Polyps suddenly turned white

[mwminer]

This afternoon I noticed one of my rocks with a large colony of brown polyps has some that have closed up and turned white. Just the ones you can see in the photo, it does not seem to be spreading. My water parameters are all within the normal limits.

I have had these polyps for 3 years and have some colonies that are even larger than this one.

What's going on? The only thing I can think of is that since I moved this piece to the bottom of the tank these ones are not getting enough light (they are usually high up). I am including photos of the other colonies so you can see the light they are all used to.

I have my Radions in acclimation mode for a very large toadstool leather I put in a week ago.

Any ideas?

 

[mwminer]

Photos didn't upload. View photo on photobucket:

http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k504/mwminer/Polyps/

 

[SushiGirl]

I can only see anything in the 2nd pic, you need to use a flash or something as the other 2 pics are badly blurry from hand movement. I'm pretty sure I have those same palys. About 4 months ago mine turned white with no tank changes. After a month they started coloring back up & are back to normal. Never figured out what caused it.

 

[reefer999]

This afternoon I noticed one of my rocks with a large colony of brown polyps has some that have closed up and turned white. Just the ones you can see in the photo, it does not seem to be spreading. My water parameters are all within the normal limits.

I have had these polyps for 3 years and have some colonies that are even larger than this one.

What's going on? The only thing I can think of is that since I moved this piece to the bottom of the tank these ones are not getting enough light (they are usually high up). I am including photos of the other colonies so you can see the light they are all used to.

I have my Radions in acclimation mode for a very large toadstool leather I put in a week ago.

Any ideas?

Here you go:

 

[mwminer]

Thanks! Don't know what was wrong but I could not upload them to RC

 

[mwminer]

I can only see anything in the 2nd pic, you need to use a flash or something as the other 2 pics are badly blurry from hand movement. I'm pretty sure I have those same palys. About 4 months ago mine turned white with no tank changes. After a month they started coloring back up & are back to normal. Never figured out what caused it.

Did it spread after the initial outbreak? The other two photos are blurry because the battery was going dead. I should have checked what I uploaded!

 

[mwminer]

This afternoon it looks like some of them are re-opening and brown again. I have no idea why they are doing this...nothing has changed!

 

[MUCHO REEF]

This afternoon I noticed one of my rocks with a large colony of brown polyps has some that have closed up and turned white. Just the ones you can see in the photo, it does not seem to be spreading. My water parameters are all within the normal limits.

I have had these polyps for 3 years and have some colonies that are even larger than this one.

What's going on? The only thing I can think of is that since I moved this piece to the bottom of the tank these ones are not getting enough light (they are usually high up). I am including photos of the other colonies so you can see the light they are all used to.

I have my Radions in acclimation mode for a very large toadstool leather I put in a week ago.

Any ideas?

Check out these links, I will reply more later this afternoon.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1154238&highlight=why+your+polyps+won+t+expand


See post # 1 and # 3, maybe something will ring a bell.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1309820&highlight=mucho+bleaching

Mooch

 

[mwminer]

I think I have figured out what happened. I have a giant crab in this 450 gal. with a shell that is about 6" wide. I had moved this rock to the substrate when cleaning the tank and never put it back where it belongs. Anyway the crab was getting stuck between the rock and the glass. He would rock back and forth (kinda like when your pickup is stuck in the snow!) rubbing on that area of polyps. Once he stayed away from the rock for about 12+ hours they started to color up again. Then he got stuck again but this time I caught him, so I moved the rock and most of them have regained their color.

I don't know if that is really the answer, however this is what I observed.