dendronephthya- long term success?
- Thread starter palyam
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uhuru
New member
Ahh why do the most beautiful corals have to be the most difficult? I've tried about 5 of them. At least 2 died of starvation within a couple of months even with continuous dosing. At least 2 died of water issues from OD'ing (also caused me to lose all my fish at the time). The one I have now I've only had for 5 months. It stays expanded most of the time (with polyps open) and has new polyps growing at the base, in addition to growing new branches. It did go through a period of shrinking and dropping sclerites like crazy while I was dealing with water quality issues. It even had pods crawling over it. I thought I had lost it but it bounced back and since then it looks better than ever.
I don't know if the colors make a difference but I wouldn't be surprised if there were species differences in dietary and water quality requirements.
At least with this one I have now, it showed the most consistent expansion and response to food when I started running ozone + daily water changes with heavy dosing of all filter feeder foods. Here are some pics I took last night:
I don't know if the colors make a difference but I wouldn't be surprised if there were species differences in dietary and water quality requirements.
At least with this one I have now, it showed the most consistent expansion and response to food when I started running ozone + daily water changes with heavy dosing of all filter feeder foods. Here are some pics I took last night:
slapshot
Active member
....and in the end he ended up losing his tank also. We will get there!
Aquabacs
New member
There have been a few aquacultured Dendronephthya that have been coming in that look promising. Local shop had 3 that came in last November, all are still alive in customer tanks without the extreme care that we take (i should of picked them up when I had the chance). The next set of aquacultured ones that come in, I have the whole batch reserved 
The longest I was able to keep one was a little over a year before it completely collapsed on me. I came home from work and it was dead. There was no change in my water parameters that I could detect.
Mike
The longest I was able to keep one was a little over a year before it completely collapsed on me. I came home from work and it was dead. There was no change in my water parameters that I could detect. Mike
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
FWIW, I recall a post/artcile by Claude of Fauna Marin stating that he's been doing a study of specific Dendronepthya and/or Scleronepthya colonies in the wild and has noted that their natural life span is no more than two years. Of course, throughout that time you could take hundred of trimmings along with the fact that it would likely be reproducing by itself.
Do you know who's growing them?
Mike, are these aquacultured or maricultured?
Do you know who's growing them?
There have been a few aquacultured Dendronephthya that have been coming in that look promising. Local shop had 3 that came in last November, all are still alive in customer tanks without the extreme care that we take (i should of picked them up when I had the chance). The next set of aquacultured ones that come in, I have the whole batch reserved
Mike
Can you pm me the local shop, i.e. after you pick up those you reserved. What kind of feeding regimen/device do you use.
Aquabacs
New member
Quality Marine is one of the wholesalers that are bring them in. Atleast they are being sold as Aquacultured.
http://www.qualitymarine.com/Produc...oft/Dendronephthya-sp./Flower,-Dendronephthya
Mike
ReefMonger
New member
What happened exactly to Chucks tank?
uhuru
New member
AFAIK they are maricultured.
aninjaatemyshoe
New member
This is something I'm not sure I understand about Dendronephthya/Scleronephthya. If the main colony has a lifespan of only a couple of years, how can the frags or asexual buds live on for another full lifespan? I mean, I figure the only reason why it would have a limited lifespan would be because of some sort of senescence that prevents it from continuously growing. In which case, I would think it would need to sexually reproduce constantly to produce new colonies. If that is the case, then it is going to be extremely difficult keeping these guys going, worse than it is already.
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
I agree!
I would venture to guess (big guess) that the colonies require "X" amount of food based on their size... as the colony grows it requires that much more food, and once they get to a certain size they cannot intake enough food to support themselves and die, leaving small pieces bhind that can support themselves based on their size. Big guess, but maybe...
aninjaatemyshoe
New member
If that is the case, Dendronephthya have a really fascinating survival strategy. I guess if we can start keeping them successfully we may find out what is actually happening.
slapshot
Active member
I believe a power outage.
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
I PM'd Claude for any info he can bring to light on the topic - I seacrhed through old posts of his and couldn't find it (and wasn't going through 1,000 + posts
).
uhuru
New member
I think that's a very reasonable explanation Austin. Basically they die of starvation no matter what. The body surface area causes the metabolic rate to be so high that energy intake cannot keep up. If this is true though - we should be able to keep them alive longer if we feed them more (and no one has grown them to the sizes they get in the wild yet), or there must be certain areas in the wild that they live longer than others.
Another farther fetched explanation I was thinking of was that there is something similar to the Hayflick Limit going on. This goes more with ninja's thought above. However some type of cell signaling or enzymatic process must occur with the new branches that fall off that allows them to continue to divide.
Another farther fetched explanation I was thinking of was that there is something similar to the Hayflick Limit going on. This goes more with ninja's thought above. However some type of cell signaling or enzymatic process must occur with the new branches that fall off that allows them to continue to divide.
Aquabacs
New member
I PM'd Claude for any info he can bring to light on the topic - I seacrhed through old posts of his and couldn't find it (and wasn't going through 1,000 + posts
The article you are speaking about is in the Fauna Marin forum. I dont have access to my home computer right now but put a search in that forum for Dendronephthya and it should pop up. Also, on a different note, Claude should have the Fauna Marin Dendro manual translated to english shortly.
Mike
uhuru
New member
Thanks for that tip Mike - I found the post by Claude:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1559270&highlight=dendronephtya
1.5 years is the longest he has seen in the wild, and the longest he has been able to keep in captivity as well.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1559270&highlight=dendronephtya
1.5 years is the longest he has seen in the wild, and the longest he has been able to keep in captivity as well.
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