Dendro and Balano Id please (they look the same)

[dreko]

Hello
I'm wondering if the group can tell me if these really are different corals. Dendrophyllia and Balanophyllia...

other than the white balance being off in the photograph,
don't they look like they are the same?

I'd say both are Balanophyllias, based on the oval shape of the cavity.
I'd like to hear more expert opinions please

The third picture (repeat) has been color corrected to compensate for the white balance error.

thanks

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I think they are all balanos. Lately I have been VERY disappointed in DD's labeling abilities. Someone is not doing their research there or is slaking off. For example, today there was a single blue strip pipefish labeled as a pair. Very annoying.

 

[dreko]

Hi Bongo Shrimp

thanks for that news. DD is trying to make me believe they did not make any website labeling mistakes. They had Picture 8 listed as a Dendrophyllia. It arrived with many nice aiptasias on the coral and on the live rock base. In fact you can see 2 of the wonderful tank additions in their photo! All together I must have received about 10 of these amazing most wanted hitchhikers... maybe I should frag them and sell to other reefers

Anycase the coral behaves like a balano... it's only slightly come out at night, not fully... so hard to see it' coloration.. but so far, has colors exactly like balanos I've seen all over the web.

Their trying to tell me that coloration has nothing to do with it.. and it's still a dendrophylllia.
I have 14 days of a guarantee.. so I've sent them photos (they wanted to see it)
and hopefully one night it will open so I can take better photos of the coral

extremely unhappy with DD right now

I'd still like to hear other's thoughts. Am I wrong? Are they right?

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I am by no means an expert with this stuff that's just what I think. If anything the first picture you have there might be a dendro but I'm hesitant to say so.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

I had a large dendro head that got the oval shape before it turned into two heads,but the mouth wasn't has big has whats in the pic.I would have go balano in the pic.

 

[dreko]

well it finally opened up, late last night around 4am.
I took some pics with camera & flash. Here's a composite picture with
it's clear white tentacles, when lights came on this morning, it receeded
back into it's skeleton.

Balanophyllia activity yes?

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Activity? Dendros and balanos would act the same. It's hard to tell from those pics what it really is and what color it is. Most dendros still have relatively clear tentacles.

 

[dreko]

Not sure I agree
Most have their dendros open during the day/lights on.. and they can be trained to open up

The Balano only seems to open up at night, at least this one is very photosensitive. Perhaps other balano owners have them open all the time??

I'm also under the impression that most dendros are a nice yellow tentacle color. And most balanos have the clear/white tentacles. I know I'm generalzing, but I'm talking about the ones that seem to be 'common' in the LFS's

I've been googling these corals images for days, and my generalization seems to be be spot on

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Both dendros and balanos can be trained to stay open- you just have to actually train them. In that sense they are basically the same. Color also can vary greatly with dendros. You could have a lighter colored dendro. I'm starting to believe that that it what it is.

Although DD does seem to be making some mistakes lately, I would definitely be more likely to trust their judgment than not to.

 

[dreko]

Do you have any Balanophyllia corals? Do they stay open all the time?

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

No but one of my LFSs had a colony in their display that was trained to do so. It wasn't for sale of course or I would have bought it!

 

[dreko]

Ok understood. Any other Dendro or Balano owners out there want to help out here??
thanks

 

[davelinks]

the pictures attatched to that latest post looks like dendros. balanos from what i have seen have white tentacles and an orange-sih body. dendros are always more of a yellow. ive seen dendros with pink bodies but the tentacles are always still yellow.

 

[davelinks]

ok just re read the first post, the both look pretty similar, but balanos and dendros can look pretty similar when its a single head and closed up

 

[davelinks]

these are my old balanos

<a href="http://s1091.photobucket.com/albums/i392/davelinks/craigslist/?action=view&current=2010-10-28223548.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i392/davelinks/craigslist/2010-10-28223548.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[dreko]

Yes, I wish there was an ID method available to me online... Coloration isn't exact, but going on the trends...my coral has clear tentacles with an orangish body...
only opens up at night, regardless of the food coaxing during the day. Extremely photosensitive

 

[GoingPostal]

How big are they? I only have one dendro to compare to my balanos and that is much larger and very orange. I honestly can't say for sure which yours is. Here is mine,

One I bought off DD, now the darker colony above

 

[dreko]

GoingPostal: In your first picture, I'd say my coral looks like all the others you have on the leftside of the photo. Clear tentacles, orange-pink body/mouth
length of tentacles is pretty minimal when fully opened...
I'm still convinced this is a balano
but open to correction if ID method is sound

 

[WSI2406]

IME, my balano colony was much more sensitive to the light and opened 90% of the time once all of the lights when out, but my dendros stayed open 24/7. Nice pics(goingpostal). Dreko it is definately a balano you have in the three pic series.