Purple People Eater Problem

[Rychek]

Over the last few months my frag of Purple People Eaters has been a source of frustration and worry. My tank parameters have been nearly perfect (and still are), all of my other zoas, palys amd protopalys are doing great and spreading, but the PPEs persist in acting strange. I started off with 3 polyps in October. By mid November I had two due to the smallest ceasing to open and starting to shrink. Now I have three new polyps buds, but the two large polyps have contorted themselves into bell shapes and their mouths are gaping. Their skirts have shrunken to the point where you can hardly tell they have "fingers." I've been spot feeding them a few times a week, but the last several days has proven less than successful. I've had the frag in the bottom third of my tank, but tonight I moved them up to the top quarter. Any thoughts, suggestions? I really don't want to lose this frag. TIA!

Tank stats are as follows:

90 gal
Lighting IceCap 660 with 4 bulbs/reflectors (soon to be 6 bulbs).
SG 1.025
Ammonioa: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
PH: 8.2
Calcium: ~400
dkH: ~10
Phosphate <.25

~130 lbs live sand
~100 lbs live rock
30L gal sump/fuge

[Rychek]

Here is a before and after pic (frag orientation is the same in each pic)

[BioCube14]

wow never seen anything like it try to place it in lower light and low flow it will come back to life

[Marlin]

Your phosphate looks borderline. Are you using RO/DI water?

[Rychek]

I had them in the bottom third of my 90 gal in a medium low flow until tonight. I moved them up to a more open area in the top quarter of my tank. I've been looking for specific info on PPEs, but most places would rather talk about how much they cost and how hard they are to find as opposed to how to care for them.

I use RO/DI and Instant Ocean salt mix. I've tested my water before adding the salt and it comes up with .25 Phosphate. However, my tank doesn't always register phosphates when I test. It normally doesn't, but occasionally it does.

[ErikH]

Mine do that from time to time. I almost lost them all, and they rebounded like crazy.

[Rychek]

Where do you keep yours in regard to light and flow?

[apedroza]

I noticed mine did that when they really started to bud. I lost the main polyp, but ended up with 3 new ones. It may be from the stress of budding. I always kept mine at the bottom with moderate flow. Are you spot feeding??

[Rychek]

I started spot feeding about two weeks ago. This frag is definitely budding, so maybe that's it. I'll move them to a low spot, away from everything else and see how they do.

[Mr Cob]

Ryan, I agree....from the latest pic it appears as though they are budding, I see a total of 3 new buds emerging in the pic plus the two adult polyps. I would agree with the previous post that they are probably stressed from the budding. Hang in there...I think you will be fine.

I've seen the same with my GPE...I thought I was going to lose them (2 of them) and two months later I had 6 adult polyps. Mine now have an occasional single bud maybe once a month.