micros - what's wrong, if anything, with these?

[smp]

I have had these guys now for about 2 months, maybe not even. Here is how they looked when I first got them:

Here is what they look like now:

You can see they look a bit haggard, the edges of the one big polyp are kind of tattered etc, they don't look as nice as they used to.
I have them under a 250 watt 20k xm in an 8" deep tank. Everything else in the tank is doing great, including the acans I have. I have these micros off to the side as far away from the light as i can get them, but it's only a 24x24 tank so there is good light coverage everywhere.
Are they stressed from the light? Would they do better in lower light?

Thanks


edit: flow is low to moderate, they get fed with cyclop-eeze, brine and NLS pellets.

 

[claytonkelly2004]

do you traget feed or just put the food in the tank?

 

[salt newbie01]

I would think more light. Doc keeps his high up in his tanks blasting with light. I have mine under a 175 mh bulb and they are right under the bulb and up high in the tank. And I would direct feed with cylopeeze or mysis 2-3 times a week. HTH

Very nice looking micros by the way!!

 

[smp]

Thanks!

Yeah, I target feed. I drop those pellets and make sure each polyp gets one, same with mysis. I make sure everyone is fed and I do feed 2 or 3 times a week.

Now, I think the tattered flesh might be because of the emerald crab I had in there. He would pick the food out of the polyps and he sure wasn't dainty about it... he's been evicted.

 

[chrisstie]

Good job catching the crab - while it hopefully is the culprit and not something else- they can be very opportunistic feeders!