Unhappy Dendro

[Denver45]

Hey all,

So I’ve got a dendro that’s been doing super well, but over the past several days it’s been retracting and is covered in little yellow balls, looks like pill on a sweater but I’m guessing it’s tissue, checked parameters on Friday and everything looked really good. Parameters are below and here’s a pic of the dendro, does anybody have any ideas? Thanks!

Salinity=1.024
pH=8
NH3/NH4+=0
NO2-=0
NO3-=2.5
PO43-=0
KH=9
Ca2+=430

 

[Flippers4pups]

Have you been feeding it regularly? Placement low and light very low?

 

[Denver45]

Have you been feeding it regularly? Placement low and light very low?

Yes to all of that, it’s under a cave, both heads get fed several times/week, and it’s at the bottom of the aquarium.

 

[andrewkw]

Your salinity is pretty low, but I've never found them overly sensitive to water conditions (or light for that matter). The picture is not high enough resolution to tell but is it possible these dots are just babies? I would continue to feed it and see what happens. Also raise your salinity, but keep in mind that will effect other parameters.

 

[gfd71]

I got mine second hand and thought it was a goner and figured I’d just see what happens and within a few weeks it was super happy.

 

[Red_Beard]

Mine has done that twice, I speculated it was because I didn't feed it for a while. I had it placed in a flow path in the tank so it would get some chunks of frozen food when I fed the tank. I ran out of frozen and was feeding flake while waiting for a new shipment to come in and it stayed retracted more and more over the week. To top that off I was going through some cyano issues. From not coming out it had some cyano on the rim of the skeleton. Figuring it was a goner anyways (it was looking pretty sad) I tried throwing it a hail Mary and cleaned it gently with h2o2, put it back in the tank to calm down overnight then pulled it out into a container of tank water and put a little reef roids in to coax it out to eat. It took a bit but it did come back out and I was able to feed it. That perked it right up. Similar situation the second time months later but it was some gha growing on it's skeleton that made it mad while I was out of town for work. Same fix took care of it. I've had it about a year and a half and it is still super happy and eating well after those episodes. Hope that helps and good luck with the little guy!

 

[Denver45]

Mine has done that twice, I speculated it was because I didn't feed it for a while. I had it placed in a flow path in the tank so it would get some chunks of frozen food when I fed the tank. I ran out of frozen and was feeding flake while waiting for a new shipment to come in and it stayed retracted more and more over the week. To top that off I was going through some cyano issues. From not coming out it had some cyano on the rim of the skeleton. Figuring it was a goner anyways (it was looking pretty sad) I tried throwing it a hail Mary and cleaned it gently with h2o2, put it back in the tank to calm down overnight then pulled it out into a container of tank water and put a little reef roids in to coax it out to eat. It took a bit but it did come back out and I was able to feed it. That perked it right up. Similar situation the second time months later but it was some gha growing on it's skeleton that made it mad while I was out of town for work. Same fix took care of it. I've had it about a year and a half and it is still super happy and eating well after those episodes. Hope that helps and good luck with the little guy!

I will give it a go! I have had a bit of a dyno outbreak lately, maybe that’s making it mad.

 

[Denver45]

I will give it a go! I have had a bit of a dyno outbreak lately, maybe that’s making it mad.

Diatoms I meant, sorry fat fingers.

 

[Denver45]

What was your H2O2 dip like?

 

[Red_Beard]

I had it in my hand and syringed 3% gently around the skeleton without getting any on the tissue and let it bubble for 20 to 30 or so seconds Then gently got the top edge and head for maybe 10 seconds and put it in a bath of tank water to slow down the reaction, another 20 seconds and I swished it around to get the rest off. That seemed to have worked pretty well for mine. I will say it was not happy directly afterwards but was looking much better the following day.

 

[Red_Beard]

Any updates? How is that poor little dude?

 

[Denver45]

Any updates? How is that poor little dude?

Still not super happy, the big head at least ate, but the tiny guy hasn’t since Thursday. Trying to nurse him as best I can, but not real sure what else to do.

 

[Red_Beard]

shoot, glad to hear you got it fed! I bet he perks up over the next couple days. But, I did lose the little one on the side on mine (it was quite little) hopefully yours does better.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hey all,

So I’ve got a dendro that’s been doing super well, but over the past several days it’s been retracting and is covered in little yellow balls, looks like pill on a sweater but I’m guessing it’s tissue, checked parameters on Friday and everything looked really good. Parameters are below and here’s a pic of the dendro, does anybody have any ideas? Thanks!

Salinity=1.024
pH=8
NH3/NH4+=0
NO2-=0
NO3-=2.5
PO43-=0
KH=9
Ca2+=430

With those parameters, I can see you're not feeding enough, these corals and similar NPS corals do very well in 25 mg/l NO3. My tank setup is different, design for NPS corals, I have 70 Pacific oysters 20 in the display tank(hidden) and the rest in the sump, and my nitrates are at 3 to 5. With semi heavy feeding. Po3 at 3-4

The video shows sun cup corals very similar feeding habits as yours

 

[Denver45]

shoot, glad to hear you got it fed! I bet he perks up over the next couple days. But, I did lose the little one on the side on mine (it was quite little) hopefully yours does better.

Yeah the little one I’m definitely worried about.

 

[Greg P]

Unfortunately, it's difficult for many of us to keep a range of different corals.
My Dendro was open every day for 6 years, but never did I have more than 1 head.
I had acans that thrived, and others that just withered away.

Good luck with your critter, but be fore-warned that not every reefer can keep every critter.