New Deodronephthya sp. study group?

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Last night I came home and realized that my two largest Dendros were not open, and that they haven't been open for a few days. Closed for one or two days happened before but now it was rather like 4 days or so. That made me suspicious. Finally I picked one out of the tank and inspected it carefully to find a hole at the bottom, with a bit of rot around the edges. With a scalpell I opened up the hole a bit to find a bristleworm having almost completely carved out the lower half of the colony. I scraped out all the rotten tissue and fixed the coral between two small rocks. Upon inspection colony #2 I found the same.....
Both colonies are now about 10 % of their original size, completely limp, there is little hope that they will ever recover. I will keep you posted
I find this quite remarkable as the tank has very few worms, I hardly ever see one. My last tank with a DSB had zillions and they never touched a Dendro or any other coral.

Jens

 

[reefnewbie54321]

How big were they?

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

ca. 5" when fully inflated, now about 1"

 

[salty joe]

Did you keep the worms fo an ID?

 

[Kent E]

Well that might explain a lack of success as almost everyone has bristle worms. If you did have a pic that would be helpful.

 

[reefnewbie54321]

Man I just incorporated a 4 inch brim around my stand to hide my 5" sandbed ... haveing second thoughts now. Is this the first tgime you have noticed anything like this, you stated that you have had them in other tanks with hundreds of bristle worms.

 

[graveyardworm]

There's thousands of polycheate worms in the sea, hopefully Jens can get an id. Is it possible the Dendros were already in bad shape and the bristle worms were just doing their job?

 

[Fredfish]

I would agree with graveyardworm. It is equally possible that the bristle worms were feeding on the decaying tissue.

Unless someone else can replicate what happened to Jens and carefully observe, there is really no way to know for sure if the worms were the cause or oportunistic scavengers.

Fred

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

Both Dendros apparently drifted away, can't find them anymore. I think the worms were the cause of death, as both Dendros were absolutely perfectly inflated before and did not show any sign of a desease or so.
I did not safe the worms, but they looked like the standard mean bristleworm. It is still possible that there were other organisms involved in the killing, but it definitely happened within 3 or 4 days, from looking perfectly healthy to a limp hollow skin.


Jens

 

[glassbox-design]

Hello All,

Has the idea of a low nutrient zeovit like system been mentioned? I am not advocating zeovit, but i think the pristine water conditions with the benefit of the bacteria "mulm" as a food source could really do wonders for dendros. This is simmilar to the idea of a DSB and Vodka.

I was just looking around at some european sites and found a company called Polyp Labs...they sell a carbon-bacteria system like zeovit....but without the zeolites and filter...they also have a product that is called reef roids which they claim was made specifically for goni's. I searched some other forums and it seems to have good reviews.

anyways just some ideas....i apologize if this has been discussed already...i am at work and do not have time to read the whole thread right now

eric&flint

 

[Dani Arnanz]

Zeovit and dendros?? I donÃ"šÃ‚´t agree Eric&flint... Zeovit only works in poor nutrient systems, in this case, Zeovit could low to the minim your nutrients, but is not a good system to massive nutrients exportation...

Dani

 

[glassbox-design]

Jumper-
Nutrients is a very broad term...and I believe a Zeo system would work well for dendros. What are the levels of these "nutrients" in ocean water?

As stated previously, dendros are almost never found without mucus which is rich in bacteria and detritus. There is a chance that dendros will feed on the bacteria utilized by zeo systems. The zeo bacteria may not be the perfect bacteria food, but I would venture a guess that bacteria + food, is better than food alone

...and if the bacteria is not ustilized by the corals, it will allow for more food to be used in the tank.

after searching on this topic some more it seems there are a few running zeo-dendro systems with good results...again since zeo is still somewhat a mystery it is hard what to attribute their success to.

ooo...after re-reading my post it makes me sound like a zeo advocate...which i am not and i am in no way related to the company but really, i think it is something to look into.

eric&flint

 

[Dani Arnanz]

Well, Flint&Eric:

Zeovit is a system I donÃ"šÃ‚´t like... I donÃ"šÃ‚´t like it for SPS, which are corals for those zeovit where developed, and itÃ"šÃ‚´s difficult for me to belive Zeovit could benefit other corals very differents from SPS.

Fuerthermore, Zoevit is a very young system, and it would be difficult to find one user who keep dendros with zeovit for more than one year...

But IÃ"šÃ‚´m member in the zeo forum... IÃ"šÃ‚´ll ask about it, when IÃ"šÃ‚´ve some info about it IÃ"šÃ‚´ll post it here.

Regards,

Dani

 

[ivan1407]

Differences

Differences

Can anyone tell me how you can differentiate the different types of the nephthya family: capnella, neospogode, nephthya, dendronephthya and scleronephthya?

 

[Dani Arnanz]

Neospongodes is not a valid genus, the species of that genus were translated to stereonephthya and may be capnella. In Dendronephthya you can clear see the sclerites. Capnella have different polyp agregations that nephthea.

You should try to take a better pic, with this, I think nobody will be able to ID your coral.

Good luck,

Dani

 

[ivan1407]

Maybe these detailed photo's will help.

 

[mcox33]

pictures would not open. You can upload them and host them here then link from there. www.photobucket.com

 

[ivan1407]

Mary,

I converted the file into a PDF format.
Is this helping you to see the pictures?
Otherwise visit My photo gallery.
It contains the same picture.

 

[dannyfromholland]

My guess its stereonephthya its besides a suspensionfeeder also somewhat photosyntethic

 

[Siapin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7436270#post7436270 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flint&Eric
....DSB and Vodka.

I was just looking around at some european sites and found a company called Polyp Labs...they sell a carbon-bacteria system like zeovit....but without the zeolites and filter...they also have a product that is called reef roids which they claim was made specifically for goni's. I searched some other forums and it seems to have good reviews.

eric&flint

I ordered some reef roids, and I'm going to try it with my scleronepthyta, but it hasn't come in yet. I've posted pix of it earlier in the thread, and I'll try it out for a few weeks once I get the package.

Also, I've been using vodka sparingly for the past few weeks, and I really haven't seen much difference in anything...I guess I'll just have to check my nitrates and phosphates. I was wondering the dosage amount you guys suggest of vodka...i've been using around 1ml to 100 gallons.