I was told by maco at thesea.org to ask my question here regarding my red dendronephthia. I bought this against advice but have had some success by suspending it upside down and feeding finely crushed flake food in small amounts directly under it through an IV tube. It has become larger and when it is fully expanded now drags on the bottom of the tank by almost 2 inches (overall growth about 3 inches in 2 months). When fully expanded it touches my Favite and doesn'teem harmed or to harm it. It would be dificult to move. Is it reasonable to try to propagate this coral? Do you have any experience with this? I was told Anthony Calfo was the one to ask.
Propagate Dendronephthia
- Thread starter Ronald
- Start date
Anthony Calfo
New member
You can propagate this group of corals by using techniques of constriction (pinching off branchlets with orthodontic rubber bands, small plastic cable ties, etc). Cutting is not at all recommended as it leads to "sapping" of the slow to heal adult and higher risk of mortality or morbitity for all.
Do photograph your progress please and share it.
Most folks think that expansion is always a sign of good health (not always... moreoften a response simply to water flow and has nothing to do with actual growth). Success also cannot be measured in mere weeks/months. Many corals have survive for many months or even more than a year dying slowly by attrition... even if only a single digit daily deficit.
I surprised and doubtful that this coral is eating flake food to be honest. I'm also very grateful to hear it if it is true for your species/specimen.
All the more reason to take pictures
How long have you had this colony?
Best regards,
Anthony
Do photograph your progress please and share it.
Most folks think that expansion is always a sign of good health (not always... moreoften a response simply to water flow and has nothing to do with actual growth). Success also cannot be measured in mere weeks/months. Many corals have survive for many months or even more than a year dying slowly by attrition... even if only a single digit daily deficit.
I surprised and doubtful that this coral is eating flake food to be honest. I'm also very grateful to hear it if it is true for your species/specimen.
All the more reason to take pictures
How long have you had this colony?
Best regards,
Anthony
Thanks for the response . I have had it for 4 months and I realize this is just a snapshot, but I am encouraged by its improved appearence since I purchased it. The colony was collapsed in the dealer's tank and definately looks better now. I will document the constriction attempt but will delay a few months to better assess the health of the colony. The flake food idea came from a suggestion on the GARF website (finely crushed flakes in a bag mix with large volume of water and feed frequent small amounts directly on the coral. The IV tube was my idea, I have tried a slow drip (about 1 pinch crushed flakes mixed with 50cc of tank water driped slowly under the colony over about 6 hours) I keep the flake particles suspended with an air line in the syringe. Problems with clogging make this imprecise and I may have to employ a pump. How do I post photos to this site, I'll put one on if possible.
Anthony Calfo
New member
The problem/concern with the flake food is in making it into usable particle/prey sizes. Have you watched the coral feeding mechanisms with a loupe to not only verify that the particles are being drawn in... but also digested (and not simply released minutes/hours later)?
All such observations will be helpful to future aquarists pass or fail here.
Wishing you the best of luck... and honestly hoping you won't by another aposymbiotic Neptheid casually if this one does not beat the odds.
kindly, Anthony
All such observations will be helpful to future aquarists pass or fail here.
Wishing you the best of luck... and honestly hoping you won't by another aposymbiotic Neptheid casually if this one does not beat the odds.
kindly, Anthony
TippyToeX
Premium Member
*Posting a Picture*
You can ATTACH FILE (the option when you reply to a thread or start a new one).
Upload it to another web site and link it to Reef Central. To do this you will need to right click on the picture on the hosting web site, go to to PROPERTIES, highlight its address, RIGHT click, pull down to COPY.
Then when you respond here on ReefCentral you will use the IMG tab next to the vB Code, right click again and PASTE the web site.
Or type www.mypicture.jpeg[ / IMG] Remember no space between the "/" and the "I" in [/ IMG]
There is also the ReefCentral gallery you can load yours picture to and use them as a host for linking.
The maximum screen resolution size of the images can be no larger than 850x600 pixels which means that image can be no larger than 850 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall.
The supported file types are .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and .bmp. While you can attach all of those files types the best quality photo images are normally in the .jpg and .jpeg formats.
If your pic's are to large you will need to resize them. Lots of freeware out there to help with this.
:D hope that made sense!
You can ATTACH FILE (the option when you reply to a thread or start a new one).
Upload it to another web site and link it to Reef Central. To do this you will need to right click on the picture on the hosting web site, go to to PROPERTIES, highlight its address, RIGHT click, pull down to COPY.
Then when you respond here on ReefCentral you will use the IMG tab next to the vB Code, right click again and PASTE the web site.
Or type www.mypicture.jpeg[ / IMG] Remember no space between the "/" and the "I" in [/ IMG]
There is also the ReefCentral gallery you can load yours picture to and use them as a host for linking.
The maximum screen resolution size of the images can be no larger than 850x600 pixels which means that image can be no larger than 850 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall.
The supported file types are .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and .bmp. While you can attach all of those files types the best quality photo images are normally in the .jpg and .jpeg formats.
If your pic's are to large you will need to resize them. Lots of freeware out there to help with this.
:D hope that made sense!
I will not buy another aposymbiotic coral, even if this one survives. I have observed the particle uptake with a loop, but can't get a photo of it (too small). I didn't look for expulsion after uptake, however (I will check that out tonight). I am trying to rig my digital camera to my Meade etx telescope in hopes of getting some micro digital images (80x) but I will need to buy some new toys first. Thanks again. Ron
I managed to get my ETX telescope set up far enough from my tank so I can see things closely without interacting with them. I can mag up to 300x (150x is best for resolution) and get good views of individual 8 tentacle polyps on the dendronephthia. The crushed flake particles are definately small enough to get taken in and some in fact were but a relatively low percentage. I was able to see them in the gastric cavity over the course of about 1.5 hours. I can't tell if they are getting digested but the new branches of this coral are growing toward the end of the feeding tube which I think is encouraging. I tried videa taping with a digital cam through the lens of the scope and tried a photo but I need an adapter which means I need an SLR digital camera with detachable lenses (a bit pricey!) I'll keep trying to rig something.
