polyps changing color??

[poknsnok]

I bought some corals from an online vendor. It was a "wysiwyg". The pics showed a Lime green base with beautiful contrasting purplish blue polyps. well the coral arrived and it didnt really look like the coral I chose from the pictures. I dont mind that so much because it is the polyp/base contrast I was looking for. the polyps are now fully extended and they are a plain green similar to the base. can polyps completely change color like that during shipping?? The coral is an encrusting/plating montipora. I wont post pics or name the vendor until the issue is resolved. I want to give the coral time to acclimate fully

 

[Yinger]

a lot of times, places take their pics with 20k lighting to intensify the color. however, once its in your tank, it'll look a little different.

 

[DaddyJax]

Also alot of times corals will change color from the mariculture to the aquarium and it will give a rainbow effect and this would be an good time to take a pic. Or acros will have a different color polyp when it is encrusting like this

 

[poknsnok]

I see... the polyps on this piece were uniformly purple/blue across the whole coral in the pic on the vendor's site. now they are uniformly blah pale green. The base color of the coral is basically the same as the vendors pic

 

[oligotrophic]

I had an experience of shipping out a few colonies, only to to cancel the shipping at the last minute -- opened up the bag and notice one particular colony looked entirely different in coloration from the moment before it was packed! Led me to believe that acros are stressed in the limited amount of space and water and air, plus zero flow... The duration of the coral packed in the bag was about 1 hour. I think it's good to ensure the best achievable conditions before shipping, during shipping and after shipping.

The other observation is when opening up bags after shipping, the water inside the bag are sometimes colored similar to pigmentation of the colony, this means some Zoox has left the coral. Sometimes it's ok as long as not a large majority has left, this event also indicates stress levels are reaching the intolerable level.

What you want to do now is give the coral an ideal environment, feed it a bit and don't touch it. Pigmentation may return.

Cheers

 

[poknsnok]

so pigmentation to the POLYPS may return?? its the POLYPS im interested in

 

[DaddyJax]

Yes, they could/should return with proper environment and lighting.

 

[poknsnok]

I sent you a pm