Scleronephtya/Dendronepthya problems

[Kolognekoral]

Morning, all,

after returning from a holiday in Florida, I needed a 'quick fix' at my local Aquarium store and purchased a beutiful coral-red Sclero/Dendro colony on a small substrat. Well, the animal looked fine for the first two days, half-opening into the current and apparently feeding, then I noticed a few of the daughter colonies coming free from the stone and playing flotsam with the current.

My first thought was; this may be normal and related to acclimatization, however, the main colonie is coming loose and I suspect it will be off inside of 48 hours! What to do?

Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you attempt and what came of it?

Can azooxanthelic softcorals be remounted, just as the photsynthetic ones?

Just how strong of a current do they really like or is this dependant upon the collection site? I estimate the current at about 7 cm pS (2.5" pS).

All in all one chalks this up to experience, but I want to share the misery''

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Dendros tend to self destruct before dying- which includes dropping off daughter colonies. Its a good strategy in te wild; conditions arent right, so drop off a few pieces and let the current carry them off, hopefully landing someplace with more favorable conditions.

Unfortunately, Dendronephthya do not survive in captivity; I know of only 3 cases world wide where a person had success for over 1 year, and they gave a Lot of attention. There may be other success stories, but they are very few and far between Im afraid.

As far as flow rate, Ive heard of rates varying from 12-36" per sec; 7cm/sec is far too low.

Sorry its not good news..lol. Do a bit of searching; there was a thread dedicated to dendro care at one point in the advanced forums. Here is a good basic link too:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/dendornephthyaart.htm

 

[Kolognekoral]

Sclero/Dendro problem

Sclero/Dendro problem

Thanks for the input (no; I wasn't expecting a miracle). I have spent a bit more time researching, as I am home with the flu (the silver lining of illnesses!) and have decided most of my colonie belongs to the genus Scleronepthya (lacking spicules in the polyps) and a small bit of Dendronepthya (clealy with spicules).

As to few people being able to maintain them (definitely true), we are currently enjoying some success in Europe using various mixtures of fine foods and animoacid solutions. The nut may be cracked, now to get to the kernel. Check-out the info at www.faunamarin.de (also in English) or www.matuta.de (only German).

I was of the opinion that the current could be stronger, as Dendronepthya grows in extreme tidal currents on some reefs, but the smaller Scleros tend to thrive under softer environments. Well, I have all these little daughter colonies, therefore I will attempt to place a few and observe.

wish me luck

 

[dendro982]

Some useful links:
- Dendronephtya study group at RC - big tanks, dedicated, not a common nano-reef level.
- Danny Dame's tank, Holland. Food, he uses, is not available here. Also links to the tanks from RC thread.
- GARF 1, 2, 3.
- nano-reef forums: 1, 2, 3, 4.
- some articles: 1.

I like this criteria: "if it's soft it's sclero... if it's spikey it's dendro." In the thread on sclero.

My scleronephthya (main colony melted in the first months):

Part survived for already almost an year, now:

no special care, the less touch - the better, let it drop where it likes. No interference was tolerated. Less tolerant than most corals to hours without water, when tank leaked at night, better to keep it not at the top.

My Dendronephtia, seems to be D. hemprichii (never opened, the stalk lived for a month, died in a tank crash). Needed a lot of space to inflate in the flow, without touching anything:

Sclero - at the left, the pale-pink.

Gluing was unsuccessful - it disattached every time. If it founds even unconventional place and open polyps - I would let it be there. Moving leads to melting, IMHE. Could be wrong, of course.

There are other corals with spicules, embedded in the body, like these, different care:

I wish you luck!

 

[Kolognekoral]

Thanks for the great photos! As you put it, Scleros are the softies! The good news is, mine has not loosed itself further from it's base. I wonder if the reason it loosed itself at all was that the sponges ,etc. that are also growing there, have started to decay. I wouldn't want to set my feet in a puddle of rotting sponge either!

Lots to read on the Dendro group, so I'm off to get smarter. The Dutch page was known to me and I use some of the same foods, but more and better versions have hit the markets in the last months. We seem to have a real boom going on in Europe with three major lines coming on the market; Elos, from Spain, Timo and Fauna from Germany. Gorgonians are being maintained and reproduced (frags) by lots of hobbyists. Exciting!

 

[Fredfish]

Those links dendro982 gave are pretty much the whole body of knowlege on keeping this species.

Danny Dames tank was only set up for 4 months before he had to move. I don't know if he has set up again yet.

We have by no means cracked the nut. Nobody can repeatably grow this coral by a given method.

The type (laminar) and amount of flow may be as critical to success as the type of food.

Good luck

Fred

 

[dendro982]

The runners of the Dendro, died in crash, are restoring - today had seen polyps. It happens not the first time - the small parts of corals, dropped or fragged, are doing better than the big corals from ocean - sclero, chili and now dendro. Will keep fingers crossed for a good luck.