Dendros

[swimmingswammi]

I just bought a colony of about 24 heads. The heads appear to be growing on a branch of coral each head next to each other such that there does not appear to be enough room for them to grow out unless they buldge outward like an expanding balloon. Two questions:

First, I want to encourage more growth and believe the focus should be on feeding. I have heard some have better results with only weekly feeding yet my logic tells me feed more grow more. What does your experience tell you?

Second, given the growth pattern, I am tempted to frag each dendro head (they are feed individually anyways and do not have a relation with one another) and glue them with some room between each head for growth.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Lowsingle]

Feeding more often will encourage faster growth from my experience (and it just makes more sense). My dendro frags easily, so frag away!

cheers,
Darren

 

[blueridgereef]

I have no helpful advice....I'm just here to say.....
PICTURES?!:bigsmile:

 

[Lowsingle]

Here's an old pic for you Anna:

cheers,
Darren

 

[Lowsingle]

one more.....

 

[swimmingswammi]

My Dendros

Here is my Dendro colony next to one of my sun coral colonies. I have not fed in almost a week. I am testing the theory that they grow better when fed less frequently. Interestingly, the Sun Corals feed quite a bit. I was feeding them daily and I think they expect it like that now. But like I said I have not been feeding them nor the fish. Lots of algea in the tank right now and they may be feeding off something related to this algea bloom. Thanks for the interest.

 

[swampy]

I have not fed in almost a week. I am testing the theory that they grow better when fed less frequently.

I've tested this theory with some success. What I usually do is feed 3 times a week for about 3 weeks then take a week to week and a half off. Then go back the the 3 weeks of feeding. My theory is that during the week off the dendro will start to generate new heads in search for the food it was used to getting. I started with dendro with only 2 heads and over a year span with lots of feeding only 3 new heads were formed. I then started the above routine and is a few months it has a dozen new heads. And I now moved on to a new stage of just feeding it with limited breaks ans it doesn't look like there is much room for any new heads to form until the baby ones get bigger.