Sun Coral or a Dendro?? My LFS's have mixed answers!!!

[PGHreefer412]

Please help, this is actually my first post and i am brand new to RC.com. I bought this coral off a lady who was taking down her tank. She said it was a Sun Coral but I havent seen one like this before. It has not opened up yet but everynight i turn my lights out, it seems like it wants to come out and the polyps are at the tips of every head. Any information would mean a lot, THANKS!!

 

[CuttleKid]

I think it is a branching dendropyllia. Check out Aquabacs build thread because he has a few of this and he uses a method called bucket feeding to get of to open. Also check out the sticky on this thread about nonphotosynthetic LPS corals. It is very informative.

Good luck with that beautiful coral.

 

[PGHreefer412]

I hve showed pics of this coral to all the LFS around me and everybody seems to say something different. I actually had 2 employees arguing over what they thought it was because one said large polyp sun coral? and the other said it was a dendro. If it is infact a dendro, dont they run about 25 bucks per head???

 

[CuttleKid]

I think it is definitely a branching dendro. This kind if dendro has smaller polyps than q sun coral. This type is not worth much more than a large sun coral colony.

 

[PGHreefer412]

ok, i have had it for about 3 weeks now. Everynight i chum up the water with cyclopeeze and mysis shrimp and it gets closer and closer to coming out but it just wont pop out. I just hope it wont die on me. I bought a black sun coral colony and those things were wide open on the first night it was in my tank! I love the black colony : )

 

[3.99AfterTaxes]

Look up Dendrophyllia arbuscula. They're very tricky because, even when open, the tentacles don't stick to anything...

 

[BANDIT ANGEL]

These critters are quite tricky to lure them open,you can try the bucket feeding method by putting the whole colony in a bucket and add very fishy baits like pellets,shrimp or others. This method will work on few of my branching dendropyllias but the others won't budge, I lose my patience and threw them to my flame angels.

 

[PGHreefer412]

ok when i feed them, im going to try and get another pic. the polyps come to the very tips of the heads kind of like bulging out of them and they just dont seem to wanna come out and extend. Ill get some pics during feeding after i turn the lights out..

 

[diversanders]

:reading: first my experience, strength, and hope, then if you don't mind I'd like to piggy back with what I'm experiencing.
Half my colony opened right away, about a month later the other half opened. I've had my colony for about 3 months. I took a two liter bottle cut off the bottom and anchored it down with a couple of nuts and bolts(good or bad ?) on the days I feed a veggie meal (phytoplex) I set the bottle over the drendro and insert the phytoplex through the opening of the bottle and leave it their about half an hour. Each night I feed each polyp by hand, mysis with a syringe. I get the dendro to open by using water I use to thaw the food for my evening feeding. A half hour before I want to feed them I take a syringe full of the nutrient rich water and squirt it all around the colony. When I go to feed the dendro polyps are open and they are pigs.
[B]NOW FOR MY PROBLEM .[/B] The Colony has started shrinking and I can see the white bone structure. Why is it shrinking? I've decided this species takes way more attention than I have time to give and have decided that once I get it back on track I am going to get rid of it, just to time consuming. I could get back the money I paid for it just from selling the left side but I want the experience, knowledge, and success to know I can handle this level of the hobby. CAN ANYONE HELP MEEEEEEEEEE PLEASE!!!!!!!!

 

[curlykid]

try putting the coral in a small container with water, then add coral foods (cyclop eeze, oyster feast, or live copepods) till the water is mucky. this should get it open.

 

[jlpmps08]

This looks more to me like a sun coral. Sun corals are very picky compared to dendros. They also vary in coloration. The sun corals are a solid color as the dendros are transparent with speckles. Try putting this in an almost completely shaded spot in your tank and see what happens. They do not like direct light if it is in fact a sun coral. Dendros are more apt to be out all day long rather than sinking in and only coming out for feeding.