dendro dying??? help please!!!

[sabazerehi]

my dendros tissue is sloughing off and i want to know if theres anything i can do to save it. its regularly fed and has been doing great for months until today, it even sprouted 3 baby heads recently. my tank parameters are in check and all the other corals are doing great so i dont know what could be wrong. should i put it in another tank? the mouths are also open and stuff is coming out of one. any help please!! these dendros are my favorite and i would hate to lose them :(

[seapug]

run some water tests for ammonia, pH, Calcium and Alkalinity.

[sabazerehi]

everything is 0, ph is 8.0, calcium 400, alkalinity 9dkh

[es1887]

is it just expelling its zooxanthellae. it can just be purging too much of it. my dendro has done this a few times. did you change your lighting or any other condition of your tank? how long has it looked like this? i would not panic yet. it could just be a normal cycle of the coral, or it could be bleaching. either way there is not too much you can do but try to trouble shoot any new things that you have done to your tank. if it does not get better in a couple of days then i would be really concerned. i would not move the coral to a different tank, unless the tank has the same lighting same salinity,ph,alk,cal,mag, and everything else to go along with that. doing might result in more shock.

[sabazerehi]

i just noticed it today, but based on the progression i wouldn't be surprised if it started yesterday. any reason as to why this is happening? thanks

[andyrm66]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15713975#post15713975 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by es1887
is it just expelling its zooxanthellae. it can just be purging too much of it. my dendro has done this a few times. did you change your lighting or any other condition of your tank? how long has it looked like this? i would not panic yet. it could just be a normal cycle of the coral, or it could be bleaching. either way there is not too much you can do but try to trouble shoot any new things that you have done to your tank. if it does not get better in a couple of days then i would be really concerned. i would not move the coral to a different tank, unless the tank has the same lighting same salinity,ph,alk,cal,mag, and everything else to go along with that. doing might result in more shock. zooxanthellae

Dendros do not have zooxanthellae as they are not photosythentic, or so I though. COrrect me if I am wrong. Sun corals on the other hand are.

[es1887]

dendros from the family dendrophyllidae do have zooxanthellae in the majority of species, but if it is expelling waste which i presume to be "sloughing", then i assume it has zooxanthellae being a duncanopsammia, or maybe turbinaria. unless you are very obviously seeing your coral "sloughing" its tissue or having polyp bailout on a lps, it most likely is expelling zooxathellae. as far as the tubastraea or "sun coral" being photosynthetic, they are not. dendro is a very broad family name to use, there for it is very key to be able to distinguish between genus and not just go from what the common names are. which can be easily confused and if you do have a tubastraea or a coral that is non photosynthetic i am sorry for the assumption

[sra127]

sun corals are non photosynthetic, thats why if you dont spot feed they will eventually die. dendro's i dont know, but i spot feed mine and i've had if for 2 months, started with one head, now 7

[uhuru]

Dendrophyllia are non-photosynthetic and usually very hardy. Any chance you overfed? What about temp spikes? Perhaps a bacterial infection?

[sabazerehi]

ya they usually are extremely hardy that's why i'm so surprised that this is happening, and yes i can actually see the tissue coming off and it's getting worse. i don't know if overfeeding is the issue because the last time i fed it was about 3 days ago and it seemed fine. how would i know if it's a bacterial infection? and anything i can do to save it?? thanks guys

[sabazerehi]

ok so i just looked into my other tank, where i have 3 other colonies of dendros and one of the colonies, the heads of the dendros look like they're just coming off, and the other 2 colonies seem find. this one i haven't fed in a few days because last time i was feeding the polyps werent really open. is this just a coincidence. those dendros are in a 58g, very stable, with chiller, ato and everything. now i'm really confused and worried :(

[uhuru]

I have only read of improper fragging leading to bacterial infections but I'm not sure how true that is as I have a rhizo that was literally cut in half that is doing just fine. I don't know if the infection can come from the food (spoiled, has toxins, or just too much of it) but it's a possibilty. If it's happening in 2 diff tanks and other corals are fine I would look at food source.

[sabazerehi]

ok i guess that makes sense but the last thing i fed them was krill, and i fed that to the other dendros and as of now they seem perfectly find and i feed it to my fish and mantis and they're all doing fine as well. and i've overfed in the past, but the dendros usually just spit out the extra, from what i've seen. thanks