Flower Tree Coral/Umbellulifera sp./Cauliflower Coral Questions

[TFish77]

So I was roaming around an LFS today and came across something I had never seen before. When I asked about it I was told it was brought back by a customer who said it looked like and I quote " a limp noodle in his tank" so he brought it back. It was sold to me as a Cauliflower Coral and upon further research I discovered it had a number of other names as well. I wasn't able to get a good picture of it now as all my lights are off but I will in the morning. This is the closest resembling picture I could find to the one I picked up today.

 

 

I was also told this coral was non-photsynthetic but from my quick searches I believe it's just a low light coral that requires supplemental feedings due to its lack of zooxanthellae. I currently have it placed in a shaded area that receives constant, indirect, and random flow from an rw-8. Coral food/supplement is as follows:

Every Day: 3 drops roti feast, 3 drops oyster feast, 5 drops phtyo feast (not really for corals)

Every Other Day: 3ml each of Red Sea A/B Amino Acids, PE Cyclopeez (used as a fish food but some corals eat it too), 1 small scoop (probably 1ml) of Fauna Marin Ricordea/Zoanthid food.

 

I would like to think I have it under control but I would really like to hear from others who have had this coral for a while with some levels of success. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[jestep]

Looks like a Dendronephthya, not the same as Dendrophyllia which is also NPS. I'm not sure there's more than a handful of people or institutions on earth with any long term success with these. Probably the single hardest species in the hobby. Sounds like you have the flow correct, the feeding is usually where aquariums come up short on requirements.

 

Here's a few articles if you haven't seen these ones:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/7/aafeature

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-02/feature/

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/10/29/preliminary-success-dendonephthya-carnation-corals/

[The Aquarist]

Lots of food and lots of flow. Check out the fauna marin foods, they have developed a whole line of foods for nps critters. Also check out may 2010 totm here, its a nice nps tank with lots of dendronepthyas, gorgonians, etc. It goes into detail about the feeding regime, and specifically whats foods he fed to keep these corals alive.

 

Good luck

[TFish77]

Thanks for the suggestions. I knew it was gonna be a hard one but I figured I would have better luck than the LFS I got it from lol. I also paid $15 for it so I figured it was worth a try. It tripled in size after I dropped it in the tank and looks good. Here is a crappy pic I snapped for reference.