Carnation Coral Adventure
- Thread starter PokeFish
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good to hear...by the sounds of it, your coral should be fine....post more pics when it's feeling like its fluffy-self too.yeah so idk what happened maybe it was just poked cuz today it looks much fluffier and I can see all the polyps outI do have pods
Cantusaurus
Well-Known Member
Good luck! I got one a couple weeks ago, and it is still doing well! I feed it about every other day too so as long as it is getting food throughout the week it will be fine. Amino Acids will help as well nutrients in the water (I carbon dose which helps the corals receive more Nitrates, and they consume more bacteria, etc.) Hope things go well!
It certainly follows what's been said about Carnation Corals filtering nutrients from the water column. Additionally there are two articles (one by Algaebarn that is a great read) and another one published by researchers from Stanford that talked about Carnation Corals and their feeding requirements albeit short in reference but along the lines provided by the Reef Builders and Algaebarn.
Cantusaurus
Well-Known Member
Yeah I read that article too. Yeah, mine has done well, and I’m only spot feeding it 2-3 times a week (initially I fed it more). But detritus, and carbon dosing seems to be sufficient. Also I have been using live rock enhance, which are live microbial enzymes/bacterioplankton. And it is mostly for cleaning the pores of my rocks, but helps corals too. BUT there also reef enhance which helps mostly corals and corals a bit.
Is the ReefBuilders article you refer to this one?:
https://reefbuilders.com/2014/04/07/fundraising-captive-dendronephthya/
If not, can you provide a link?
Stirring up detritus to help maintain these corals was first documented by Peter Wilkins back in the 1970's and so is nothing new (although information like this tends to be forgotten over time if not regularly practiced). Apparently, he was successful keeping a few specimens alive for many years, but I don't know if noticeable growth was observed.
These corals feed not only on the organic particles themselves, but also on the nutritious microfauna/microflora that are attached. As far as target feeding them goes, scientific studies have shown that some species feed mostly on phytoplankton, while others feed mostly on zooplankton. Since there are a great many different species of Dendronephthya, Scleronephthya (and others), knowing which species one has is very difficult to determine and so is it's major food preference. As a result, many have tried feeding a blend of different foods hoping that enough of the right one(s) are ingested.
I am currently working with a Scleronephthya species in a very mature, unfiltered mixed nano reef and although it's been a few months now I can't say I've been successful yet. A typical scenario for these corals is that they can look okay for a few months due to stored energy reserves, but due to incorrect/inadequate nutrition they slowly starve and few make it past the six month mark.
Personally, I consider that someone is successful with this coral if they can:
1. Keep it healthy for one year or longer
and...
2. Document growth (not just a matter of 'it's larger now', which is typically due mostly to inflating with water, but actual growth determined by increased polyp counts and sprouting of offspring from the base and creeping tendrils.
Good luck with yours!
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OP
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PokeFish
Valuable Member
Thanks
i was talking about this one. https://reefbuilders.com/2015/10/29/preliminary-success-dendonephthya-carnation-corals/
Phytofeast would be fine. It does have around 6 species of which two are Nanno and Tetra that is mentioned even in the Algaebarn article (https://www.algaebarn.com/blog/corals/carnation-corals-in-the-home-aquarium-a-new-hope-of-success/).
I use Phytofeast and Ocean Magik interchangeably too.
From what I have read, coloration for these corals is dependent on carotenoids derived from the diet.
Thanks
Ah yes, I remember this one from 2015. Hmm, I wonder if Unique kept this 20g going and for how long?
You could just pick an obvious small branch and count those polypsand see if the count changes over time. The growth and tendril spread at the base is perhaps an easier indicator of growth to keep track of and is what I look at, mostly If the tendrils are spreading and new sprigs are being produced, then the coral has received enough nutrition beyond just 'maintaining' itself.
Careful observation of photos and videos of NPS corals in nature shows how profuse the spread can be under the right conditions:
https://reefbuilders.com/2011/08/26/raja-ampat-nps-heaven/
Seeing these images brings home the fact that we still have a long way to go...
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