Disappearing star polyps

[paraletho]

I have a small colony of Star polyps that disappeared overnight. They have been gone for 3 days now. The purple base of the colony looks good its not flaking or shedding. I recently added a Banded Coral Shrimp ( purchased for 1/2 price because it only had 1 claw ,one molt and now there are 2). Is it possible he ate them?

Parameters

SpG-1.023
Nitrate-0
Temp-74 to 76
Calcium-425
Ph- 8.3

Stock

Six line Wrasse
Ocellaris Clown
Yellow Watchman
Kenyan Tree
Blue Mushrooms
Xenias
6-8 Astrea
5 Scarlet Leg Hermits
Banded Coral Shrimp
Star Polyps (Questionable)

 

[rookiegirl]

Temp is a little low isn't it? 77-81 w/be much better, with 79 being optimal.

 

[greggnyce]

You should also bring your salin up to 1.026

 

[paraletho]

Thanks rookiegirl and greggnyce I agree. I am currently working on bringing up my salinty ( specific gravity) to 1.025 but slowly. The temp deal is because of some bad heaters that stick on and have almost cooked the tank a couple of times. We are currently in the market for an Aqualogic or Ranco controller and are shopping it hard. Also as a side note the Star Polyps atarted popping out today. We switched to VHO lighting a couple of weeks ago. Yes 2 weeks and maybe it was a delayed reaction to the change

 

[greenbean36191]

Star polyps will close up for a few days for no apparent reason. I wouldn't assume anything you did necessarily caused the reaction.

 

[Octopus8]

One of my Star Polyp colonies opened up yesterday after three days of complete closure. They look even bigger and brighter than before. Spreading like weeds too!:eek1: Be patient and yours will open up completely and proceed to take over the world very slowly one polyp at a time.

 

[rf]

Watch out for Micro-stars (Asterina). I have them in my tank and noticed that they were bothering my star polyps. Did some research and learned they munch on the polyps. So I periodically inspect and if I see a star on the polyps I remove it.