc. you have in ther but if something was chewing on a few from the colony, the whole colony will close up from the distress. Look at it and see if any heads looked chewed on or not. If not, just give it some time, if so, get rid of what is chewing on them.

[tinyreef]

conditions that affect your livestock could take days, weeks, or months to develop. for OTS that could even be years. i'd tend to agree that part of the issue is water current tho.

 

the little patch of algae growing to the left of the zoos, are you willing to trim that off? that would be my first move. the algae may be competing with the zoos for growth. why it affects one side and not the other may be due to the current. the PH's placement looks to me that the flow passes thru the algae and wraps around the rock.

 

another possibility is insufficient flow. if there's not enough flow detritus may begin to build up in that corner and the decay could be affecting the one side.

 

fauna, pods or worms may be active under the zoos mat. why one side versus the other? could current or temp (if the one side receives better light due to its placement).

 

zoos do sometimes 'just close up' but i find that to be more of an indication of overall water quality (i.e. something pollutive).

[PFB]

Great advice, thanks much.

 

I will trim the Algae from the front and rotate the rock to see if problem shifts.

If that doesn’t do it, I am going to purchase a “Worm Light” from Home Depot. The one I saw comes with a 65K 13 watt PC. I will move the JBJ to the front, directly over the buttons and place the “Worm” towards the back. That will give me 31 watts on 3 gal., should be enough for anything. (Shrooms are in the back and are partially shaded by the rock).

 

I have noticed that my blue legs hermits have been spending more time around this rock as well. But the left side always opens shortly after they move on.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I'm quickly loosing faith in Blue legged hermit crabs. At least one of mine has eaten some of the polyps off of one of my Monti frags. I see the little turd up on the Monti often but didn't give it much thought, figured it was eating algae, but I moved the Monti and when I turned it around the area I always see the BLHC was bare, all the polyps were gone, everywhere else on the Monti the polyps are healthy and thick.

[PFB]

Another thing that I have noticed about blues, they like to sleep in the branches of Candy’s.

I have observed this in my tank as well as a friend’s tank.

I have not noticed them dining on the Candy’s, just perched on the stalks - maybe they can get a good foot hold there.