[Mattfish]

We have a green pagoda coral that's been in for a few weeks and was doing fine. The past 3 days, it won't open up - the polyps are remining in. All other corals are doing fine, and all water params are good, although Calcium is a bit high at 540.

Any thoughts or ideas on why it won't come out to play? Is this serious or do we let it go for a few days to see what's up?

Thanks!

[e_baer]

does it have moderate flow and moderate lighting? also, they like to be placed near the bottom.

[Mattfish]

Fortunately, it does have moderate flow and moderate light, and is near the bottom.

Position hasn't changed, nor has the food or tank situation - except a few more tankmates, but none seen bothering it and no apparent damage....

Food is that green, liquid, phytoplankton stuff....

[e_baer]

what about lps and sps corals, are there any near the pagoda?

i know some soft corals and lps dont like eachother.

and they will release a mucus that will kill the other corals polyps.

[Mattfish]

No - nothing too close to it. (But I appreciate the help and the questions, so keep them coming please!)

[e_baer]

I know toadstool corals, will shed their outer skin every once in a while. perhaps it is just doing that.

i have a toadstool, and when it sheds it stays closed up for a day or 2.

[rlcline76]

This might help. If not, enjoy the pictures. I do love wetwebmedia!

Dendrophylliidae

[rlcline76]

Any update on the pagoda?

[Mattfish]

Sorry to have disappeared - funny about your post - this morning I looked at it appears to be partially coming back out.

I did a 35 gallon water change yesterday which is still pretty large for our tank. I wonder if the Pagoda isn't maybe more sensitive than the other corals we've got... It's still not out completely... And I did a 25 gallon change last weekend, so it's not like the water was bad or anything... although it had been two weeks since the change before that one - vacation... And that may have pre-dated the coral being placed in our tank anyway.

Curiouser and curiouser.....

[Mattfish]

In fact, the more I look at it, I think it needs some WD-40. The polyps appear to be stuck in the mostly in position....

[rlcline76]

I doubt that is recommended.
That's just me though!

[Mattfish]

OK, that makes i easier since I don't have any in the house. I do have a pair of tweezers, so maybe I can get those and try to pull them out a bit....

(I already hear you saying something about this, and I'd like to remind you NOT to use that sort of language in this public forum.....)

[rlcline76]

I will try not to run your threads into the gutter.
Anything completely open? Have you tried feeding it?

[Mattfish]

About 1/8 of them are about 1/4 out - the rest are just "buds". I gave the tank some more Phyto-Food, so we'll see what happens by the time we get back today. But it certainly looks more promising than the past few days, and that our new Eiblii didn't eat them at least!

[e_baer]

let see some updated pics of the entire tank and its specimans!!!

[Mattfish]

OK, some partial success - came back from a day out and saw that most of the polyps had come out part way. This eases my fear that our Eiblii is unsuitable for the tank - so far, he's only nipped at one purple plate coral, and that one not too badly yet. Feeding him seems to keep him from mischief.

I'll also get some new pics soon e_baer - thanks for asking. Unfortunately, work mostly, and a family visit has kept me from having the time to keep some stuff up to date.

We've got quite a fish family, and several anemones and many corals. Possibly a clam in the next couple of weeks.

And I still need to find a convenient way to cover the tank with something see-through and that will allow gas interchange. We lost a neon goby today - I came home and found him on the floor. Don't want to have that happen again....

[e_baer]

i would say egg crate is the way to go.

you can get it online at this store.

Indoor Gardening Supplies

[Mattfish]

Great - thanks. I also gotta check with PFO to see if they have any specific recommendations for my light - angle, heat, etc. Heat removal will be good with egg crate, but not sure about angle of effectiveness for the light, depending on the height of the egg crate vs. angle of dispersion for the light.

[e_baer]

yeah, that is the only bad thing about them, they are a little thick.

[Mattfish]

The great Pagoda Coral Mystery is apparently solved.

Still being new to all of this, we happened to go over to the lfs where we got the pagoda coral (yeah, right, like we were just in the neighborhood - no, our tank addiction drove us to go looking again... "Hi, my name is Mike, and it's been 20 minutes since I've last been to a nearby lfs"...)

I asked about the PhytoFeast food. Since most corals are filter feeders, it seems like we've been over-feeding the tank with phytofeast, and since the pagoda was getting everything it needed, it apparently had no need to put out it's polyps to capture food. At least this is what I was told, and in theory, it makes sense to me.

Anyway, after a few days of actually having to work, where I left early enough to not feed the tank, and my wife didn't realize she needed to Phyto-Feed, we hadn't added any for 2-3 days. Today, the pagoda was out and trying to find something to eat....

Does this make sense? It sounded reasonable to me....

[e_baer]

yaeh, i guess it is similar to some anemones, they will make their tenticles super long when hungry.

[Mattfish]

I'm going to test the theory by waiting til the morning and see if it opens up (it's closed for the night now...) and then feed less phyto to check if that makes a difference.

Science at work....

[ElizabethPou]

My lfs had Pagoda but I didn't know the the first thing about them. I was wondering if they require feedings. I see that pagoda require a lot of work. Keep us updated on your progress with it.

[Mattfish]

They really don't require any work - I feed the tank the liquid Phyto-Feast for all filter feeders, which in my case is presently only corals (& anemones), and eventually clams. Both the clams and aenomones will require spot feeding with several options, but the corals, other than our red open brain coral, only eat the Pyhto-Feast. The open brain also needs occasional spot feeding of krill or similar.

The only thing here was that our particular pagoda seemed to be getting more food than it needed - which we finally determined by backing off on the feeding of Phyto. But no real care or work. Corals in general don't seem to require much work - just light and some current. Being new to this all, I'm pretty surprised at how easy this has been.