balanos?

[ViEt-TiN]

I recently got my hands on some balanos and dendros from a guy who purchased them from cherry corals. The balanos havent opened for him in about a month and havent really opened for me much either . Ive tried the tupperware technique and have gotten one or two polyps to open which I fed immediately. The dendros opened up already and is always ready to eat. Any other techniques I can use to get the others to open? It already started losing tissue and not sure how much longer they will last.

 

[ViEt-TiN]

Heres pics of my other coral. Sorry for the crappy phone pics.
I also have a chili coral but its not open during the day.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Are you feeding them in the dark? You might need to have them completely in darkness to have them extend their polyps. Try doing the tupperware method within a closed cabinet or similar. You'd probably have the best luck doing this a few hours after the lights have been off in your tank.

Also, the presence of coraline algae on the balano suggests they are in reasonably intense lighting. Try placing them into a dark corner of your tank.

 

[ViEt-TiN]

I placed them under a cave in my rock work where they get very little light. Ill try putting them in my cabinet to see if I get better response. Thanks

 

[glparr]

Definitely try feeding Balanophyllia in complete darkness. If there's any amount of light, mine close up.
Gary

 

[ViEt-TiN]

Its working! Theyre opening up in the dark. Are they not able to be adjusted to light?

 

[uhuru]

They can adjust to dimmer lighting where they will open up a bit, but I only see complete polyp extension after the lights are completely off for a while. Actually with most of these corals you will see the most polyp extension at night even if they do open up in the daytime as well. I'd like to know what they are using to sense light if they are azooxanthellae. Don't tell me its temperature since my LED's don't affect temps at all.

 

[ViEt-TiN]

I have noticed that my tubastrea almost look like theyre stretching at night. These guys like flow? I have them in a lower flow area of my tank

 

[uhuru]

I kept some in a lower flow tank for almost a year with no problems. They do fine in high flow as well as long as its not blasting at them.

 

[ViEt-TiN]

I did everything you guys told me and I think theyre going to make it! All polyps are opening for feeding and open after lights go out. Thanks for the help guys!