Duncan & Dendro Spitting Out Food?

[Apollo7235]

Hi there all!

Happy Friday!!! (To those of you who it applies to )

I received my first corals from Corals Anonymous on Wednesday (amazing experience, by the way), a dendro and a duncan. Both were fully extended in my QT a few hours after their dips (ReVive & Bayer), so I fed them each a pellet of ReefBlizzard-LP Xtreme food and they both very quickly sucked them down. I was actually really surprised how quickly they gobbled them up. The next morning, I noticed some pellets at the bottom of the tank, so I removed them..... Weird.

Yesterday evening, the duncan was fully extended and the dendro partially extended. I fed each a pellet and, once again, they both greedily sucked them in. This morning, lo and behold, pellets on the bottom of the tank. The duncan is wide open at the moment, but the dendro is still mostly closed.

Are these guys spitting them back out or could they be, uhm, pooing? I could swear the pellets look pretty much the same as they did when I fed them, but what do I know? The thought never even occurred to me until I ran a Google search and that seemed to be a frequent answer to similar issues.

I checked the water parameters and everything is good, temp is at 79.7F, and the salinity was a little high still at 1.026 this morning but I will bring it down to 1.025 when I top off the tank later today. I dose a tiny bit of OceanMagik phyto to that tank for any pods I may have still hanging on in there, but that's about it. I did not turn the lights on the first day (Wednesday), then had the lights on for 6 hours yesterday, and will have the lights on for 7 hours today.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Right after dip Wednesday evening:



About 40 minutes after their meal on Wednesday:


A couple of hours after their meal on Wednesday:


Yesterday evening after both sucked in their pellets:



And here they are right now:



Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

Great looking pieces. I would not get hung up on feeding a pellet right away. Are you feeding the tank any other foods such as pods, Sno, brine, or eggs?

I have never run a coral qt before, so I cannot say for sure what is best. I do like a lot of Reef Nutrition products along with amino products for feeding in my display tank. Things like oyster eggs and aquavitro fuel.

Maybe someone that also runs a coral qt can help with their feeding routine

 

[Apollo7235]

Hi,

Great looking pieces. I would not get hung up on feeding a pellet right away. Are you feeding the tank any other foods such as pods, Sno, brine, or eggs?

I have never run a coral qt before, so I cannot say for sure what is best. I do like a lot of Reef Nutrition products along with amino products for feeding in my display tank. Things like oyster eggs and aquavitro fuel.

Maybe someone that also runs a coral qt can help with their feeding routine

Thank you so much for the response!

I am feeding a little bit of phyto and there are some pods in there from when I filled the tank with water from my display. I am going to pick up some mysis this morning and give that a go later. I fed them both last night; the Duncan ate one pellet and the dendro actually ate two and I don’t see anything on the bottom of the tank (yet), so hopefully that’s a good sign.
So now I’m wondering.... do corals poop? Hahaha

 

[ScottR]

Have you tried feeding frozen food like mysis? I’m sure the Duncan will be fine in QT without feeding as long lighting and nutrients are good. A dendro should be fed in a QT regularly. They may take pellets but pellets can be anything really... processed food. Something like mysis or krill is more natural and will readily be eaten.

 

[DaneGer21]

I only have Duncan’s, I rarely target feed them. They mostly grab flake food from when I feed my fish. Started with 3 heads, and now almost have 30 a year later. I haven’t done much haha

 

[Apollo7235]

Have you tried feeding frozen food like mysis? I’m sure the Duncan will be fine in QT without feeding as long lighting and nutrients are good. A dendro should be fed in a QT regularly. They may take pellets but pellets can be anything really... processed food. Something like mysis or krill is more natural and will readily be eaten.

Yeah, I am picking up some mysis tomorrow! Had a lot going on in the last couple of days, so I haven’t been able to run to the pet shop. Hopefully that does the trick because neither my Duncan nor my dendro will accept pellets. They suck them down then spit them right back up a couple of hours later!

I spoke with one of the guys at World Wide Corals in Orlando when I was there today and he said that in his experience, they just don’t like pellets, but you can eventually train them to like them. Not sure if that’s really worth the effort so I’m just going to start giving them mysis and krill from tomorrow forward!

 

[Apollo7235]

I only have Duncan’s, I rarely target feed them. They mostly grab flake food from when I feed my fish. Started with 3 heads, and now almost have 30 a year later. I haven’t done much haha

I don’t have any gosh yet, so I’m probably just going to have to continue target feeding for a while.

From 3 to 30 in a year?? Holy smokes!!

 

[DaneGer21]

I don’t have any gosh yet, so I’m probably just going to have to continue target feeding for a while.

From 3 to 30 in a year?? Holy smokes!!

Keep them fed and they will grow grow grow!

 

[Apollo7235]

As per all of your advice, the music certainly did the trick! The Duncan has gotten HUGE after eating like a pigs for the past 4 days. I can’t even believe the growth! Thank you very much for all of the advice!

Photos of the Duncan and Dendro swallowing their meals: