Is there something wrong with my palys?

IridescentLily

IridescentLily

Editor-Reefkeeping mag
Team RC
The bottom photo is what the new paly colony looks like now.
Should i be concerned? Or is it more like one of those things that these corals just "do" temporary? :)
There is a small bristleworm which lives in the snail that the palys are attached to. I've watched and watched and it doesn't bother them but i thought it was worth mentioning.
Thanks all for any help or advice.
Here's what it looked like when we first put the paly colony in the tank;
IMG_0459.jpg


Here's what it looked like yesterday about 30 minutes after putting them in or tank;
IMG_0460.jpg


Here's what it looks like this morning when the lights came on;
IMG_0482.jpg
 
the picture showing 30 minutes after looks very good. As soon as the lights come on I would not expect them to be fully opened. You do have a lot of posts and I would think you are somewhat of an expert reefer, but I will ask the question anyway, how long has your tank been cycling? Your rock looks so white, so new....
 
what are your parameters? sometimes it takes a few days for them to settle in, unless your parameters are off. also, by the looks of your rocks, it seems like your system is very very young. if your tanks hasn't had a chance to cycle it may mess with your corals. consequently, if your tank is young, that dragonet may be in trouble.
 
Mine do that all the time they will be fine in a day or two they are just getting used to the tank!
 
Hi, thanks to each of you,
The rock is aquacultured rock from brs. *We've been cycled for almost 2 months, our current parameters are Am. 0, Ni. 0, Na, 1-2
I didn't know to give the palys some time. I have had fowlr tanks before but believe it or not this is my very first coral in my first reef tank (29g). I didn't know they deflated or whatever sometimes at first.
I just thought since they opened after being in there for an hour that they would stay open all the time lol, so that's why i thought they were dying or something. Shows how much I know about them.
It looks like there are two different looking kinds that grew on the snail shell but I can't be certain. There are four which look different than the green ones and they are the only ones open now. The others are still closed up.

Additionally, Do these need to be on the sand? They were grown on an empty snail shell and I put the snail shell on a rock not the sand.
Thanks much for the help.
 
Hi Iridescent Lily, with those parameters you should be ok. with two months cycling I would expect to see a slight hint of coralline (purple) showing? Have you checked your calcium and alkalinity?
Zoas/palys do NOT need to be on the sand, some people put them there but they dont need to be there. Place them or glue them to your favorite rock and watch them grow and expand! good luck.
 
Jarred1 said:
Mine do that all the time they will be fine in a day or two they are just getting used to the tank!
Click to expand...
Oh thanks Jarred! :). I feel SO much better.


carloschali said:
Hi Iridescent Lily, with those parameters you should be ok. with two months cycling I would expect to see a slight hint of coralline (purple) showing? Have you checked your calcium and alkalinity?
Zoas/palys do NOT need to be on the sand, some people put them there but they dont need to be there. Place them or glue them to your favorite rock and watch them grow and expand! good luck.
Click to expand...
Sweet! Thanks much, I appreciate all the quick responses.
 
I would check the other major parameters such as ALK, MAG, CA as well. I noticed when my alkalinity was dropping to 5dkh (family emergency...couldnt dose for a few days...almost week...family is ok now :) ) some of my zoa/paly colonies looked like that. I also had a couple look like that when new but definitely check on those parameters.
 
a lot of people put them on the sand so they don't go everywhere. But it sounds like you just started a new tank (dedicated zoa?) so I'm sure you want them to spread.

Yeah, give them some time, and they'll be happier. Also, if you want them to spread faster, you might want to try fragging a polyp or two (I usually do two at a time, because inevitably I lose one) and transplanting them to various places on your LR that you want them to spread. Just cut a polyp off and put it someplace with low flow or put it in a container. After about three days, they're usually ready to attach again. Then in about two weeks they'll have new polyps around the base usually.
 
Jarred1 said:
They don't need to be on the sand.
Click to expand...

kichimark said:
I would check the other major parameters such as ALK, MAG, CA as well. I noticed when my alkalinity was dropping to 5dkh (family emergency...couldnt dose for a few days...almost week...family is ok now :) ) some of my zoa/paly colonies looked like that. I also had a couple look like that when new but definitely check on those parameters.
Click to expand...

philosophile said:
a lot of people put them on the sand so they don't go everywhere. But it sounds like you just started a new tank (dedicated zoa?) so I'm sure you want them to spread.

Yeah, give them some time, and they'll be happier. Also, if you want them to spread faster, you might want to try fragging a polyp or two (I usually do two at a time, because inevitably I lose one) and transplanting them to various places on your LR that you want them to spread. Just cut a polyp off and put it someplace with low flow or put it in a container. After about three days, they're usually ready to attach again. Then in about two weeks they'll have new polyps around the base usually.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses and the suggestions, i'll follow those tips and i'll let you know how they're doing in the near future. :)
 
Thanks much.
Last night we found out that we had a 4-5 inch bristleworm in the empty snail shell that the palys were growing on. So we decided to cut the Palythoa mat from the empty snail shell. So we got a container of water, a pair of gloves and an exacto knife and when we were done detaching them we found another baby bristle worm and two aptasia near a part that looked like it was dying.
And there was a crab too bothering the palys.
Then we put just the palys back into the tank by gluing it.
Then a few minutes later they weren't open but they looked much better. Not drooping anymore. Their stems are all standing up now and you can see a small part of the polyps face.
 
You're on the right track so far. One thing I'm not sure of in the pic is a possible asterina starfish on one polyp. Your first pic, top colony; bottom left polyp looks like one on there. There are several species of asterinas that will munch on zoas, although most are harmless herbivores. The worm may have been irritating them, too. One thing I've noticed is that if something is munching on zoas/palys, all related species will close up. I noticed that while fighting nudis last year. Good luck.
 
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