Scleronepthea easy to keep?
- Thread starter dzhuo
- Start date
Hormigaquatica
Active member
Scleronephthya is reported to be easier to keep than Dendro, only because there are a few species of Sclero for which the diet is somewhat known (whereas nobody really knows what Dendros feed on).
There have been reports of limited success by providing a constant supply of phytoplankton and in some instances detritus. Success is relative though; Ive not heard any accounts of them surviving more than a couple years in captivity.
There have been reports of limited success by providing a constant supply of phytoplankton and in some instances detritus. Success is relative though; Ive not heard any accounts of them surviving more than a couple years in captivity.
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
Once a week is not enough
yes
No
your welcome
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
A whole lot of stuff, mainly the Fauna Marin Products, plus cyclop eeze, and bbs twice a day. There is a older Dendro Thread here in this board, where I posted some of my recipes. I am still not sure wheter all Scleros and Dendros have the same requirements, are there so many different species or are there just a few extremely variable species?
The main trouble in the tank is to get enough food to the corals while maintaing good water quality.
Jens
The main trouble in the tank is to get enough food to the corals while maintaing good water quality.
Jens
dzhuo
Active member
how long have you had yours? can you post a picture? i do a little more research and found out that scleros are in fact easier to maintain compare to dendros but the information i got is from marinecenter.com where they sell both scleros and dendros. do you feed them during the day or after lights out?
thanks!
thanks!
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
HI
I had mine for about 18 months, then I moved from the US to Germany and had to tear down the tank. My non-photoynthetic softies all went via courier to a friend of mine in Germany, there they lived quite happily for a while but a tank crash put an end on this. I have some pics somewhere, but they are burned on a CD, hidden in one of the many boxes still unpacked in the attic.
I fed mine basically 24/7, by preparing large batches of food that I frooze in 15 ml centrifuge tubes with the tip cut off. Every morning I take a tube out of the freezer and put it into a lager centrifuge tube with a bigger hole at the bottom, hanging above the intake of the return pump in the refugium. Over a couple of hours the food slowly thaws and drips into the water where it is sucked up by the pump and spread into the main tank.
When I came home after work I exchanged the tube for a fresh one, before I went to bed a third one was added.
There are two different kinds of food, I called them day and night food. The day food contains all the stuff for the corals, as well as the frozen fish food (Mysis, Artmemia, shaved clam, shaved fish, etc). The night food contained just the coral food.
Jens
I had mine for about 18 months, then I moved from the US to Germany and had to tear down the tank. My non-photoynthetic softies all went via courier to a friend of mine in Germany, there they lived quite happily for a while but a tank crash put an end on this. I have some pics somewhere, but they are burned on a CD, hidden in one of the many boxes still unpacked in the attic.
I fed mine basically 24/7, by preparing large batches of food that I frooze in 15 ml centrifuge tubes with the tip cut off. Every morning I take a tube out of the freezer and put it into a lager centrifuge tube with a bigger hole at the bottom, hanging above the intake of the return pump in the refugium. Over a couple of hours the food slowly thaws and drips into the water where it is sucked up by the pump and spread into the main tank.
When I came home after work I exchanged the tube for a fresh one, before I went to bed a third one was added.
There are two different kinds of food, I called them day and night food. The day food contains all the stuff for the corals, as well as the frozen fish food (Mysis, Artmemia, shaved clam, shaved fish, etc). The night food contained just the coral food.
Jens
Jens, need advice, can you help?
I had scleronephthya and dendronephthya hemprichii, they were closing polyps and melting, scleronephthya - slower, dendronephtya - withing 4 days, even no chance to starve.
Measurable water parameters are normal, other corals open and grow well. What could I try to prevent this?
I'm more interested in scleronephthya, then in dendronephthya.
BTW, the melted scleronephthya left baby, that is still alive one year later, but no significant growth.
I had scleronephthya and dendronephthya hemprichii, they were closing polyps and melting, scleronephthya - slower, dendronephtya - withing 4 days, even no chance to starve.
Measurable water parameters are normal, other corals open and grow well. What could I try to prevent this?
I'm more interested in scleronephthya, then in dendronephthya.
BTW, the melted scleronephthya left baby, that is still alive one year later, but no significant growth.
