I recently purchased this a month back at local Lfs here in New Jersey. The guy had 2 variations of a dendro coral but this was the more rare he said of the two. I’m just wondering what type of dendro this one is. Also what’s the best placement for it? I mean it is doing just fine where it is placed right now and also it has 1-2 new growing heads on the bottom of the frag plug. Can’t wait for this thing to just get much bigger
Dendro????
- Thread starter mraysberg
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rkpetersen
walked the sand with the crustaceans
Dendrophyllia. Beautiful corals. Unlike the similar appearing sun coral Tubastrea, dendros will stay open when the lights are on.
It's important to note that these corals are not photosynthetic, meaning they should be fed or they will wither away (unless your tank normally has a lot of circulating microfauna.)
Positioning in the tank isn't particularly important, except if they get too much light or too much flow, they will tell you by staying closed up and not feeding.
It's important to note that these corals are not photosynthetic, meaning they should be fed or they will wither away (unless your tank normally has a lot of circulating microfauna.)
Positioning in the tank isn't particularly important, except if they get too much light or too much flow, they will tell you by staying closed up and not feeding.
mraysberg
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It likes this specific spot so I’m going to keep him there and watch him grow. Are there many different types of dendros? I feed him on a daily basis since he doesn’t get any other source of food
rkpetersen
walked the sand with the crustaceans
The guy at the LFS was probably referring to the other one I mentioned, Tubastrea. It's somewhat less impressive than Dendrophyllia and therefore less expensive.
Dr. Dendrostein
Marine fish monthly
G
Gorgeous, thanks for sharing. I saw a colony of 7-10? For sale other day $499.
Forgot to add a photo
Hermie
Valuable Member
If you wouldn't mind... what makes Tubastrea less impressive than Dendrophyllia? I've been looking at photos of them on google images and they are so similar I can't tell what would make one impressive over the other...
rkpetersen
walked the sand with the crustaceans
Tubastrea polyps are considerably smaller and generally only open at night, whereas dendro polyps will open during the day.
Hermie
Valuable Member
I did a little researching and found an AMAZING page explaining the differences in species, that said, the biggest thing I found is the growth form for Dendro seem to be more branching and Tubastrea is more "flat, and spreading" all from the base, (like GSP lol). That's not to say there aren't branching Tubastrea, but it's a big identifier for Dendrophyllia.
https://reefs.com/magazine/field-guide-sun-corals/
Hermie
Valuable Member
What size? are we talking, if you know. I am trying to tell if I have fat head dendro or tubastrea for my orange frag
Hermie
Valuable Member
I am thinking it's Tubastraea aurea, haven't been feeding them much because I wasn't sure if it was worth it. They have had a rough time, the place I got them from wasn't feeding them at all.
