Orange Tree Coral - Could Be Problem?

[SVBorg]

Hi Everyone

I introduced a Orange Tree Coral to my tank a few weeks ago, when it was first introduced into the tank it "flowered" wonderfully, however after about a week or so it seemed to Sulk and has done since. It has not lost any of it's Orange colour so it doesn't appear to be dead

Is there any known problems with this species?

My Tank is a Fluval Vicenza 260Litre Tank with 2x T5 39W Tubes, Extrenal Filter, PowerStream and Protein Skimmer

All of my other coral is doing really well

Any help would be appreciated

Simon

 

[LegendLand]

you might have Dendronepthya..wich will not live in reef tanks...yet...

 

[SVBorg]

Are you sure, this was sold to me by a Reef specialist, strange if it isn't

Everywhere I have looked they require decent current and not essential on light, but I do have T5's

 

[Hormigaquatica]

More than likely it is a Dendronephthea, or a related coral. Their mortality rate is about 99.999% in captivity; Im aware of no more than 3 tanks worldwide that have managed to keep those animals alive for more than 6 or 8 months. They slowly starve to death and fade away.

Noone knows Exactly what they feed on, people have guesstimated anything from phytoplankton to bacterioplankton, to pure chemical absorbtion. They seem to prefer high flow (I know of one study that showed an optimal feeding response with a flow of about 7" per second. Wide, true laminer flow- not the kind of flow you get from a MaxiJet style pump, or the random turbulent flow many SPS keepers shoot for.

Light is irrelevant.

Best of luck with it. You might consider talking to your coral specialist- he may have been simply unaware of just how challenging these animals are.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

It could be a different Neptheidae family coral, such as Lemnalia, Neospongodes, Lithophyton, among others. Without a picture it's too difficult to tell. These I've mentioned are photosynthetic and often require fairly intense light, but they are definitely capable of being cared for. Can you get a picture of it?

 

[dendro982]

Photo would help - from description it may be straw-like Swiftia cofoidi or meaty orange scleronephthya, or even photosynthetic coral - I'm not familiar with orange ones.

If this is one of non-photosynthetic corals - they have to be fed at least 3 times daily for prolonged time, or more frequently in small doses - if possible.

Food - for meaty scleronephthya and balloon-like dendronephthya should be very small, like Oyster eggs, small Golden Pearls, Faun Marin specialized food. For branching thin twigs of Swiftia - slightly larger, zooplankton to fit the mouth.

Care, described in this thread , is similar to all of them, only different size of food.

You may try move it in different places relatively to the flow, the high flow is generally desirable.

And the last thing - dendros and scleros are dieing in some tanks, like mine, and not from starvation - too fast. Something is not right for them. In others tanks they opens to feed regularly. I'm trying all possible with orange scero - nothing works, but swiftia is doing really good. Go figure.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

What size golden pearls do you use for your dendro's/sclero's?

 

[dendro982]

No Golden Pearls for Canada... Several months trying to get them.

These sizes could be usable (from the New Deondronephthya study group thread and similar):

Golden Pearls: 50-100 microns
Golden Pearls: 100-200 microns
Oyster Eggs, 40 to 50 microns, 1/3 size of rotifers
Rotifers, 100-300 micron
O.S.I. Micro-food, 100 micron - didn't work for me
ZoPlan, 10-250 micron

For comparison, on this photo shown pink baby sclero, trying to eat the dried Cyclop-Eeze, size up to 800 micron:

And the food should fit the mouth.

Why I'm giving data not from personal experience: the coral is already in the tank, any useful information could be helpful. I would like to know that, when I started, not just "not for beginners" and "better be left in the ocean" (I'm not picking the fight, just was there, done that).

My tanks are not good for scleros and dendros: while scleros are hanging on the life, 2 dendros that I bought died within days - one rotted from inside, another - shrunk to nithing.

Others from my signature are doing fairly well.