Dendrophyllia not wanting food?

[chrisstie]

Hi I was wondering if you could help me figure out if it is normal for a dendro polyp to not want food?

In the past it'd open up real big and I could plop a few mysis on it nightly and it would go to town. It's got 1 baby on it and another starting to grow - I am wondering if this impacts it all ...

my parameters are where they should be for everything except i find my calcium runs a little low - i have started dosing B-ionic 2 part to bring it up from ~ 380 or so - but I have a skimmer rated for a 200g tank on my 55g + sump so i suspect it may be pulling out some stuff from my water that I wouldn't want to.

I don't have any other corals very close to it and it is in moderate flow area.

I am going to do a water change tomorrow to see if it opens up more and retest since i did everything last weekend but have a test i have to study for and take tomorrow before i can focus back on the tank


I just wonder if I should be worried or if its normal for them to skip eating big chunks of food from time to time if on a nightly feed schedule (i think most feed every other night?)

I also sometimes give some phyto or coral vibrance (sps powder) that it could be picking up on and not want more food.

Just wondering what you guys would think from your past experiences. thanks!

 

[onano]

I am tagging along on this. I have a dendro that started with 2 heads grew to 4 and now has started to sprout at least 3 more(could be 4 but can't tell yet) and is not opening at all. My Dendro was a voracious eater for months but in the last 3 to 4 weeks it barely eats at all.

 

[JenDub]

How old is the food you are using?

 

[onano]

2 months old for the mysis. Less for the cyclopeeze. Everything else in the tank is eating the same food as well.

 

[JenDub]

It's hard to say if the food was stored properly before you purchased it (unless you order directly). I've seen some problems arise from food that is past it's prime...

 

[chrisstie]

For me i have a fresh batch of mysis, maybe a month old if that, about a month or two for cyclopeez, i have fresh shrimp from the grocery...

i'm stumped.

 

[onano]

Chrisstie, I emailed Miguel at Fraggle Reef. He has a lot of experience with Dendros. Here is what he had to say.
"Hmmm, sorry to hear, sometimes this happens when they sprout new heads,
they'll put a lot of energy into those and not eat for a few days, but then
they should be ok, are all of the other corals in your tank ok? Have you
tried turning off all of the flow and laying mysid shrimp over the coral so
that it can eat slowly? I'd try feeding just mysid and no cyclopeeze, and
seeing how that goes, please keep me posted if they haven't improved in a
few days."

Looks like sprouting new heads does take away some energy. Hope you find his comments helpful. I noticed your in Orlando. Me too.

Good Luck

 

[plaz]

I've only had mine a littel over a week. I have one stubborn one. If I float him in a plastic measuring cup with live baby brine shrimp, he opens up after about an hour or so and will then take other food. Otherwise, he stays closed (he is right beside the others that are open all the time).

 

[chrisstie]

Thanks for your encouragement and comments

And yeah I go to UCF onano

I had a feeling that perhaps the polyp making babies could be affected by it even though that once they are separate polyps they don't share nutrition in the colony...

All of my corals are not just okay but doing very well.. especially my LPS (never had much luck with them in my aquapod) - i have a cynarina that expands so large it looks obnoxious, a chalice frag that's growing fast, frogspawn thats happy and growing and an acan that is doing pretty well too...

I've also tried the flow thing, but to no avail. It actually used to be under stronger flow until I adjusted it so it was easier for the polyp to eat.

Also, there was one day where I found a little bit of my frogspawn had jettisoned itself for a ride around my tank, no larger than the size of a small pea, and it had landed - possibly stung- the dendros tentacles. I quickly removed it and it seemed to have recovered from that but I may be able to relate it to a similar time to when the polyp stopped wanting food

That doesn't, however, explain the baby polyps. they are so hard to feed when they are tiny!

Guess i'll just keep on watching and see how it does. I will try redirecting the flow in my tank again and see if it helps - only want to make minor changes at a time so I can rule out what the cause isn't.

 

[naka]

Christie, did you feed your dendros yet?

 

[chrisstie]

My one large polyp still hasn't come out wanting food even after a water change

Its baby seems like it just kind of peaks out but no such luck. i have my fingers crossed its able to get some cyclopeez\coral vibrance when i feed other things in my tank but its hanging int here jsut not coming out

 

[al abaqueta]

Hey Christie, I have three different strains of dendros, and one time one fo them didn't want to open. I went back to the basics. Turned lights of at nine pm. waited for 30 minutes, and tried to get them to come out and feed on cyclopeez. I ws just trying to train them to come out at night. Few days, they all came out, and I spot fed with pumps off, using brine shrimp and eventually mysis. Now I have them trained to come out with the lights on, and I enjoy them during the day. This has been my experience, hope this helps. Al

 

[cristhiam]

Hey crisstie, did yours open during the day? mine only opens at night about 30 minutes after the lights goes off, I have noticed that mine is not opening like it did before either I see a little bump on the side so maybe it's a baby not sure hard to see it, but I think my dendro came from the same colony as yours. I feed it small pieces of raw shrimp. every 3 or 4 days.

 

[chrisstie]

Mine has a baby and a baby bud and yeah if you got it from SITC.. i hadn't trained mine to do the lights thing yet.. always fed at night .. sorta worked into my schedule better

and yet i've done the pumps off, squirted mysis all near it.

When i look down at it it looks like its flesh\tentacles are pushed against the wall and its gaping a bit.

not sure if i should try squirtin food down in there or if its trying to squeeze out more babies

 

[chrisstie]

Now this is happening What do I do?

 

[All Delight]

Damn Chrisstie that sucks.

I've been following the thread, but I don't have a dendo so I don't have any advice to offer. Just hoping your piece makes a comeback.

 

[chrisstie]

I was wondering if there are any LPS safe dips out there in case this is something bacterial but there doesn't seem to be anything in particular affecting any of my other LPS no brown stuff just.. like somehting is gnawing on the side of that =\

 

[cristhiam]

Is it on direct light? try shading it. Mine turned a litte white when I moved it couple of weeks ago up in the rock work, it was getting some light on that side, I shaded some more and I havent seen it getting bad. worth the try.

 

[Vorteil]

In my experince I had one w/ 3 polyps do the same thing that yours is doing. It would eat & the tenticles stayed fat yet would not grab any food. This only happened to one particuliar frag. It didnt happen to effect any of the other ones I have. Eventually all 3 died. The biggest one still has a bit of flesh on it so I left it in back of my 24 JBJ. this last week I noticed that there was a polyp forming out of it. Its only about a third of an ich or so. I think it may come back. I have fed it small pieces of raw shrimp. I had experience w/ a few other pieces that had real tiny polyps on it that became full size in a few months. This meant feeding it almost daily. If i can figure out how to post a pic i'll show you hwat i'm talking about.

 

[chrisstie]

How do I feed mine if it wont open up to take food? squirt food down its gaping mouth? Im unsure if that would be good or bad at this point.


I've moved it under an overhang to be shaded in the hopes it will be less agitated. I am just surprised it did well for months then just stopped eating.