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
HI Dendro
Ummm, hmmm, the best I can do is guessing. Have you checked for wounds, scars, bite-marks, or holes? Due to mechanical damage I lost my best standing Dendro that had grown so much, it was almost reaching against the glass. A friend of mine wanted to take pictures of the coral, so he cleaned the glass with my big cleaning magnet and whacked the magnet right into the coral, ripping about 1/3 of its foot off the base. A week later the 25 cm Dendro was a mere piece of slime...
Another one started to crumble one day without any warning. I took it out and inspected it with a magnifying glass, then I could find a hole in the stem. I cut the coral open to see what had made the hole and found a worm plus some small crustaceans, but the latter may be secondary colonizers. The worm had emptied out almost half the coral.
Especially from the second incident I've learned my lesson.
My new tank will have almost zero sand at the bottom, the decoration will be mainly Riffkeramik (i.e. Reef ceramics, from Germany) and only a few pieces of live rock, there will be a refugium with a sand bed filter, but external so I can control the worm population.
Jens
Ummm, hmmm, the best I can do is guessing. Have you checked for wounds, scars, bite-marks, or holes? Due to mechanical damage I lost my best standing Dendro that had grown so much, it was almost reaching against the glass. A friend of mine wanted to take pictures of the coral, so he cleaned the glass with my big cleaning magnet and whacked the magnet right into the coral, ripping about 1/3 of its foot off the base. A week later the 25 cm Dendro was a mere piece of slime...
Another one started to crumble one day without any warning. I took it out and inspected it with a magnifying glass, then I could find a hole in the stem. I cut the coral open to see what had made the hole and found a worm plus some small crustaceans, but the latter may be secondary colonizers. The worm had emptied out almost half the coral.
Especially from the second incident I've learned my lesson.
My new tank will have almost zero sand at the bottom, the decoration will be mainly Riffkeramik (i.e. Reef ceramics, from Germany) and only a few pieces of live rock, there will be a refugium with a sand bed filter, but external so I can control the worm population.
Jens
Could be:
for Dendronephthya - mechanical damage during shipping and carrying home, a lot of sclerites were shed inside the plastic bag, tried to carry it carefully. No other visible damage, but in 4 days the Dendro was an empty shell, slimy inside.
for Scleronephthya - more likely worms and crustacens. Ended looking as a chunk of muscle and was eaten by hitchhikers.
Same with vertical shaped Chili coral - continues to be eaten, but still alive for almost an year, moved to another place, eaten again... But this didn't happen to a horizontal, finger-shaped kinds.
And I blamed an alkalinity or artificial salt mix...
Thank you, Jen. Will pay attention to all of this this.
Can you post link to your tanks - previous and the new? May be with corals attachment and placement, filtration or skimming, water parameters (alkalinity and Mg particularly), and salt mix that you are using, if not much troubles.
Would like to improve my systems and make it suitable for a finer corals keeping, now only Tubastrea and Diodogorgia gorgonians are growing, even Chilis are out of my league (alive, but not growing).
for Dendronephthya - mechanical damage during shipping and carrying home, a lot of sclerites were shed inside the plastic bag, tried to carry it carefully. No other visible damage, but in 4 days the Dendro was an empty shell, slimy inside.
for Scleronephthya - more likely worms and crustacens. Ended looking as a chunk of muscle and was eaten by hitchhikers.
Same with vertical shaped Chili coral - continues to be eaten, but still alive for almost an year, moved to another place, eaten again... But this didn't happen to a horizontal, finger-shaped kinds.
And I blamed an alkalinity or artificial salt mix...
Thank you, Jen. Will pay attention to all of this this.
Can you post link to your tanks - previous and the new? May be with corals attachment and placement, filtration or skimming, water parameters (alkalinity and Mg particularly), and salt mix that you are using, if not much troubles.
Would like to improve my systems and make it suitable for a finer corals keeping, now only Tubastrea and Diodogorgia gorgonians are growing, even Chilis are out of my league (alive, but not growing).
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
HI
I can post some pics next week or so, they are all on my mac at home, and thanks to our beloved German Telecom, my internet connection does not work at the moment. :mad2: Hopefully I will have a replacement router by the weekend.
In short: The tank was 120 gal AGA with a 36 breeder as a refugium. The return pump was a 6500L/h Red Dragon, about half of the water went through a Grotech HEA 150 Venturi Skimmer. Phosphate adsorber and a bit of Carbon was constantly used. For water movement I also had a Tunze Wavebox in the tank but no other Streams or Powerheads.
