Umbellifera?

[el aguila]

A local LFS has this for $90. Just wondering if it is umbellifera? Is the care similar to Sceleronepthea - needs some light, good gyre flow, and feeding?

They’ve had it for over a week- shaded and no real flow. Looks kind of droopy.

 

[AcroNem]

That appears to be a Scleronephthya, and it is not doing well. It is not photosynthetic, so needs no light. It needs laminar flow, and constant feeding. If you cannot get the right kind of food to it consistently and in the right flow speed it will starve. Sorry for the dark and grave prediction but they really need a specific system to even survive.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

That's sclereonephthwa. Umbellifera, looks like what it's name suggest, umbrella polyp clusters at the end of stalks.


Here is a decent example.

 

[el aguila]

That's sclereonephthwa. Umbellifera, looks like what it's name suggest, umbrella polyp clusters at the end of stalks.


Here is a decent example.

That is gorgeous!!! Divers Den has had some Umbellifera lately, and from their pics I thought that it was similar.

This is at Upscales I’m Huntersville. Supposed to have soft corals come in, but not much did. They had a couple of other tree corals that were similar to Kenya tree, but I don’t think that they were.

 

[NanoDJS]

Pretty cool Orange Silk coral ! Like a dendronepthya , but easier. If your cool with phyto , live brine ,ext super small zooplankton in your WC , then nab that bad boy up.

 

[el aguila]

Here is a pic of the Divers Den Umbellifera

 

[AcroNem]

Pretty cool Orange Silk coral ! Like a dendronepthya , but easier. If your cool with phyto , live brine ,ext super small zooplankton in your WC , then nab that bad boy up.

"Easier" but still out of the realm or ability to be cared for by almost all hobbyists. They feed on much smaller things than even brine shrimp nauplii, and constantly.

 

[el aguila]

Pretty cool Orange Silk coral ! Like a dendronepthya , but easier. If your cool with phyto , live brine ,ext super small zooplankton in your WC , then nab that bad boy up.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a scleronepthea from the same LFS. I am making some minor changes to my tank for this coral plus wanting some more NPS type livestock.

Adding a gyre pump on the back glass, using a wine bottle cooler to cool food for hourly dosing to the tank.

Gyre came in today. Should have everything going by this weekend.

 

[NanoDJS]

Agreed this is Triple Black Diamond , where as dendro is about a quadruple imho. But anybody who knows scientific names going in I assumed knew what they were getting into here.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Here is a pic of the Divers Den Umbellifera

I am strongly inclined to say they have misnamed the coral. Live Aquaria does this way more than I'd like to see, but it's difficult on some species so understandable.

Now granted, without actual examination of the polyps it's very hard to tell from a photo. But I'm am more confident saying that is most likely some type of scleronepthya than I am saying is umbelluifera.

 

[AcroNem]

I am strongly inclined to say they have misnamed the coral. Live Aquaria does this way more than I'd like to see, but it's difficult on some species so understandable.

Now granted, without actual examination of the polyps it's very hard to tell from a photo. But I'm am more confident saying that is most likely some type of scleronepthya than I am saying is umbelluifera.

I agree. I believe the coral pictured is another Scleronephthya sp

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I do believe DD does have an Umbellifera:

Here: https://www.liveaquaria.com/divers-den/product/499899/carnation-tree-coral-expert-only
That variation looks very, very close to a photo of the dendronephthya type I have.

I also hypothesise it would be structured very similar to the pink one I posted (just a different color of course).

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

"Easier" but still out of the realm or ability to be cared for by almost all hobbyists. They feed on much smaller things than even brine shrimp nauplii, and constantly.

Coral in general was once believed impossible to keep. People developed ways to conquer those impossibles. We've figured out how to breed impossible-to-breed fish, how to run impossible-to-run systems, and even how to keep some impossible-to-keep coral, fish, and inverts due to lighting demands, water quality, flow, food requirements, etc.
This is no different. Yes, it's an experiment, and yes many will be lost in the process, but I think if a person is willing to have a designated system like many of the people here (like some clam people, seahorse people, even hard coral people), it is very possible to do. It just all boils down to how badly a person wants to achieve it.

 

[AcroNem]

Coral in general was once believed impossible to keep. People developed ways to conquer those impossibles. We've figured out how to breed impossible-to-breed fish, how to run impossible-to-run systems, and even how to keep some impossible-to-keep coral, fish, and inverts due to lighting demands, water quality, flow, food requirements, etc.
This is no different. Yes, it's an experiment, and yes many will be lost in the process, but I think if a person is willing to have a designated system like many of the people here (like some clam people, seahorse people, even hard coral people), it is very possible to do. It just all boils down to how badly a person wants to achieve it.

I agree. I've kept many "impossible" corals and invertebrates for extended periods of time. But they were the most difficult and time consuming reef projects I've done and something like that is just not on the hobby level to be honest. I wasn't saying the research couldn't be done or that a home aquarist couldn't do it, just stating the difficulty.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I agree. I've kept many "impossible" corals and invertebrates for extended periods of time. But they were the most difficult and time consuming reef projects I've done and something like that is just not on the hobby level to be honest. I wasn't saying the research couldn't be done or that a home aquarist couldn't do it, just stating the difficulty.

I guess that depends on your idea of time consuming and hobby level Some people automate everything on Their tank so they don’t have as much to worry about. Others just keep it simple and do the maintenance like any other house chore. I feed my tank several times a day. Use gyre type wave makers. Ihave a very simple sump, skimmer, denitrate rock, small carbon reactor. No baffles, no refugium. I don’t do anything special honestly but I’ve got a got a hitchhiker chili coral that had been with me for almost three years and is much larger than it was when it came in. But I keep my nitrates really high so there’s always something in the water. I dont have anything in my tank that doesn’t need lots of food because of that. I have gorges that are over four years old and some sclero that’s a year and a hitchhiker cup coral. I just toss in food here and there and keep the flow super high and erratic. I’ve got my first dendro and silk coral (both by accident) so I’ll see how they do. The silk came to me in rough shape and is still struggling. However the dendro has already put on some size compare to the withered creature it was when it came in.

Keeping coral in general is far more work than a lot of people want to do. Yet I find coral easier than fish. So who knows.
But I think it’s safe to say every hobby has tiers. There are people who do model rockets and cap their rockets with a 50.00 price tag others will put out 300.00 a rocket. Same with tank sizes. Someone’s 300 can be as much of a hobby as a fifty.