Does this coral look healthy?

[delfinparis]

Hello,

I received this coral as part of a beginner's soft coral pack from Drs. Foster/Smith.

Here's a link to what comes in the pack

Anyway, because the corals aren't marked, I have absolutely no idea which coral this is - can someone identify it?

Also, it has always looked like this, and it appears to be closed. Is this normal? Does it look healthy?

My water conditions appear to be clear, and my temp is around 78 degrees.

Let me know if this is an unhappy or happy coral!

Thanks in advance!
Delfin

 

[reefnewbie54321]

Its closed

How long have you had it in the tank? Are the lights on when you took this picture? If the coral has only been in there for a few days give it a chnace to get aclimated and it will open up, this is normal. If you lights are off it is normal for corals to close up aswell. I can not I.D. it while it is closed but it is either yellow polyps or button polyps.

 

[s2svetko]

id agree that its the polyps

 

[delfinparis]

This is day 6 today, and the lights are on. As far as I know they have never fully opened. Do the polyps like heavy/light flow areas - anything unusual to keep them happy? Thanks!

 

[furforfour]

They appear to be proto palythoa, commonly called button polyps which Foster and Smith probably refer to them as. They are not the yellow polyps (parazoanthus). They are closed now and will open if given optimal conditions. Depending on your lighting, they should start on the bottom of the tank, which you have done. This is the best way to acclimate a zoanthid (a protopalythoa is a zoanthid) to lighting. They can tolerate quite strong lighting; however a change from very strong to low lighting or vice versa can be stressful. These also can tolerate pretty strong flow. I would move them to an area of the tank with a little higher water flow and see what happens. There are also a number of zoanthid predators which commonly come in on zoanthid rocks. There is a sticky in the zoanthid forum which identifies them and tells how to remove them. Posting your water parameters will help ID the problem as well. Are the other corals you bought opening?

 

[DannyUFKC]

I agree with furforfour...put them in a place with high water flow. I had the same problem with mines when they shipped them to me. I put them in a high waterflow area and it seemed to help because everyday a new polyp opened up. It did take some time though.

 

[glennb]

Far more likely your water quality's poor than the coral's in poor health. Change water, run carbon, maintain alkalinity, feed lightly. If it is a Protopalythoa species you should feed the polyps when they've been open for a few days. These coral can tolerate almost any lighting or water flow regime. They definitely don't require what I'd refer to as 'high' flow.