I am very happy with all of the participants in this thread, and grateful for your interest. As you know, I am attempting to get this thread moved to our own forum, if enough interest can be generated. I expect that consistsent effort by us over the next five years will generate a significant advancement in reef keeping, as well as understanding of marine ecology. I expect we will all be very happy with what we have accomplished as we look back from the year 2010.
Regarding the astute comment on Prochlorocosus/synechococcus, indeed they are very interesting creatures. I think the reasons they were misssed were significant in terms of assessing what we know- it is very easy to miss little bugs, and in general I can find little information on nonmotile eukaryotes below 50U. Energy budget estimations would suggest that the eggs and reproductive forms should outnumber the adult forms over 100u, which are typically counted in plankton net trawls. Assessments of "zooplankton uptake" for dendros in the literature used 100U mesh. I just don't know enough about these creatures. Although I doubt lack of Synechococcus is the problem, I don't know. Synechococcus can be cultured. Time will tell.
Regarding "hanging" dendros, it depends on the type. At least two types reported by Wilkins arrive on import with their holdfasts fixed in gravel. They obviously root in gravel in the upright position, and the book by Fabricius shows them growing in this position in the wild. Others, particularly the fine polyped colored varieties, come in on rocks and appear to be oriented on a vertical surface. Benayahu and Fabricius report that these forms grow best on artificial vertical surfaces, projecting out into the current- such as on oil derricks in the Red Sea or on shipwrecks. Growth here can average greater than one polyp/day on a 5-25 polyp frag!
Mary's comments and experience are invaluable. I agree that many will attach in gravel. I also have mine attach in coarse gravel, and then transfer. Affixing a larger one is a problem! I had great success putting the base down a PVC pipe. Within a few weeks I pulled them out, and the tiny holdfast fragments on the PVC pipe were saved. They are now sprouting new polyps. Interestingly, the snow white one I had left behind red new polyps. Be patient- if there is any dendro tissue on a surface, that may be your very best grower- so good that I am considering fragging some new imports down to the holdfasts and regrowing them.
I have found they do not mind rubber bands. You don't even have to try to affix the base- just rubber band the middle. It looks funny byut will rearrange after awhile. I suspect this may be a better long term method. You can rubber band to a PVC pipe and then lean it up against the glass in the upper 1/3 of the tank. When it attaches to the glass you might be able to detach the supporting PVC and "plant" other areas by moving the PVC. I am working on this now, suspect but don't know that it will work. I can get atachment of small fragments to glass, don't know how well they will stick as they grow.
I was contemplating how voarcious my Tubastrea are. I literally feed each polyp two or three times daily. Given how quickly phyto cleaars, we may just be short on food.
Two recent observations- I am almost sure that live phyto acts very differently around a skimmer, and very little is taken up. anyone else notice this difference from paste? I asked Eric borneman about it, and he thinks this may be right. We need to test this more carefully.
Another thought about skimmers. As I feed oily foods to the Tubastrea so frequiently, my skimmer doesn't skim. It may be that the skimmer issue becomes moot. As we feed sufficiently, the skimmer stops working anyway. I am using extermely intensely lit refugia with Chaetomorpha and iron supplementation and geting excellent nutrient removal. That method may be necessary for filter feeders, since the refugia deals better with iol than a skimmer. Interesting thought.
Charles
