Open Brain Coral not Openning

[Dyngoe]

Hi All,

I have an open brain coral that does not "open". In fact it appears to be working in reverse.

Let me start off by saying this has been going on for months. In my previous tank it expanded to a "large" size and was beautiful. Ever since I moved everything to the new tank it has not opened up. Now, I don't see skeleton, but it does retract close to it during the day. At night it actually does "puff" up but never displays it's tenticles.

I have tried feeding it under a "tent" and it will accept mysis shrimp but that doesn't seem to improve it's appearance. The only difference it is experiencing in the new tank is I moved it to my Oolite substrate and I changed my MH lights from 15K to 10K. It has a decent (moderate) water flow. What would cause it to expand at night and contract during the day?

The only logical suggestion I got was that it doesn't need to expand because it is getting enough food at night and the light is strong enough that it doesn't need the extra surface area during the day. The only hole in this is that I don't have many free roaming copeopods at night and the lighting is the same as it was before.

D

 

[Lpabsolute]

Do you have any pics????

 

[Dyngoe]

I do have some pictures, but they are not very good. Imagine a Trachyphyllia radiata with a thin ~1/4" skin covering the hard skeleton. I'll try to post a good picture later.

 

[seapug]

they sometimes do this when they are in too much current.. make sure it isn't getting too much direct flow from a powerhead or return. Could also be the light. 10k's have a lot more orange/red spectrum so the coral may feel like it got moved from 20 ft to 5ft of water.