Anthelia behavior

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kay-bee

AC Members
Sep 14, 2005
706
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Tampa, FL
I have two groups of anthelia ('waving hand coral') in my 65gal reef tank for several months now which have been thriving except for an approx 4-day stint a couple of weeks ago.

The 'stalks' of one group (which normally extend about 7" in the waterflow) retracted to 3" or less and all were completely limp (the 2nd group of anthelia, directly adjacent to this group on a separate rock, remained fully extended as normal; no other coral in the tank exhibited similar behavior). All of the effected athelia were attached to the same encrusting mat.

After about 3 days a few limp 'stalks' detached from the main colony and drifted to other parts of the tank. And within two days the original group was back to normal, as were the 'relocated' anthelia stalks, and have been fine ever since, as if nothing happened (the 'recovery' occurred a couple of weeks ago).

Is this 'normal' behavior which anthelia employs to spread around the tank in addition to its encrusting method? (the plan was to restrict the anthelia to just those two rocks ); or does it appear to be a reaction to something adverse?

Basic consistent tank specs: SG 1.027, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phospates all undetectable, pH 8.4, KH 8dkh, temp 81F (w/288watts of PC lighting over the tank).
 

Fishieness

AC Members
Jan 14, 2006
2,075
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ct
for the most party, the anthilia samples i have encountered have all been suepr hardy except when temperature spikes. ive had anthillia colonies die before sps colonies do in terms of temp spikes. But if the rest of it was fine, i would say it is jsut being picky. all the anthilia species can sometimes be fickle and look limp for seemingly no reason only to bounce back in a day or two. it is pretyt much normal
also, yes, it can/does spread like that. it's only happened once or twice to me, but it can happen if the coral is stressed out.
 
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