How to get orange dendros to open?

leeannhaselden · 11/10/2012, 07:53 AM

I got two frags with ~20 heads each of orange dendros 2 weeks ago and they have yet to open up. One is located on the gravel of a 55gal reef shadowed by some live rock and the other is midway in the tank closer to the powerhead also shadowed by some live rock. I have been able to get some food into a couple of the polyps mouths and one or two arms occasionally reach out when the lights are off but most of the polyps aren't opening. Any suggestions?

Water parameters are ideal and they're under 4 T5 bulbs.

I have tried turning the pump off and squirting brine shrimp/ ZooplanktOS around them to coax them out and that hasn't worked. Their mouths seem to open but no arms reach out.

MarineSniper · 11/10/2012, 12:54 PM

It can take awhile for dendros to acclimatize to their new environment. You can try the "bowl method": put them in a bowl with tank water and squirt a lot of food in, to entice them to open. Mysid, rinsed and soaked in Selcon is very good and by doing it in a bowl, you don't have to worry about polluting your tank! I use a hand warmer (the cheap disposable kind) under the bowl to keep the water from getting too cold but I've yet to see or read of anyone else doing so. I only keep them on hand to use if they're opening slowly. The first attempts will take some time for the corals to catch on to what's going on

I only used this with nps that weren't feeding for more than 10 days and only suggest it due to your stating it's been 2 weeks. They've likely gone quite awhile without food if you got them from a retailer. Any I've purchased locally have always opened immediately. The vitamin supplement will definitely help get them back in shape quicker so use or buy some, if at all possible. You won't need to feed at night unless you have fish that will take the food, once you get them eating

Hope this helps. Try all this and try not to stress too much, this is fairly common with these corals

11/10/2012, 07:53 AM	#1
leeannhaselden Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 1	How to get orange dendros to open? I got two frags with ~20 heads each of orange dendros 2 weeks ago and they have yet to open up. One is located on the gravel of a 55gal reef shadowed by some live rock and the other is midway in the tank closer to the powerhead also shadowed by some live rock. I have been able to get some food into a couple of the polyps mouths and one or two arms occasionally reach out when the lights are off but most of the polyps aren't opening. Any suggestions? Water parameters are ideal and they're under 4 T5 bulbs. I have tried turning the pump off and squirting brine shrimp/ ZooplanktOS around them to coax them out and that hasn't worked. Their mouths seem to open but no arms reach out.

11/10/2012, 12:54 PM	#2
MarineSniper Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Central Ohio Posts: 554	It can take awhile for dendros to acclimatize to their new environment. You can try the "bowl method": put them in a bowl with tank water and squirt a lot of food in, to entice them to open. Mysid, rinsed and soaked in Selcon is very good and by doing it in a bowl, you don't have to worry about polluting your tank! I use a hand warmer (the cheap disposable kind) under the bowl to keep the water from getting too cold but I've yet to see or read of anyone else doing so. I only keep them on hand to use if they're opening slowly. The first attempts will take some time for the corals to catch on to what's going on I only used this with nps that weren't feeding for more than 10 days and only suggest it due to your stating it's been 2 weeks. They've likely gone quite awhile without food if you got them from a retailer. Any I've purchased locally have always opened immediately. The vitamin supplement will definitely help get them back in shape quicker so use or buy some, if at all possible. You won't need to feed at night unless you have fish that will take the food, once you get them eating Hope this helps. Try all this and try not to stress too much, this is fairly common with these corals