Candy Cane not opening

[Jimnparadise]

I added a nice Candy Cane with 9 heads a week ago. Five of the heads are opening every day and look good. Two of the other four have only opened once or twice and the other two have never opened. I can see the polyps in the closed heads and they are intact and look just like the others, they just never extend.

It has been in place for a week now and I have thought about moving it, but the 5 heads seem happy where they are. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts? Is it worth trying to move or is the problem likely to be something else.

Water is testing fine and I dont see any sign it is being bothered by anything in the tank. The only other coral in the tank is a polyp rock but its sitting about 2 feet away.

Thanks

J

 

[silver17jo]

Are any fish picking at it? You may want to try feeding it at night.
Also can you post your water para? It maybe somehting that you havn't checked.

 

[Agu]

Are the feeding tentacles out before the lights come on ? If so you might try some direct feeding.

Also, hows the water flow ? Is it more intense on the polyps that don't open ? Too much flow will keep them from extending.

 

[Jimnparadise]

I havent seen any fish harassment and even my Peppermint seems to leave it alone.

Flow idea is worth following up on. It is placed where there is water some water movement but not a strong laminar flow.

Water parameters:
PH - 8.3
Temp: 80-82
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: ~8 (due for a water change)

I havent tested Calcium or Alk for a couple of weeks since this is the first stony in the tank. Coralline growth has been good and the Halimeda in the tank is growing. I do dose Iodine once a week.

I have only seen the feeding tentacles once and that was on one polyp. Im talking about the regular polyps not extending. The other polyps do respond and swell up when there is food in the water.

I bought this from the LFS before they had even tanked it so I cant verify that the polyps ever opened.

-J