Is it possible for Green Bubble Coral to move off its rock on its own?

[smaier6]

Hello All,
I have a Green Bubble Coral that has been in my tank for 1 year. It has been living on the same rock for that whole time. Now we notice that its lifting up of the rock and is very close to detaching.

Is this normal with Green Bubble coral or is there somthing going on? Is the existing rock that it is living maybe becoming to small for it?

If it does lift off and begin to float in the tack what should I do? Should I worry about it landing on other corals and killing them? Should I catch it and try to get it to attack to a place in the tank that is open and large enough to accomodate his tentacles?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Echidna09]

My first guess would be too high flow. My 2nd would be a Ca or KH problem. The rock that it is on is it's skeleton so it should be growing with the flesh. If the flesh is growing and the skeleton is not, it is most likely a water quality issue. If CA and KH are in line, some corals will detach from their skeleton when they are in conditions that they find unsuitable. They will 'drift' around until they find a more suitable environment, which is a tank is usually unavailable, and the coral dies. However, if it is flow you likely have an area with lower flow than the coral is in right now and it will ideally find the low flow area and attach to a rock there. If it does detach I would put it in a tupperware container with holes in it for water movement with a couple rocks and some sand inside. This will keep it isolated while it is vulnerable and dangerous to other organisms.

 

[ILoveReefer]

What your going through is called "polyp bail out" it's usually an indication of bad water chemistry. Echidna09 gave you a pretty accurate definition. I would check param's first but I wouldn't rule out flow.