Dendro

[Denver45]

Hey All,

I recently added a dendro to the cave area in my tank. It’s been in there just shy of a week and starting about day two I got great polyp extension for several hours each day. I fed it a mysis on Tuesday and it ate and popped right back open. Yesterday it was open in the am then closed up and has had almost no polyp extension since. The fleshy part will extend(see attached pic) but the tentacles arent coming out much at all. Checked water parameters today and everything looked good. I’m wondering is this is normal dendro behavior or if anyone has any insight. Thanks in advance!

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Hey All,

I recently added a dendro to the cave area in my tank. It’s been in there just shy of a week and starting about day two I got great polyp extension for several hours each day. I fed it a mysis on Tuesday and it ate and popped right back open. Yesterday it was open in the am then closed up and has had almost no polyp extension since. The fleshy part will extend(see attached pic) but the tentacles arent coming out much at all. Checked water parameters today and everything looked good. I’m wondering is this is normal dendro behavior or if anyone has any insight. Thanks in advance!

I've kept dendrophyllia for 2 years. They will go through cycles of open and closing at random. You can "train" them to open during the day by avoiding feeding under low light.

Due to the fact they are not photosynthetic (no light required) they wont open like other coral just because the lights come on. They're actually more likely to retract during the day. Feeding more at night, snagging unsuspecting pods etc..

Here is what's left from the original colony. I was up to over 40 heads at one point.

Dont worry about them opening and closing with no rhyme or reason. As long as ur giving them decent meals twice a week, they will survive. Mine get pellets, mysis, spirulina, rotifers, shaken and defrosted LRS, minced krill... anything really.

 

[Denver45]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I wanted to make sure it didn’t look like they were retracting from too much flow or something alone those lines.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I wanted to make sure it didn’t look like they were retracting from too much flow or something alone those lines.

Heres my clutch at the moment...

Theres always at least 1 that goes all baboon butt when the rest are out and happy. Makes no sense.

 

[Denver45]

That’s mine for the last couple days and I’ve just got the one polyp right now so When it started doing that after looking extended and happy I got worried.

 

[Denver45]

Update, we are still doing the minimal tentacle extension, which is a bummer. It looks amazing when it’s all extended. Side note, there is a second tiny polyp on the side that hasn’t extended for several days either. I’m sure I’m being a crazy coral dad, but I love seeing them full and happy, but also want to make sure nobody is sick or dying.