25 Reasons why your polyps won't expand.

#6 also hitchhiker crabs, ive experienced one tear off a whole colony of zoas and hide them in his hole and slowly eat them all good thing i found his hole and him, he was soon taking a ride on a fillet knife ;)
 
Sorry, but "add a wrasse" is not a good suggestion in my opinion. Pods will exist in heavy numbers when they have ample food. If you have an excess of pods, you're possibly feelingly heavily. They're a part of a healthy tank clean up crew. In addition, a large majority of wrasses are more complex and difficult to care for and have additional requirements (i.e. having a top/lid is necessary, many require moderate or deep sand beds, etc).

Address the problem, don't try to "fix the symptoms" and potentially cause other issues ;)
 
I had the same problem as him and some amphipods in certain systems develop a taste for certain corals when in such large numbers. This good thing turns bad very quickly as they can destroy prized frags in a night or two. i had said add a wrasse not multiple, and i had said i used a mccoskers, very small wrasse that does not need a deep sand bed or one at all. There will still be many pods left and will still be there in good enough numbers to clean up leftovers, just not in high enough numbers where they turn to other food sources to survive ;)
 
With all of the polyp retraction issues, I thought I'd bump this thread. Hope it helps someone.

Mucho Reef
 
i have a frag of bambams that have algea growing all around the zoas whats the best way of geting it off without hurting them?
 
If you can, pick up Julian Sprung's book, "Algae, A Problem Solver Guide". It's an excellent book to keep handy. Very inexpensive and a must have for any reefer. I highly recommend you pick one up.
 
Thanks mucho reef. I belive that a couple of the reasons were to blame that you mentioned.Lack of knowlegde for one.The tank they were in is about to be done with for good.I have been lucky up to now with a bare minimum set of equipment on this 50 gal.The button polyps and Zoas were all frags at one point that were gifts.Every two week 5 gal water changes had kept things good for sometime.Sadly that practice had gone by the wayside with so many other tanks I have been working on the last year.The one thing that caught my attention on your list.....algae. The coraline algae all over the rocks the Zoas were on is now covered with a short red course algae I have never experienced before. The 50 gal tank is being replaced with a 120 that I will be starting from scratch. I am thinking to clear the 50 out...run cold freshwater over the sand substrate and use that in the 120.Acid wash all the live rock that is covered with the red short algae,scrub it off as best as I can.Mean while buy new live rock and culture it in the newly set up 120,that will be in my possession in a few weeks. Very drastic plan I know but I do not know how to get rid of the red short course algae otherwise.I have a 47gal holding tank in the garage,my fish will have to stay in(coral beauty angel,pair tomatoe clowns,Kleins butterfly).Sadly the button polyps in that tank have been closed from the start up of that tank around 10 months ago.Stupidly I took a large rock out or the 47 and put it in the 50.Dumbs--t!!!!!!That may have been the sametime the zoas and button polyps closed in the 50.The red course algae is not in the 47 glass curved front corner ViaAqua tank. But I sure would like to know what the close up of both is actually caused by. Mucho I really appreciate your help....kcirtap1 or Patrick backwards
 
If your polyps are not expanding, for this reason alone, dipping is never, never the appropriate first course of corrective action to take unless predation or disease is apparent. Many, some may disagree, and that's fine, but without knowing more about your system, I would never advise it prematurely. It seems that dips are being touted all over the web as a panacea for polyp issues and retraction, when they can actually exacerbate the situation if used when not warranted.

There are numerous, numerous reasons why your polyps may be retracting. Often a series of Q & A, and not abrupt dipping can isolate the problem. It can be something as simple as a parameters that has swung way out of your normal tolerance. It could be stray voltage, it could be something as simple as bad frags ( which is often the case lately ) or overpowering currrent, none of which would require a dip to correct. Anything growing in or near your polyps like a Hydroid for example, could be causing your problem. If it is a one of these tiny frags, I will share with you why those polyps may or may not expand, there are numerous reasons. You could also and very well be experiencing a simple bout of normal periodic retraction which truly is normal and expected, it happens.


If you are requesting some help with your polyps, please see this link below and share everything listed in this link so we can better assist you if you are experiencing polyp retraction and want some assistance from someone in this forum.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1852463


Then, take a look at the first page of this thread.


I will be updating this list soon with 30 Reasons Why Your Polyps Won't Expand.


Mucho Reef
 
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