Coral advise

[parkinsn]

when the polyps come out, more than likely at night or when you feed you fish mysis, the tentacles will come and target feed some mysis shrimp

[Tomjay]

Originally Posted by parkinsn

when the polyps come out, more than likely at night or when you feed you fish mysis, the tentacles will come and target feed some mysis shrimp

Ok, yeah the polyps do only come out at night when the actinics go off...I will target feed from now on...thx

[blaster]

thats a dendro it needs to be fed

[Pazil]

Originally Posted by blaster

thats a dendro it needs to be fed

I don't think its a dendro if the polyps only come out at night..... Fishytime is right... Sun Coral. And yes it needs to be spot fed.

[Myka]

Pssst!! A Dendro is a type of sun coral!

[parkinsn]

But if it was a dendro wouldnt the polyps come out during the day because they are partially photosynthetic, as well as meat eaters?

[Myka]

Both Dendros and Sun Polyps are referred to as Sun Polyps. Dendros are Dendrophyllia sp, and Sun Polyps are Tubastrea sp. However, according to Bob Fenner on the Wet Web Media; "Balanophyllia, Dendrophyllia, not distinguishable from very similar Tubastrea without examination of dead skeletal (septal fusion) characteristics." and "Genus Dendrophyllia: Near impossible to distinguish from Tubastrea w/o microscopic analysis of corallite skeletons." All three of the above species are from the genus Dendrophylliidae, there are several other species in the genus as well.

Generally, I think you just pay the exorbitant amount of money if the coral in question has large polyps and tends to stay open during the day, which seems to be the only easily definable difference, and is apparently not particularly accurate. I bet there are more than a few people out there who paid for a Denro, but got a Tubastrea!!