Dendrophillia

dtaylor123

New member
Hey folks! I bought a beautiful Dendrophillia it has 4 polyps and seems to be healthy. I have had it now for over a month, but it still won't open in the day. It is in the light and has some water flow, I have it close to some Orange Tubastrea, the Tubastrea now comes out toward the end of the light time period. All of my parameters are good and the other corals are doing great. I am afraid if I can't coax them out, they will starve, I try to feed at night when they are out, but I can't always do that. Any suggestions on how to have them out all day? I don't want to starve them, not to mention they aren't cheap. Do I need more info about my tank?

Thanks
Dan
 
Like I replied on MI, they will evnetually open when hungry. They will not starve themselves, but if you want to play it safe, remove from water and put in container and try and add a cube of something and see if they open.
 
Thanks all. I just fed them again tonight, man when they open they open! They are greedy little buggers too. I feel better that they eat at night when open. Since I have had them, they have never looked bad even when closed, they still looked healthy and now that I can feed them at night, they can at least take in food, I will continue to baby them with the hopes of them opening during the day. My orange Tubastrea which are next to them look awesome! Thanks all.

Dan
 
Here is a day shot. I am feeding a little during the day and night that way it stays open pretty much 24/7. I don't really suggest removing from the water to feed. its pretty hard on them. If you get any food in at all you are fine. Just feed it regularly. And of course it never hurts to stuff it a couple times a week.

DSC00345.jpg
 
Have you tried moving them to another position? Maybe more shaded or different flow. Mine is very picky to flow for some reason, when placed in one part of the tank wouldn't open for days and as soon as it is moved it stays open about half the lighting cycle and will open for food.
 
If it won't open during the day you might have another species of sun coral -- there are very many types of both dendros and sun corals, with some looking exactly alike from I have read.

Even if it is a sun coral, you can still train them to open during the day just by feeding them during the day.
 
You can coax it to open during the day for feeding by squirting some food on it. I use a turkey baster to feed mine. Once they sense food they'll start to open and will then grab mysis.
Not all dendros open 24/7 in fact I think alot of them don't.

kass
 
mine opened ALL day long. have u tried feeding it wt formula 1 pellets. they are more nutritious than the shrimps and also easier to feed and get eaten.. mine goes crazy ;)
 
Yeah, from what I understand, Oceans Nutrition's Formula 1 and Prime Reef pellets or RDF frozen blend have a good blend. In fact, i think they get their ingredients from all around the world like different algae types and stuff.
 
I just bought one today and it is not open yet. Should I check to see if its opening at night? I want to make sure I can feed it. Is it normal for them to stay closed in a new system?
 
Put it in a low light area. Mine was shipped to me and was open in the bag and was always open most of the time unless my fish bump into it.
It is common for corals not to open right away in a new system though.
As I said you can coax them to open by squirting some food by it.

kass
 
Hey happy to say that my dendro opened the first night :D Pretty little single head. Hope it grows as fast as my other corals do!
*Here is the opening...
dendropics026.jpg


dendropics029.jpg


dendropics031.jpg

Yay! My first dendro!:lol:
 
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I have two small colonies that normaly are open all the time that are closed up tight and looking darker than normal? My Calcium has gone up a bit on the high at 470, I have been trying to dial in a new calcium reactor and my alk is stable at 9, but my calcium is higher than I would like. Any ideas?

Tank temp 77.8 to 78.3
PH 8.2
Nitrate 5 or less
Nitrite 0
magnesium 1230
Salinity 1.023 ussually 1.025
 
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