pagoda cup

[Joe]

I have a pagoda cup that I have had for about a year and a half. Over the past several months, it will not "polyp out." I have tried different positions in the tank for lighting reasons and to get it away from other corals. I read that I should keep it higher in the tank and fairly close to a direct current running over it. When I first moved it up, the polyps came out a little bit but that only lasted a couple of days. I have noticed some tissue recession on the "stalk?" but has seemed to have stopped. When I first got this thing, it was really cool to look at. I should have sufficient lighting (314W MH/PC over 43 gallons) to keep it. Any ideas???????

Thanks, Joe

[MikeP]

They will eat pretty large pieces of food in my experience. See the pic of mine in the other thread - they will eat bits of krill , silversides or mysis and it really swells up after a good feeding.

[Joe]

I saw your pic. That's what mine used to look like. How do I feed it? Right now I have frozen mysid, bloodworms and krill. How do I keep the fish from eating the food?

[GaryP]

Joe,

I checked my reference library to see what I could find out about polyp extension, or lack of it. One source, Calfo, says that strong water movement is required for polyp extension. Another source, Borneman, says that lack of polyp extension may be an indicator of less than adequate water quality. Borneman says that T. peltata is the only Turbinaria species that extends its polyps during daytime. Have you checked yours at night? Is your pagoda the green (peltata) or yellow (frondens) variety?

Gary

[Joe]

I have the green variety. Last night, I cut off all water flow and target fed the cup with mysid and Chromaplex. It polyped out a small amount this morning and went back to its normal routine.