Common Names

Black Sun Coral, Cup Coral, Orange Sun Coral, Scroll Coral, Turban Coral, Yellow Cup Coral

Description

Dendrophylliidae extend their polyps mostly during the evening.  While they are usually closed up during the day they may extend their polyps when food is present.  Dendrophylliidae are slow growers and will often grow on one another forming community colonies.

Care Level: Easy to Moderate

Placement: All

Lighting: Any

Flow: Strong

Conditions: 74°-83°, s.g. 1.023-1.025, Phosphates 0, Cal 380-430, dKH 8-12, Mag 1200-1350, Sr 8-10

Conditions & Placement

Dendrophylliidae do best in shaded parts of the aquarium.  They are often placed under ledges or in caves to help promote polyp extension during viewing hours.    However it is important that these areas have good flow.

Feeding

Lighting has no affect on the growth of Dendrophylliidae as they are non-photosynthetic.  They exclusively eat small foods such as plankton from the water column.  They can also be fed small sized foods such as brine shrimp or mysis.Dendrophylliidae do best with daily feedings and will appear bloated when well fed.

Maintenance

Monthly water changes of 20% or bi-weekly water changes of at least 10% are suggested. As a result of their feeding requirements good filtration is necessary to keep Dendrophylliidae.  A strong skimmer is highly recommended

Warnings

While light does not bother Dendrophylliidae it does promote algae growth.  If algae is allowed to grow on Dendrophylliidae it could die.

Signs of Problems

• - Lack of polyp extensions indicate that Dendrophylliidae is starving. You can try to entice it to eat by squirting frozen food juice across the polyps or placing the coral in a container of tank water with high concentration of food