The Refugium had Caulerpa first, then switched to Chaetomorpha, after a few Caulerpa dieoffs, despite 24 h lighting. The sand in the Fuge was coastal RI Sand, nothing special.
Water changes were plenty, about 10 to 15 % twice weekly with natural seawater, salinity bumped up with any salt I could get hold of, usually the stuff that was on sale.
I am still convinced that the best filter in the world is a hose and a bucket.
Jens
PS: here is a link to my very old tank, before I went to the US, not so many azoos, but still not a shabby one
Jens' old tank
I can post some pics next week or so, they are all on my mac at home, and thanks to our beloved German Telecom, my internet connection does not work at the moment. :mad2: Hopefully I will have a replacement router by the weekend.
In short: The tank was 120 gal AGA with a 36 breeder as a refugium. The return pump was a 6500L/h Red Dragon, about half of the water went through a Grotech HEA 150 Venturi Skimmer. Phosphate adsorber and a bit of Carbon was constantly used. For water movement I also had a Tunze Wavebox in the tank but no other Streams or Powerheads.
The Refugium had Caulerpa first, then switched to Chaetomorpha, after a few Caulerpa dieoffs, despite 24 h lighting. The sand in the Fuge was coastal RI Sand, nothing special.
Water changes were plenty, about 10 to 15 % twice weekly with natural seawater, salinity bumped up with any salt I could get hold of, usually the stuff that was on sale.
I am still convinced that the best filter in the world is a hose and a bucket.
Jens
PS: here is a link to my very old tank, before I went to the US, not so many azoos, but still not a shabby one
Jens' old tank
We had a problem with a router too - ours accumulates the visited addresses and had to be reset time from time, or connection slowers and stops 
You are using mostly natural seawater - I tried different salt mixes, but each has own problems, mostly alkalinity, Mg and Ca. Additives are adding Cl- ans SO4-- ions, that are accumulating... Pity, that no ocean near us.
Thank you for the information! Will try to improve, what I can.
You are using mostly natural seawater - I tried different salt mixes, but each has own problems, mostly alkalinity, Mg and Ca. Additives are adding Cl- ans SO4-- ions, that are accumulating... Pity, that no ocean near us.
Thank you for the information! Will try to improve, what I can.
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
Hi
The tank I posted a link for also had a good 10 % water change per week, only with artificial salt water. Usually I had 3 or 4 different salts at home and alternated between them with every water change. One salt is a bit too high or too low in one parameter, the other one is the opposite, eventually it will all level out.
jens
PS: Our router is completely toasted, I can't even access it by cable, total piece of junk. I wish it was just the reset.....:mad2:
The tank I posted a link for also had a good 10 % water change per week, only with artificial salt water. Usually I had 3 or 4 different salts at home and alternated between them with every water change. One salt is a bit too high or too low in one parameter, the other one is the opposite, eventually it will all level out.
jens
PS: Our router is completely toasted, I can't even access it by cable, total piece of junk. I wish it was just the reset.....:mad2:
Jens, will be refugium with filtration be turned off during hour(s) of feeding, when the food from centrifuge tube slowly drops in the tank?
Yesterday I removed LR (except the pieces, corals are attached to) from main nano-tank with Diodogorgia gorgonians and chili corals, and placed it in a separate connected tank with skimmer and micron sock.
I thought to keep the refugium separated during most of the day, during almost permanent feeding (Cyclop-eeze, ZoPlan, finest mysis particles). It didn't work - the water become less clear in a couple of hours, had to turn on return pump of the refugium.
It could be because of some dieback on LR during moving and cleaning tank, then it's temporary. If not - may be set it on timer, hour for feeding - 2 for cleaning.
Any thoughts on when filtration should be off?
And one more thing: the baby scleronephthya did better some time ago in this tank (then with LR and a layer of detrius under it - now should be much cleaner), then in 90g heavily fed tank and refugiums after that (with snails, knocking down everything). The food was plenty, but the coral was dropped down almost every day.
Now, when the non-photosynthetic nano-tank is without LR, and the only food available, will be 10-800 micron size, it should be out of range.
If I start to add the finest food, as you described, when filtration in refugium should be turned on again - after one hour for a feeding, for two hours for a cleaning?
I would like to keep high density of the food in the feeding tank and not to set a separate tank (with refugium) for a baby scleronenphthya only.
Any advice?
Thanks.
