Hi, I just bought a new dendrophyllia coral with about 8 polyps. I have only had it for around 24 hours now but it does not seem to open up much. I have read that dendro's, unlike sun corals, open up around 24/7 regardless of light. I have feed each polyp 1 mysis shrimp so far and they will slightly open in order to grab the food but they do not stay open at all. Could this be due to the fact that they were just put in my tank or perhaps they are unhealthy? There does not seem to be any dead tissue on the polyps. I maintain excellent water conditions with a 10% water change each week along with target mysis feedings. I dose oyster-feast, marine snow, selcon, and trace elements. Any other suggestions? Am I being impatient?
Dendro not opening
- Thread starter Hades
- Start date
graveyardworm
Premium Member
How long have you had it? I do think perhaps you're being a bit impatient if you just got it. Give it a couple days to settle in. Was it expanded in the tank it came from?
No it was not open at the fish store, although the person working there said it expands upon feeding. It seems that if I touch one mysis to one of the polyps the rest will then slowly expand slightly and I can feed them all. Tonight it seems like they are coming out more although I am expecting them to be open during the day as well since they should be out 24/7 as is claimed for the dendro corals. I do need to get some pictures up though to confirm that they are in fact dendrophyllias. If these coral are successful then I will purchase the balanophyllias they have as they are cheap considering the average price for them.
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
Glad to hear they're looking better!
Any coral such as Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia open at night in nature due to the high density of plankton in the water column to feed off of. They're non-photosynthetic... light doesn't bother them, but in nature they feed at night, which is why they're commonly closed during the day. "Training" any of these corals to stay open all the time is easily do-able... Another note to mention is that Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia are found in very shallow waters along side photosynthetic coral. They're not as common at these depths as they're outcompeted by their faster growing photosynthetic counterparts, making living in the depths, where their counterparts cannot survive, an easier means of survival.
IME many Dendrophyllia sp. open more readily initially than most Tubastrea, which IMO is due to handling and transportaion practices. How often do you see a damaged or sickley looking Tubsatrea? Pretty much every time you step into any LFS... where as not the same can be said for Dendrophyllia.
Regardless these corals need to be fed, and fed a lot. I feed mine daily, but generally every other day is sufficient. The amount of time they're open depends on water quality, foods offered, and frequency of feeding... FWIW, my Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia sp. are open over 90% of the time.
I'm not sure where this theory started, IMHO I think it was a marketing ploy started by retailers claiming they're "Tubastrea that stays open during the day!"...
Any coral such as Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia open at night in nature due to the high density of plankton in the water column to feed off of. They're non-photosynthetic... light doesn't bother them, but in nature they feed at night, which is why they're commonly closed during the day. "Training" any of these corals to stay open all the time is easily do-able... Another note to mention is that Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia are found in very shallow waters along side photosynthetic coral. They're not as common at these depths as they're outcompeted by their faster growing photosynthetic counterparts, making living in the depths, where their counterparts cannot survive, an easier means of survival.
IME many Dendrophyllia sp. open more readily initially than most Tubastrea, which IMO is due to handling and transportaion practices. How often do you see a damaged or sickley looking Tubsatrea? Pretty much every time you step into any LFS... where as not the same can be said for Dendrophyllia.
Regardless these corals need to be fed, and fed a lot. I feed mine daily, but generally every other day is sufficient. The amount of time they're open depends on water quality, foods offered, and frequency of feeding... FWIW, my Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia sp. are open over 90% of the time.
It seems stunreefer that you are indeed correct and I should have listened to the biologist in me. Here is a picture of the dendrophyllia open at night:
I first thought that it might have been a sun coral since it did not open during the day but I recently posted this picture on my tanks thread page and was advised to put my doubts to rest as it appears to be a dendrophyllia. I suppose that since I got the frag very cheaply, $20, and that most of the time the LFS vendor is not very well informed that I second guessed the LFS identification, but you can see upon examination of sun corals that they grow into a sphere while dendros do not. It must be a dendro that needs training to open during the day although the polyps do seem to be smaller than I expected for a dendrophyllia.
I first thought that it might have been a sun coral since it did not open during the day but I recently posted this picture on my tanks thread page and was advised to put my doubts to rest as it appears to be a dendrophyllia. I suppose that since I got the frag very cheaply, $20, and that most of the time the LFS vendor is not very well informed that I second guessed the LFS identification, but you can see upon examination of sun corals that they grow into a sphere while dendros do not. It must be a dendro that needs training to open during the day although the polyps do seem to be smaller than I expected for a dendrophyllia.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15087850#post15087850 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hades
It seems stunreefer that you are indeed correct and I should have listened to the biologist in me. Here is a picture of the dendrophyllia open at night:
I first thought that it might have been a sun coral since it did not open during the day but I recently posted this picture on my tanks thread page and was advised to put my doubts to rest as it appears to be a dendrophyllia. I suppose that since I got the frag very cheaply, $20, and that most of the time the LFS vendor is not very well informed that I second guessed the LFS identification, but you can see upon examination of sun corals that they grow into a sphere while dendros do not. It must be a dendro that needs training to open during the day although the polyps do seem to be smaller than I expected for a dendrophyllia.
your freaken lucky!!! i got 2 polyps for 30 bux... polyps are hard to grow too
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