whats my dendro doing?

[pipebash]

About a month ago my dendros started acting strange. Before this they were opening up during the day, accepting food, and overall healthy. Nothing changed in the tank, all other corals are doing fine.

First they looked like this for about a week.

Now theyve looked like this for about 2.5 weeks. The thing thats throwing me is the colony looks like theres a problem but its poppin up babies all over.

Anyone ever experience this? Any info is appreciated. TIA

 

[bsylv91]

that is weird.. have you tried multiple water changes and are your water parameters fine?

 

[owlbassboy]

maybe stung by an aiptasia?

 

[Aquabacs]

I see the coral is in a different position since the photos were taken. What has changed since then?

What is your current tank maintenace schedule? Water changes, RO filter changes, skimmer maintenance, and so on. Looks like you are also battling aiptasia & cyano. Is there any other issues with the water quality? How long has the aquarium been set up for? Is there any issues of other corals in the aquarium?

What is your feeding regime for the dendro? Frequency of feeding & what are you feeding it?

Just a few questions to see if we can figure out your issue

thanks


Mike

 

[pipebash]

salinity 1.026
PH 8.05 stable at that number for several months
nitrates .2
ammonia 0

I did move it down and forward about 6 inches cause I thought the aiptasia near it were stinging it. There is also a large colony of aiptasia maybe 8 inches from it on the other side of a rock.

I do a 10 gallon water change every week using NSW. I use distilled water for topoff(hopefully getting RO unit for my birthday). I empty the skimmer cup when it gets about half full and clean the whole thing every couple of months.
aquariums been up for about 2 years. I was feeding mysis once daily sometimes every other day. Now I have cut way back not wanting to overfeed for fear that maybe I had fed too much and food was rotting inside the dendro. Probably once a week now and very little. All other corals are doing well and growing. SPS LPS and softies. Two things that have possibilities to be a cause are I didnt put carbon in my reactor last time I changed it, just GFO. Also I have been trying to control the aiptasia by smothering them with reef safe epoxy. Maybe its only reef safe in small quantities. Thanks for all the questions, hopefully something stands out.:fun4:

 

[stunreefer]

Is it opening at all to feed?

Let's look at the flip side... if it's not being stung, and all the baby polyps are new, perhaps it's putting all of it's energy into reproducing rather than feeding, hence it's "closed" look.

Keep a close eye on it, eradicate any aptasia that could be stinging it, and feed when it opens.

EDIT: I have seen certain corals close after using epoxy. Add some new carbon, and don't move the colony around while stressed.

 

[Aquabacs]

I would agree on cutting out the epoxy and add carbon to possibly help if there is anything in the water column. Adding some "reef safe" epoxy to the aquarium is ok to secure corals but there are other methods in removing/controling aiptasia in the aquarium.

Has the coral been closed like this since you last added the GFO? When you added it, was it the same amount that you nomally use?

Did you use the same collection point and method for getting your NSW?

Are the main polyps opening at all to feed? Also has the cononly shown any more polyp expansion than the first picture? As Austin mentioned the coral could be using all of it's energy to produce babies. This could be in response to the colony being extremely stressed, change in its environment or actually being under fed. The polyps function is relatively simple and if the colony believes it might be lost, it will produce buds/babies/polyp bailout to help preserve the colony.

I would try also to feed the baby polyps. They could be fed cyclop-eeze or baby mysis directly. By doing so, this would also help the main polyps get nutrition if they are not feeding at all.

Mike

 

[pipebash]

I did think about the putting energy into the babies idea but had never heard of that before. I guess it is possible though. The amount of GFO I am running currently is the same as always just without the carbon.

The coral actually did open last night so I fed each head a little and it was still open this morning. If I was overfeeding and had food rotting in it how fast would the total decline be? And is it possible that it became light sensitive somehow and it only will open at night now?

Thanks for all the help guys!