I went into the lfs on Friday to get some pretty pink zoas that I'd seen the week before.
While I was there I was admiring a pink coral that was ID'd as dendrophyllia. The clerk told me that it was related to sun coral and would do fine under my PC lights. He also said that it would need regular feeding because it was not photosynthetic.
I dithered over it and finally said that I would do some research and stop back if I decided on it. So when the clerk went to get my zoas he found a piece of the dendrophyllia that had broken off (perhaps 1.5" long and as big around the stalk as my thumb and stuck it in my bag.
I came home, acclimated everything, and glued the frag to a piece of rubble. It looked pretty good yesterday, nicely inflated and standing upright.
Today it is has almost come off the rock I glued it to and is a little droopy.
In the meantime I have been researching it and think that it is actually a dendronephthya. The good news is that it does not need lots of light but most every thing I've looked at says they are very difficult to keep alive.
I would guess Dendronephthya also. It will puff up and look great then deflate and look terrible. I think this is normal unless of course it deflates and dies. I have a similar species and he's been here since April when I bought him at IMAC in Chicago. When he's inflated he is double the size he was when I got him. I spot feed him Cyclop-eze plus what ever he can glean from the water. Good luck with your's.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Carmie - I would also identify it as Dendronephtya. Here's a pretty in-depth article about them.
I've had two before and found them very difficult. They need a lot of flow, but random flow - not direct. And they're filter feeders (because your vendor was right about one thing, they are not photosynthetic), which means they would probably do best in a tank that's being provided phytoplankton. I wasn't dosing phyto when I had mine - maybe it would have helped. But, mine just slowly withered away. If you don't have your own phyto cultures, I would suggest at least buying the bottled phyto and feeding that plus cyclop-eze. Good luck!
I am already using DTPhytoplankton and Cyclopeeze. I was feeding them each a couple of times a week and but have bumped up. I've got it in a high flow area where 2 powerheads converge. That's is the best I can do so now its just wait and see.
Here's my story - one of the first corals i purchased was a Goniopora, without doing any research. The LFS said it was easy. Yes - right. I ended up setting up a 10 gallon tank with some live sand, live rock, chaeto, a powerhead, and some basic lighting. It's actually doing better there than it was in my 240, as I can give it the low flow and high nutrient level it seems to like. In hind site, it seems silly to go through all this, but I figure I could use the tank as a quarantine tank for a Mandarin (with no predators and constant feeding - you can not believe the pod population!)
I hope you have success with your difficult coral. Keep us up to date!
I am cautiously optimistic about the dendronephtya. Last night for the first time this week I saw polyp extension! It had been down to little pink nubs for several days. Today it looks a bit better. I will try to get a decent image tomorrow.