Millie Being not so Millie-ish

[as1720]

So i have a blue tiped millie that is turning green and loosing a lot of its polyps.

Its not dieing or anything its still growing and well at that, but the bottom half on one side seems to be turning a greenish color and loosing a lot of its polyps and it is is slowing covering doing this over the whole thing, its about 1/3 like this now, and its atrted a couple days after i got.

It looks cool though.

All my battieries are dead right now but i will take pictures in a lil bit untill then any one know whats going on?

I have heard soemthing about this happends to corals they dont always stay the same "species" or something to that effect. Could that be what this one is doing?

 

[Curtswearing]

Are you sure it's not a microalgae taking over?

 

[as1720]

No im sure its not. Here is a picture. Best i could get my batteries are dead again. lol

The first pictures shows the color and the second shows that it is the coral not something growing on it.

I thought it might be too much flow but its not.

 

[lmn420]

I would say that it is from lack of light. The first picture shows that the base is shaded from the intense light and that will definitely cause the greenish/brown look that means that the coral has taken on more zoozanthelle (sp?) because there isn't enough light. The coral will be fine, but only develop the pretty colors on the sides that get plenty of light.

 

[returnofsid]

Corals do not have the ability to "become a different species." From your pictures, I would suggest that it could be a lighting or water quality issue. I went through a similar problem with a lot of my SPS about 3 years ago. I attributed it to my lighting, but moving them closer to, or further from the lights didn't have any effect. After trying everything with lighting, I upgraded my skimmer. Within 3 weeks, I noticed a difference and within about 2 months, everything was colored up very nicely. My problem was that my skimmer was a POS and upgrading made all the difference in the world.

 

[as1720]

Its not brown like the second picture shows the colors are closer to the first picture.

It is now browning out, It is changing colors from blue to green and from having a lot of polyps to vary few. I turned it to take a better picture other wise the side that turned green first is under direct light but it also also turning green ware it is not under direct light. I have also moved it from ware it was to a different spot and that has not changed any thing it is still turning green. if you look at the top half of the picture thats what the whole thing looked like and then if you look at the bottom half of it thats what it is turning into.

My water perams are right on ware they should be. I think i have a decent skimmer its a Bak Pak 2 with a mesh mod.

Maybe i will move it again and see what happends.

 

[roscoe]

The problem isn't your skimmer. When did you get the frag? If you just recently acquired it. It is porbally just aclimating itself to its new enviroment. I had this same problem a couple years back with a blue millie I had. The frag where it came from. The mother colony was all bright blue and super hairy. My frag on the other hand in my tank didn't do so hot for a few months but after that time period it colored up nicely and it was super hairy and fuzzy like you would expect a millie to look. So I say give it some time. Also too I run a Bak Pak skimmer if you didn't already know and look at all the colorful SPS I am able to grow with a Bak Pak skimmer on a 40g.

 

[as1720]

Yeah not to mention my tank is only a 29 gal. im happy with the skimmer. Although i did take out the filter stuff that was in there and added cheeto and live rock instead.

I wouldnt say it is loosing color just turning green i have no problems with it i like the less hairy more green look. lol I have had it about a month now. I also got some other sps's that are all doing REALLY good.

 

[roscoe]

If everything else is doing great than I wouldn't stress to much about it. Unless it starts to STN/RTN then I would worry. Just sit back relax and let it be.

 

[as1720]

imenjoying it i think it looks cool. lol I will post pictures of how it progresses.

 

[trido]

I see trumpets on the right and a favia or something on the left. Is your tank LPS or SPS dominated? Do you run carbon? The next time you do a WC or change carbon, keep a close eye on it to see if it extends polyps better imediately following. If it does your water quality may be causing it to extend less. It could be a flow issue as well
Regarding the color, Ive seen the same coral look like five different way in five different tanks. They all tend to look a bit different in different tanks. Some of mine have changed from year to year in the same tank depending on my husbandry.

 

[as1720]

Its a 29 gal. tank with sps and lps, i dont run carbon. But i do a 12 gal wc a week. Since having it doing water changes hasnt changed anything.

I have 2 favia's, a open brain, frogspawn, torch, xenia, trumpet, tiny hammer some zoas, and a 6 rics and about 15 sps frags.

Everything else is doing great!

When i do a water change i will keep a close eye on that millie.

Again the millie doesnt look unhealthy.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
The area with few polyps is due to lack of light intensity. Color shifts are most often associated with changes in color spectrum and/or light intensity.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[as1720]

See thats whay i posted that part of the coral is in direct light thats why i find this so odd.

There is not too much flow and there isnt too little light.

Even on the other areas which are not in light are turning green and loosing poyps.

My point is it isnt happening in just one area it is hapening all over the coral.

So i will give it some time and post pictures of it in a week or two.

It started out and just a small spot the size of a penny and now is covering the whole bottom half of the coral.

 

[as1720]

Just thought i would update this, the whole millie turned lime green and was healthy for some time. i didnt get a chance to get pictures of it befor my tank kinda crashed and i lost two of my millies that was one, all that i was able to save was the base of it so hoefully it will keep growing. I wil update with pictures ina couple months but for now all there is to see is the green base, and im too bummed out to take pictures.

 

[jag3534]

Sorry to hear bout that. Why'd the tank crash? I thought you were moving stuff into that bigger acrylic tank?

 

[as1720]

I guess it hasnt crashed yet but i have lost 3 and half sps's. And that was one of them. Something is wrong with my water i think, since i used tap to fill it, things just kinda got outta wack all on there own i dont do much with the tank other then water changes and feeding the fish. So im going to try to get it cleaned up tomorrow with freash ro/di water.

The big tank has been put on hold for a little while, too meny things going on right now and its at the bottom of the list.