Dendro Help

onano

New member
I have attached a picture of my dendro. As you can see it has sprouted lots of new heads :). My problem is that this is as open as it gets. Its is not extending its tentacles beyond what you see here. Any ideas?? It has been in the same location in the tank since I brought it home. It has been looking like this for the last 2 to 3 months. I get it to take mysis and cyclopeze and feed it almost daily (5 to 7 times a week). The tank has been growing out so I don't know if it could be light or flow?? My cleaner shrimp does make this its hang out throughout the day as well. It is under an overhang in the middle of my NC 24 a few inches up from the bottom. It has encrusted to the rock so I cant move it without cutting it off (not really what I want to do).



Tank Params are as follows:

Temp: 80-82
Alk.- 12.5 d/KH (a little high but I believe still okay)
PH- 8.2
Nitrate-0
Calc.-420
Phosphate-0

Everything looks okay from the numbers. I have had more bubble and hair algae growing lately and the chaeto in my fuge is not growing as quickly (I have actually had to remove some of the chaeto because it was slimy and not healthy looking) but my phosphates and nitrate look great. I am lost.
 
I would suspect the shrimp. All it would take is for the shrimp to brush up against it and it would contract like this.
 
Mine started to do the same thing. My nitrate & phosphates were way too high. I moved them to a tank that had all fine parameters & they are fine now. That's the only thing that i could figure out w/mine.
 
Thanks for the replies. My nitrates and phosphates are perfect (salifert kits) so now I am feeling more lost. The only number that is a little off is my alkilinity. Anyone else have any ideas???
 
You could try target feeding it - cut the bottom of a 2l plastic soda bottle and place it over the area and put the food in via the top so the shrimp doesnt try to steal the food and the dendro has time to slowly feed, see if you get a response this way.
 
Thanks for the reply. I feed it that way now. My real issue is not getting it to eat but just to extend its tentacles so I can enjoy the true beauty of this coral like I did for the 1st 6 mos. I had it. It used to be open all day and was the centerpiece of my reef.
 
I put mine in an area of a bit more flow and poof they open up fully for me daily... I'd try that.. not a WHOLE lot of flow but a decent medium amount going past it may just do the trick.
 
I agree with paininthewrasse.. you don't want these guys getting blown over but they can certainly handle a nice steady medium flow - a word of caution- their tentalces are sticky so make sure nothing bad can get into the flow and they can catch it

I had a polyp catch a little ball of frogspawn that detatched and it ended up stinging it so bad the polyp died :( I am now nursing babies growing from its demise but its been a long process
 
One other thought is that the shrimp is taking the food out of the dendro. I am not sure how long you watch the dendro after you feed but I know my peppermints did that to my dendro for a while. They were a pain. Good luck.
 
Well after reading everyones replies, I decided to relocate the cleaner shrimp to friends nano yesterday. He molted the other day and during that 12 hours he stayed clear of the dendro. During that time the dendro looked much better. The next day after it molted the shrimp was out and about and the dendro looked poor again. It already looks better this morning without the shrimp in the tank. We'll see if it opens up over the next few days since it wont be getting picked on literally. Thanks for the replies.
 
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