Green star polyps not opening!!

[nikeniv20]

I got a green star polyp on friday and I saw one green poking from it on saturday, but now I dont see any green polyp, its just the purple mat. Can anyone tell me how long will it take to open. I checked the water parameters everthing looks fine. I have a 10 gallon reef tank with 7 lbs live rock, 1 oscellaris clown and 1 damsel, 110 gph powerhead, 2 * 18 watt T5HO (10000K and 1 actinic) with lunar leds. The lunar led run 24 hours, I get some sunlight to my room so I have the T5HO for 6.5 hours.

[mykol]

Your setup sounds fine. I'm no expert, but mine had an issue with current. Mine like medium current. Idk where they are in relation to your flow but it might be worth checking. Mine took about a day to come out.

[nikeniv20]

Your setup sounds fine. I'm no expert, but mine had an issue with current. Mine like medium current. Idk where they are in relation to your flow but it might be worth checking. Mine took about a day to come out.

Thanks, I will check that . I jus checked my nitatres area bit high at about 25-30 ppm. I will be changing the water today. Lemme see if that works.

[RokleM]

[moved]...

[surferboi2113]

mine took about 10 days to open in my system. i had to spray it with a turkey baster to get all the gunk off of it before it came out.

[Gill_bucket]

They do this. Don't worry about, I had the same issue with mine, they will open. The worst thing you can do is move it around the tank, I suggest you just leave it be.

[BubbaBoBobBrain]

I agree with Gill, you should find a place for them and leave them alone. Also they don't like a lot of current. I upgraded my power heads and had to move my polyps they were getting a lot of current and closed up and didn't come back out until I moved them. Once you find a good lower current area they should open in a couple of days. Good luck with them.

[408Reefer]

Yup, dont worry. Green star polyps are super hardy and before you know it they will spread like crazy so make sure its in a spot that you will be able to control its growth.

[nikeniv20]

It started opening a few days back, had some brown algae on it. I scrubbed it off and it opened the next day :fun4:

[luisgo]

I have heard that they don't do well on ULN systems. Any comments on this?

[BassMekanik]

I'm having issues with GSPs staying closed as well.

I bought a frag of GSP from a show about a month ago. When I first put it in the tank it was on the sandbed (moderate flow). They did fine for about 4 days then stopped opening. I read online that they don't like to get sand in them so I moved it to my spillwall (high flow), about halfway up in a 30" deep tank. They did great this time for about a week, then stopped opening again. The guy at the LFS said they might be getting too much light. So I moved them to about 3/4 of the way to the bottom on one of the rock structures. This is where they have been for the last 2 weeks and they are still closed.

All of my parameters are good and none of the other corals are acting strange.

I guess at this point I could try brushing them off and moving them again. I was about to give up on them until all of my reading today indicates this is normal behavior.

Any input would be appreciated.

[mandarin_goby]

Mine took over a week to open. They finally opened, just a bit at a time, and now, in a moderate flow area they're fully open, but close at night. My nitrates are about 20ppm. The flow is enough to make them sway a bit.

[yaridong]

i have had multiple types of gsp and i have put them in different parts of my tank, high light, low light, high flow, low flow...given enough time it will open and grow. most importantly, just keep your water parameters consistent. three items i check the most is salinity, temperature, and ph.

obviously if your phosphates or nitrates nitrites are super high thats no good, but even at a moderately high level as long as its consistent it seems coral seem to grow pretty well.

[Reeferz412]

I bought a frag of this coral (about 1 1/2 inches) and its white star polyps. Similar to GSP, but different in color. It was my first coral in my first SW tank. That little frag broke off its tile and blew everywhere and kept falling and for sure I thought it was a goner. It finally latched onto a tock and now this whole rock has little white palm tree looking polyps on it with a huge purple mat. I had a green hair algae problem that went buck wild on me and grew in the mats of the polyps and I bothered the crap out of that coral when picking the algae. I still have to pull small strands from it and the coral retracts, but it comes out in like 5-10 minutes when I stop messing with it. Literally the hardiest coral I have dealt with. It did disappear for a while into its mat when i accidentally dumped fresh water on top of it, but besides that, its big and healthy.

[nichthyes]

I've been having a problem with my GSPs lately, it seems there are more and more of them retracting into their mat as time goes on. I placed them in low current since I read that's what they like, but the polyps seem to keep disppearing. I haven't seen the full colony in a couple of weeks, so I just moved them into a spot with more current. No problems with algae or anything, and my water stays pretty consistent. Any imput?

I have 3-5 beautiful Stromotella (shell-less) snails that came in on some rock, but I haven't found anything saying they are coral predators. Anybody had different experience with this?

[yaridong]

anytime i have coral that start receding i put them in an area of lower lighting and lower flow. usually that does the trick.

[lori1964]

My neon green stars took 3 days to all open up after I purchased it.

[Dmorty217]

I bought a frag of GSP the same day my buddy got a frag. Both came from the same LFS. Mine are in a 125 with a lot of flow, water is perfect. Sg 1.026 0 nitrites,.03 phosphates, nitrates 0. I moved mine several times but they seem to like the middle as far a height and lighting is moderate where they are located. They are always open and have tripled in size. My buddy on the other hand his have opened a hand full of times in the 2.5 months he has had it. His water parameters I don't know but his salinity and flow are similar. His tank is a 55 but has over 100g with frag tank and refuge. I think that they need fairly consistent water quality with good flow, some seem to take longer to acclimate fully to their new tank. Be patient and don't worry too much they are very difficult to kill

[gregm11]

they do this, just leave it alone and it will come out, it takes a bit for them to get into a routine, just like any softy

[saitoking]

I bought some and they opened the next day some and then opened all the way up the second day. This is the 5th day on the video, today. One hour time lapse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Urgul3maJs

[BassMekanik]

I'm having issues with GSPs staying closed as well.

I bought a frag of GSP from a show about a month ago. When I first put it in the tank it was on the sandbed (moderate flow). They did fine for about 4 days then stopped opening. I read online that they don't like to get sand in them so I moved it to my spillwall (high flow), about halfway up in a 30" deep tank. They did great this time for about a week, then stopped opening again. The guy at the LFS said they might be getting too much light. So I moved them to about 3/4 of the way to the bottom on one of the rock structures. This is where they have been for the last 2 weeks and they are still closed.

All of my parameters are good and none of the other corals are acting strange.

I guess at this point I could try brushing them off and moving them again. I was about to give up on them until all of my reading today indicates this is normal behavior.

Any input would be appreciated.

So after 6 months and me basically giving up on this clump of GSP it has come back to life!

I recently did an overhaul on my tank and sold all my coral except for the softies. After re-arranging the rock and placing the GSP frag front and center, it has now begun to open and close as normal and is growing back to its original size.

What a resilient little species!

[DolbyDinosaur]

I had a friend who was recently having problems with his GSP despite everything in his tank being in order and all the other inhabitants thriving.

Turns out there was a small colony of GSP eating nudibranches eating them. Go figure eh? Fortunately, they were quite large and easily removed.

[eclick]

mine is like a weed.

[Harrhugh]

Show off

[Harrhugh]

mine is like a weed.
Show off