Question re: Dendrophyllia received from Reefs2go

[kallan]

I spot feed a few of my corals, so with a credit I had with Reefs2go, I thought I'd try one of these. This dendro looks freshly cut and superglued to a new plug. Does it look alive? :sad2: I hope so, it was expensive. Should I go ahead and try to feed it or wait for a sign of a head? There was a lot of white stuff floating around in the bag...hope this was not tissue loss. I moved it to a shaded spot near an overhang.

 

[stunreefer]

It is still alive. The stuff floating in the bag was likely the coral releasing slime as it was irritated, no big deal. That certainly does look to be a very fresh cut and doesn't appear to be overly healthy, frankly I wish they wouldn't have fragged that colony until it was in much better shape. With that said you should be able to get it into great health without too much work. Try some ideas in this thread and you should be fine. Let us know if you have any questions and good luck!

 

[kallan]

Austin,

What a great reference you put together on NPS corals!

The dendro still has not shown any signs of opening up for me. I spot fed it today using frozen cyclops, but it showed no response. I think I will try to container feed it now.

 

[s_kelley]

It will open. Give it time as you feed the tank you may see it extend its tentacles

 

[GoingPostal]

Might take a few days, just squirt some food at it late at night if you can, it might open up a little. Don't know what food you are trying but some reef chili or cyclops type items always seem to get my nps hard corals looking for food.

 

[kallan]

Unfortunately, this little dendro will not open up. I have placed it in a container with thawed mysis cyclops and brine shrimp each day for almost two hours...nothing. While in the tank today, I tried to give it a tiny piece of very soft scallop soaked in selcon...no response.

Is it normal to have such an inverted skeleton? There appears to be no puffiness at all.

 

[Arctic Reef]

How's the dendro doing? I'm thinking about ordering some dendro from them too. Many years back, I got a freshly cut dendro and it died on me. I left the skeleton in the sump and forgot about it. Months later I found 18 babies dendros on the dead skeleton. Good luck with your.

 

[kallan]

How's the dendro doing? I'm thinking about ordering some dendro from them too. Many years back, I got a freshly cut dendro and it died on me. I left the skeleton in the sump and forgot about it. Months later I found 18 babies dendros on the dead skeleton. Good luck with your.

I have not been able to get it to open up. For $39.99 for a freshly cut and superglued frag, I think you can do better than Reefs2go. I still see a bit of orange in the center, but no polyps. Maybe, it has had to feed upon itself so it would not starve to death before I received it. I haven't given up on it and have it in an acclimation chamber within my reeftank, so I can spot feed it often.

If you have one with 18 babies, why get another one? IMO, I would never order from Reefs2go if they were the last place on earth. There are so many other great companies out there that actually take care of their animals. They should just stick with their pods and snails. Good luck.

 

[Arctic Reef]

I have not been able to get it to open up. For $39.99 for a freshly cut and superglued frag, I think you can do better than Reefs2go.

The problem with that is not many online vender want to ship to Barrow,Alaska even when I willing to pay extra. And the one that do, dont have dendro.

If you have one with 18 babies, why get another one?

I had to sell my tank when I move to Alaska. Now i'm setting up a new tank and trying to stock it up.

IMO, I would never order from Reefs2go if they were the last place on earth.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to make serveral trip down lower 48 to coral shopping at lfs then. TSA allows hand carry fish but not so sure about coral. Any info on that?

 

[Arctic Reef]

Here is the pic of babies. Sorry for the bad pic.

 

[kallan]

Beautiful dendro! You must have done something right to make it so happy...lots of food, flow, etc.

I hope mine will look like that one day.

 

[dputt88]

that price is absurd for what you got, and honestly thats just the way reefs2go likes to do business. i have dendros, i bought one full grown head (almost an inch in diameter when partially closed) with 2 sprouts for $30 from another aquaculture business. and i have never seen my dendros fully close, these aren't like sun coral which close up at times. mine is now 10 heads, ive had it for 4 months.

 

[stunreefer]

Just keep at it kallan. We don't know how long it's been starved. I've had them take weeks to open before.

 

[kallan]

I am going to keep at it, but I wish I had gotten a fully developed head to begin with, not a starving "sprout". This head measures a little over 1/4". What a shame they had to separate it so soon from the mother colony.

 

[dputt88]

if it doesnt work out, let me know. i know of a vendor out my way sells them at a fair cost ( as eveyone should). we can discuss shipping and what not.

and youre not doomed, but when it opens give it plenty of food. itll need it.

 

[Dexters Reef]

Good luck, I bought 3 heads from them recently and all came as bad or worse than yours. I true spot feeding daily and it just further disintegrated until there was nothing left.

Email them ASAP to document that it came in poor shape. It took me 2 weeks of emailing back and forth but I finally got a refund (in the form of a credit). They never said they wouldn't credit me, but they kept telling me to keep trying to feed it and give it more time.

At one point there was no orange left AT ALL and was just a skeleton. They told me to try feeding and wait a few days. Yea ok...I know what dead coral is. I played along waited a few more days and then they agreed it was dead and credited me.

 

[kallan]

Good luck, I bought 3 heads from them recently and all came as bad or worse than yours. I true spot feeding daily and it just further disintegrated until there was nothing left.

Email them ASAP to document that it came in poor shape. It took me 2 weeks of emailing back and forth but I finally got a refund (in the form of a credit). They never said they wouldn't credit me, but they kept telling me to keep trying to feed it and give it more time.

At one point there was no orange left AT ALL and was just a skeleton. They told me to try feeding and wait a few days. Yea ok...I know what dead coral is. I played along waited a few more days and then they agreed it was dead and credited me.

I did send Reefs2go a photo of this dendro, but no response.

When I placed this order, I was trying to recoup a large credit I had with them. In this order I lost everything...a purple LTA sent dying and decomposed within days, a female mandarin and red scooter blenny DOA, etc. They seemed to be upset with me that I was able to use the credit online and was not forced to pay the shipping charge at checkout. Elyse called within minutes demanding the $39.99 shipping or they would consider my account closed. I agreed because I have been trying to recoup credit in giftcards from 3 orders since last summer. Honestly, I hate supporting such bad operations. Now, I have more dead corals and fish from them and feel like I have been stolen from. I guess this dendro took care of the shipping for them....while I am out over $158.00. This little dendro may be the only surviving victim of this disastrous transaction. That gives me some comfort.

No polyps yet, but I keep trying to feed it....

 

[kallan]

if it doesnt work out, let me know. i know of a vendor out my way sells them at a fair cost ( as eveyone should). we can discuss shipping and what not.

and youre not doomed, but when it opens give it plenty of food. itll need it.

I am not waiting until it opens to try and feed it. I am babying it several times a day.

I'd love to have a healthy specimen...let me know....

 

[Occane5]

I hope yours will open because they are awesome. Unfortunately, sometimes they won't open which is a sign of stress. Have you checked at night?

 

[kallan]

I hope yours will open because they are awesome. Unfortunately, sometimes they won't open which is a sign of stress. Have you checked at night?

Yes, I have kept an eye on it at night. I often check on it every 2-3 hours at night....I'm a light sleeper! When I took it out to feed it night before last, it seemed to swallow some zoplan. I tried this because it is so fine and the frag is so tiny. Last night, the zoplan just sat on it. It still shows no signs of puffiness at all.

It has such a hollow cone shape that food easily rests there. Do you think I am hurting it by attempting to feed it?