What's wrong with my dendro?

Nemo Niblets

New member
I've been feeding my dendro Fauna Marin LPS pellets for the past month or so... growth has been amazing. I did a 3 day blackout to get rid of Dino's, which worked. :D I turned the lights back on two days ago.

But, the dendro is doing this. It did take some pellets yesterday, but it's condition has gotten worse. When I turned on the lights after the blackout, it was much more yellow than usual.

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Mine did that a few times but it always came back after a few days. At the time it was doing this, I was having some lighting issues, so....I can olny guess it's not happy with the blackout. I'm sure someone out there has a better answer.
 
It has nothing to do with the lighting. I've been having similar issues and still don't know the exact cause. They grow extremely fast and then start to slough off tissue, then eventually die altogether. At first I thought it was the LPS food - but I stopped using it and I still had the problem. In my case I believe it is from overfeeding of spoiled food. Some type of pathogenic bacteria is my guess. It will attack other LPS corals too, including tubastrea, balanophyllia, archohelia, etc... always the same pattern of incredible growth followed by tissue sloughing. What I can say is that even if it appears to be dead, as long as there is tissue left keep it in the tank and blow food by it. New heads may appear from even small bits of tissue.
 
It has nothing to do with the lighting. I've been having similar issues and still don't know the exact cause. They grow extremely fast and then start to slough off tissue, then eventually die altogether. At first I thought it was the LPS food - but I stopped using it and I still had the problem. In my case I believe it is from overfeeding of spoiled food. Some type of pathogenic bacteria is my guess. It will attack other LPS corals too, including tubastrea, balanophyllia, archohelia, etc... always the same pattern of incredible growth followed by tissue sloughing. What I can say is that even if it appears to be dead, as long as there is tissue left keep it in the tank and blow food by it. New heads may appear from even small bits of tissue.

Thanks Uhuru! Almost all the tissue is gone but few parts are clinging on. I've fed only bi-weekly, but lots of FM LPS food.
 
Another possibility is that the Dendro family have such massive potential for growth that they are using heads as 'pioneers' in new directions.
For example - let's say that your feeding triggers the rampant growth phase. The dendro, responding, buds off new heads. These heads sprout in different directions, testing those directions for food, aggressors, and flow pattern. The ones that sprout into a 'dead flow' area, or whose growth threatens the livelihood of a more established head, or who grow near to a non-compatible species are likely sacrificed for the colonial good.
It's also possible that it may be the colonial way of shedding tissue that has become infected with photosynthetic algae. Makes as much sense as anything else... Anyone else got a theory?
 
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