White Dendonephthya

[ryan115]

I was at my LFS yesterday and saw a white Dendronephthya. Is this a natural coloration, being as they dont have zooxanthellae I wouldnt think it would be a bleached condition. Also I have read that they are difficult to keep, because of the large amounts of phyto that have to be suspended in the system in order for them to feed adequatly. Has any one kept a carnation for over a year? I am already dosing DT's phyto 2-3 times / week, would this be enough?

[ryan115]

bump

[ryan115]

No one has a carnation coral?

[SDguy]

They do not live in captivity, not even for places like the waikiki aquarium, so you probably won't get too many responses.

[Lev F.]

Yep. Impossible to keep unless you have loads of plankton flowing through the system on a constant basis.

[Hormigaquatica]

With current industry knowledge and technology, they are virtually impossible to keep alive, much less get growth out of. There are Very few cases documented of people keeping Dendros for over a year, and those that did generally employed different types of feeding- ie sand stirring. Noone has really determined what Dendros eat, many speculate that even phyto is too large for them; more appear to be nanoplanktivores or bacteriovores, while others (and perhaps all) use direct absorbtion of chemical nutrients from the water column. For now, it is definitly an animal best left in the wild unless it is being kept in a dedicated system for research purposes.

[ryan115]

the more i research them the more i agree with everything all of you have said...but i am now thinking about one day setting up a dendro only tank with a phyto drip and other amenities... just an idea

[Lev F.]

The large amounts of plankton will cause horrible water quality problems. If you use a skimmer or filter, the phyto will be removed, so there's no point to adding it in the first place.

[SDguy]

I beleive it was the waikiki aquarium (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that tried all this. Dedicated tank, various coral orientations, water flowing in and out of the tank, constant food items offered. Limited, if any, success if I recall.

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8907109#post8907109 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryan115
the more i research them the more i agree with everything all of you have said...but i am now thinking about one day setting up a dendro only tank with a phyto drip and other amenities... just an idea

before I would try that I would look at a true resarch project.
get in with a collage marine biology program and try to figure out what they really need - then we can all know how to keep them alive - or if they are just not suited to our tanks --

I suspect they may have needs we can't meet in anything less than a multi thousand gallon system... flow+food+caves and so on...