is my coral pooping?

[Bnaum85]

i might be crazy, but I think my rainbow war coral is pooping. i got it today. it seems to be very happy with the acclimation (great color, etc). i target fed my duncan, which is very close, some mysis shrimp and an hour later i see the war coral pooping. it has little dark colored masses (cylindrical in shape) come from the mouths. at first i thought they were some sort of terrible hitchhiker but they don't move themselves. like poop. am i crazy or is my coral pooping?

 

[ReefRMadness710]

My zoas do something like that sometimes. I figured the same as u cuz they r fine. Heres a (bad) pic. Sry

 

[Bnaum85]

Glad to hear it. It looks fine this morning. I guess I just freaked out because it is a brand new frag and I thought it was releasing some kind of pest.

 

[cloak]

It's probably pooping, but sometimes too much light will cause a coral to expel it's zooxanthellae like that. (not good)

 

[Bnaum85]

If it was expelling would all the mouths do it simultaneously?

 

[cloak]

Not necessarily.

I'm not sure how big your tank is, what kind of lighting you have, and where you placed the coral at, but placing it on the bottom of your tank for awhile would probably be your best bet. Give it a little time, and then go ahead and move it up if you like. GL.

 

[Bnaum85]

its a 14g biocube. stock lights. if you go to my member page you can find the link to my spec page. this is only the third time i have added coral to my tank so everything that happens sets off alarms in my head if i haven't seen it or read about it before. i plan on keeping the new frags at the bottom and then moving up the types that want more light. although my tank is so small that i figure that at 12" deep with the lights about 3" above the water line (in-hood lighting) there won't be much difference between mid-tank and sand bed when it comes to lighting.