Cauliflower coral not looking too good

[wicked88]

Hi there seems my cauliflower corel is not looking too good he has been looking like this for a the last 10 days and dont seem to be inflating (i know they inflat/deflat to feed ). Please see the pic's to see what he used to look like, and what he looks like now :( . Tanks been set up for about 7 months now and water levels are fine and other corals/fish seem fine too. Just to let you know he's been in the tank for about 2 months.

What are should i do next remove him or just leave him. I did Move him to a diffrent spot in my tank to see if this helped (yesterday)

Thanks

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3834/p1060399va9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5331/p1060016tt5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Swimmingwiththefishes]

Feeding will be the problem,i heard a theory that dendronephthya only feed when they expand.
Alan

[wicked88]

Feeding will be the problem,i heard a theory that dendronephthya only feed when they expand.
Alan


So what do i do :confused:

[Swimmingwiththefishes]

So what do i do :confused:

Say goodbye to it and do more research in the future before you buy!
Or try constantly feeding the tank (which will polute the tank!)
Some people have had success with them i believe but probably in specialised systems,maybe they can help?
Not trying to nag,i've made my fair share of mistakes,you've just gotta make sure you learn from them.
Cheers Alan

[skybluelemon]

I dont think these are suitible if you use skimmers. You are skimming out its food. Try Taking it back to shop, dont just watch it die. It needs a MM system with no skimmer.

[wicked88]

Spoke to the shop and they tell me i need to switch off the skimmer for a hour or so when i feed it, they said keep a eye on it and it should be ok. So fingers crossed. ;)

[Fraservet]

sorry, but these are very difficult to keep.
they don't have zooxanthellae, so need to be constantly fed.
which is pretty much impossible in a normal tank without creating water problems.

[KeithM]

Dendronephthya's require very very clean waters to fully expand. They also need to be very well fed... heavy feeding with VERY strong filtration is what is required for these corals.

Dont buy these corals unless you know what they need to survive and thrive...same goes for any animal really...If you are serious aobut these corals you need to do ALOT more research...just turning off the skimmer and 'feeding' the coral isn't really enough for these corals to survive....

What foods are you feeding to your dendro?

[wicked88]

What foods are you feeding to your dendro?


I'm using Sera Coraliquid, I got the Dendronephthya coral from Taunton Aquarium Centre which seem to have good reports, i did tell the guy in the shop what my setup was etc and he said this coral would be fine in my tank etc :confused:

So the question is do i leave him or give him away to another home

[Fraservet]

Unfortunately, another case of the LFS telling you what you want to hear.
Either the person you dealt with has poor knowledge, or they just wanted to make a sale.
I would take it back and speak to the manager - or if it was the manager that you spoke to I would find somewhere else to buy your corals.

I would suspect that you probably need to be feeding live phytoplankton to get these to do at all well, and as said pretty much constant feeding.

[KeithM]

Its believed that dendronephthya feed on bacterial flock, bacterial laden coral mucus and very fine particles. Not phytoplankton as previously published by Fabricius

[Fraservet]

really?
oh well, I guess my book is out of date again.

[wicked88]

So what do i do now as still not sure what to do :confused:

[Umpa]

if I were you I would phone all the local aquatics shops and see if you can off load it.

2 factors - it might do better with them, and if it is going to die better off in their tank

regards

ump

[KeithM]

agreed with umpa. good advice

If you're not willing to take the chance/time to try and takecare of it, its best to take it back to your shop and ask for credit. Then spend it something you know has a better chance of survival

[wicked88]

went to my local shop (not the one who sold me it) and had a good chat with them got myself some lobster eggs and a syringe and going to feed by hand each day for a couple of weeks and see if he gets better also got myself some pro-coral iodine, so fingers crossed. Will also still use my sera coraliquid with the syringe.

Will keep a very close eye on him as i hate to lose anything in my tank.

Do you guys think its worth the try :confused:

[Chris.Marsh]

We have one of these from the same source ours is pure white, we have had it for about 6 weeks now and it has been fine. We are feeding it every day with phytoplankton which was recommended to us and it's already nearly double its original size. We have noticed with this coral it inflates/deflates several times a day, but as soon as there is food around it wakes up for feeding.

If you look in the Nano just by the counter they have one in there and it's been growing there for quite a few months. I have got to say that in my humble opinion they are one of the most reliable LFS's in this area and advice I have taken from them has always been pretty much spot-on.

Have a read of this http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/cav2i5/dendros/dendros.htm

Regards

Chris & Andrea