am i losing my snowflake polyps?

[jenwebber3]

I have had this fantastic lime green snowflake polyps colony for around 6 months or so. He's been happy, though smaller than when he started, which I attributed to constantly being brushed by shrimp and crabs. On Sunday, I did a tank clean, and stirred up a lot of gravel, trying to get rid of some red bubble algae. he hasn't opened since, just looks like a big stone with holes in it, his tentacles sucked in deep. I don't want to wait it out and find I waited too long and lost him. I shot him with a turkey baster to make sure there wasn't any gravel sitting in him, and also spot-fed last night. a couple tentacles are protruding ever-so-slightly, but otherwise he is shut tightly. Is there anything else I could be doing? (I'm going to try the tupperware idea I saw in the sticky up top when i get home from work.) I'm sure it has something to do with the tank cleaning. Any thoughts? Don't want to lose him, he is very cool, (and expensive), and the stores in my area don't get coral like this very often (ok, they don't get good coral hardly ever). I hate feeling helpless when the living things I'm in charge of aren't doing well! :hmm4:

 

[uhuru]

aren't snowflake polyps photosynthetic?

 

[jenwebber3]

i've been told they need supplemental food. i lost my yellow polyps, which are supposed to be forgiving and easy to keep, so *shrug.* however, i have now found after some research they are not snowflake polyps at all, it is a flowerpot coral, which is apparently really hard to keep. though he did fine for 6 months, so i haven't a clue. i can't figure out this darn tank. i had an explosion of red bubble algae after having nothing like that since the start, and no matter what i add, or how much ciruclation i have, or how many water changes or halimeda i have, i keep getting blooms of invasive algae. but i guess that's a rant for a different section of the forum!

 

[deaddat]

flowerpots are very hard to take care of, but supposedly the red ones are a bit easier. All corals need some kind of food.

 

[uhuru]

I have 2 small frags of goniopora. I'd like to see if they do well when constantly fed like the rest of my corals. So far I have seen growth over areas that were dead and very nice polyp extension but we'll see how things do down the road.

 

[deaddat]

I have 2 small frags of goniopora. I'd like to see if they do well when constantly fed like the rest of my corals. So far I have seen growth over areas that were dead and very nice polyp extension but we'll see how things do down the road.

What are you feeding them?

 

[uhuru]

A lot of different foods. I make a special mix that is automatically dosed to all of my tanks throughout the day. Fauna Marin foods are the main component I would say, but also nutramar ova, cyclopeeze, Reef Nutrition stuff. They also get strong light as they are under a 250w Iwasaki 6500K.