Button Polyps

[svirid]

Good day guys,

my brown button polyps has been closed and looked like white small pieces (if u know what I mean) for about a month now. I am still thinking that they will do better soon. Can u please tell me how can I identify if they are dead?

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[svirid]

here is a picture

http/www.website4realty.com/temp/DSC06827.JPG

 

[Colin_T]

When soft corals die they fall apart and bits of them break off and float around the tank, or sink to the bottom. If they are still intact and haven't fallen apart they are still alive. However, if they are white and the polyps aren't out then they are unwell. White means they have bleached (expelled their symbiotic zooxanthellae). They can capture more algae to replace the stuff they lost if they are happy and in a healthy environment. If the water quality is bad they will gradually get worse until they die.

There might be something in the tank that is trying to eat them, perhaps a worm or crab. This would cause them to close up.

Make sure the water quality is good, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, phosphate, salinity.
Make sure there is plenty of light.
Check them after the lights go out and see if anything is coming out of the rocks and eating or crawling over them.

 

[bitfishy]

all of the above, but just thought i'd add that this happened to me and it turned out to simply be that they needed more light - I had them pretty low down, I moved them up a few inches and now they're doing great. Def not dead though

 

[chrissaysyes]

I'm sure they'll be fine, keep us posted!