Polyp Extension Questions

[DBSAM]

I have several acroporas and two birdsnests and a couple of questions...

For polyp extension, the acros seem to be growing under LED lights with two MP10s driving flow at them, but I don't see humongous polyp extension. I see few polyps here and there for time to time. Will "too much" flow keep polyps in? I do not see any irritants, but it does not mean that they do not exist...But generally how do polyps respond to flow?

One of my birdnest has great polyp extension on one side (the shady/lower flow side) then on the flow side/more brightly lite side I do not see the polyps out...

 

[beeker]

in my experience a sps coral can have absolutley no PE and still have growth, Polyp extension IMO is for your own visual pleasure, as a coral grows and gets used to your flow the polyp extension will change typically polyps expand more in less flow but from my experience it isn't to say you can't get a lot of polyp extension when there is a lot of flow as well

i don't use PE to define wether a coral is doing well or not, if i see new base or tip growth i know i'm doing something right, if there is no STN or RTN and no instability in my system then i know i'm doing something right, this to me is more important than the PE of a coral

feeding oyster eggs and Dt's pythoplankton as well as rotifer's can increase or stimulate PE and maybe if you do it during the daytime a few days a week when you feed it might get the corals to react to what your looking for

 

[Kataro]

I'd think that there's no polyp extension on the shaded side because well.. there's no light so I think they either die or move up and appear somewhere else on the coral. Like when a frag become a colony, the bottom part that shaded become polypless.

 

[dudley moray]

i believe polyp extension is a feeding response so if no polyps are extended it may not be hungry