Anyone care to guess

[slapshot]

or even know. Why the NPS so many of them inflate and deflate? Seems mine inflate at the presents of food, eat (I hope) and then deflate, only to reinflate in a hour. I wonder what is going on physiologically. Resting? Sucking in food ladened water? Any guesses or knowledge?

 

[uhuru]

It can definitely be a feeding response, but there are likely other factors involved as well. Here is an excerpt from an article by Charles Delbeek:

"Another interesting observation is that colony inflation and deflation does not seem to follow any discernable pattern. In the early morning the colonies are deflated and then inflate later in the morning and would remain so for most of the day, although deflation could occur again at any time during the day."

 

[slapshot]

I guess I am wondering if one can draw any conclusions about the health of a particular animal by the rate, amount or time period of inflation and deflation. I guess the answer is, no.

Case in point my chilli coral has been open for 2 days straight since I started auto feeding 8 times a day. Then it closed up for over 24 hours. I thought it was a goner. Then yesterday it opened up and is still open now. Maybe it thought it was Thanksgiving with all the food in the column. Ate to much and needed a long nap?

 

[uhuru]

Yeah I think many of these corals will do that when exposed to something new. My dendro will do that if I put a bunch of new corals in the tank. If it's just a small one it doesn't notice. It could very well be that it is feeding off the mucus that the new corals will produce in abundance at the beginning. Or, it could be producing some type of chemical signaling itself. Who really knows??

Many of my gorgs (and my lightning sponge) will stay open for weeks at a time, then close for days to a week at a time. I assume this has to do with maintenance since I often see them shedding during this time.