Tubastrea/Dendrophyllia
- Thread starter JM68
- Start date
Animal Mother
New member
Dendophyllia looks just like sun polyps, only bigger and they generally extend their polyps both day and night. They are not photosynthetic at all and depend completely on being fed.
JM68
New member
Here is a pic of two pieces i bought yesterday. These r very tiny frags the one on the right isn't even 2" across and the one on the left is smaller than that (the largest individual head is only about a cm across). My LFS had, wut they listed as a dendro, for 300$ and these small frags were in their frag tank. They looked very similar to the expensive piece from the other tank, just very small so i think they might have broken off the main piece during shipping and got put in the frag tank since they were so small. I don't know much about these corals other than they r low light species and need to be fed, but i bought them on the chance that they might be something more, since i had seen the expensive piece earlier. If not i still have two nice pieces that didn't cost much money.
hybridgenius
In Memoriam
Good thing it isnt a DENDRONEPTHIA... or you would be regretting your purchase. Those are easy to care for though.
JM68
New member
NASO, do u have tubastrea or dendros?? i've heard that they can be placed just about anywhere, i just said low light because in nature they live in darker places and they aren't photosynthetic.
and i wouldn't put dendronepthia in my tank if someone gave it to me forget about paying for it. my friend had a piece once and it lasted about 2 weeks.
and i wouldn't put dendronepthia in my tank if someone gave it to me forget about paying for it. my friend had a piece once and it lasted about 2 weeks.
otiso777
New member
I just got a similar sized colony for very cheap. I've been target feeding it with cyclpoeeze using an eye dropper and it eats very well. I've read that you have to be sure that each polyp gets food.
I have it in a relatively low light area of my tank with high flow and the polyps remain extended day and night.
I have it in a relatively low light area of my tank with high flow and the polyps remain extended day and night.
aninjaatemyshoe
New member
I'm pretty sure you have two colonies of dendrophyllia.
One thing I'm basing that on is the coloration of the tentacles. Dendrophyllia polyp tentacles are a bit more translucent than Tubastrea polyps. Also, the shape of their skeletons have more prominent stalks than Tubastrea; more similar to dendrophyllia. However, I'm not 100% sure.
It will be much easier to determine once you have nursed them back to health - just feed them a lot. How often the polyps are open is not a good way to determine what you have when you're dealing with a malnurished, stressed coral. Also, the size of the polyp is not a good criteria since you could be dealing with juvenile polyps. My dendrophyllia is a rather young polyp and is smaller than some of my tubastrae polyps.
One thing I'm basing that on is the coloration of the tentacles. Dendrophyllia polyp tentacles are a bit more translucent than Tubastrea polyps. Also, the shape of their skeletons have more prominent stalks than Tubastrea; more similar to dendrophyllia. However, I'm not 100% sure.
It will be much easier to determine once you have nursed them back to health - just feed them a lot. How often the polyps are open is not a good way to determine what you have when you're dealing with a malnurished, stressed coral. Also, the size of the polyp is not a good criteria since you could be dealing with juvenile polyps. My dendrophyllia is a rather young polyp and is smaller than some of my tubastrae polyps.
JM68
New member
well the large piece that is at my lfs that i believe this came from is about 6" long by 3" wide and looks identicle to this. it actually looks like these pieces broke directly off the main colony. the polyps on the larger piece are just as small there is just a lot of them. so wut qckwzrd said makes sence because even the big piece has tiny polyps. the big piece at the store is like 300$ and says it really rare, but just says its a dendro with no specific name. is this Eguchipsammia something rare that would cost that much money? i googled the name and found this http://www.aquaticbliss.com/3035/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=941 i think this is the same stuff. thanx qckwzrd. i think i got a good deal considering i got both pieces for 30$ and they r 25$ for 3 heads on that site.
JM68
New member
i'll definatly keep this thread going with updates in the future, to document growth and any other stuff that goes on with them. i think there is one more small piece left at my lfs and now that i know that there isnt many around i think i might go get it tomorrow. as a whole are most other dendro species fast or slow growing?
JM68
New member
Just a quick update on these little guys. I am already seeing the beginnings of a couple new heads coming off one of the larger heads. They seem to be pretty quick grows if this is any indication. Also they have a piece of this stuff on LA in the divers den. It seems that they don't quite know wut to call it either as judging by the ? after the name.
thecichlidpleco
New member
What you have is what many places refer to micro dendros, whether they are real dendros or grow into larger ones, I have no idea. good luck with them.
JM68
New member
as far as i know they stay tiny, i've seen large colonies of them and the heads r all about the same size as these small pieces. My lfs still has the same piece from a month ago and it is still pretty expensive (probably the reason it hasnt sold) its about 6" and has the same tiny polyps, there is a name for them, "Eguchipsammia" and it is a dendro as Qukwzrd stated, but there's almost no info about them out there. i just thought it was ineresting that LA didn't really have a definite name for them. They must be pretty new or rare, one of the two.
