sun coral vs dendrophyllia

[morval]

So i go to my LFS and see what i thought was a sun coral and would like to have one in my tank, so i check the price and its $75/polyp

and only 2-4-6 polyp rocks and it says dendrophyllia and not sun coral so i look it up and find out it is extreamly hard to tell these apart. so how do i know these are real dendrophyllia and not just the LFS trying to make a better profit ?

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by morval
http:///forum/post/2577926
So i go to my LFS and see what i thought was a sun coral and would like to have one in my tank, so i check the price and its $75/polyp

and only 2-4-6 polyp rocks and it says dendrophyllia and not sun coral so i look it up and find out it is extreamly hard to tell these apart. so how do i know these are real dendrophyllia and not just the LFS trying to make a better profit ?
Dendrophylliidae are the genus , There are many different types of dendrophylliidae there are some common physical differences in some species. Tubastria is also a genus in most cases Sun Corals are often seen growing on a mat and some species of dendro grow individual polyps. But thats not a rule, as many species of dendo's do both and unfortunatly a lot of dendro species are not distinguishable from very similar Tubastrea without examination of dead skeletal (septal fusion) characteristics. Meaning you could have Dendrophyllia arbuscula and it look identicle to Tubastrea coccinea (aka Sun Coral).

 

[alexmir]

And from what i have seen the dendro tentecals on the polyps are clear, where the sun coral are yellow or orange. Also, the dendro i have seen stay out all day.

 

[morval]

thanx for the info. ill go back to that LFS and see how the tentecales look when i was there only one of the rocks was open and the other 3 were closed up. theres just a big differance in a nice little sun coral colony for $40 and a 2 polyp dendrophyllia for $150

 

[alexmir]

Im not saying that your store was trying to, but i dont know if i would shop at a store that tried to sell me a sun coral for the price of a 75 dollar coral that looked similar.
I would for sure do some research on them before you buy, make sure your getting what you think you are.

 

[viper_930]

Dendrophyllidae is actually the family and dendrophyllia is a genus. There's many different dendrophyllia and some look nothing alike, but typically the species sold under that name in the hobby is Dendrophyllia coccinea. The polyps are much bigger than tubastreas and stay open 24/7. $75 is quite a high price for them though. Do a search around the web and you could probably find them cheaper with shipping included. I hope you know they are not photosynthetic and must be spot fed several times per week, which can get to be a hassle.

 

[morval]

thanx for the info guys. i was just thinking that my LFS was buying sun coral and pawning them off as the higher priced dendrophyllia.

 

[alexa11]

if it is that hard to tell apart, why not just look for a sun coral at the cheaper price instead anyway?

 

[morval]

i havent seen a sun coral at any of my LFS so i was excited when i spoted these but $75 a polyp with 2 Polyps being the smallest was a little sticker shock. i went back last night and most the polyps were closed, they are in a large frag tank in an area of low light. them being closed is what makes me think they are trying to scam people

 

[alexa11]

yeah i wouldnt pay $75/polyp for anything personally (unless it was really big and spectacular), but thats just me..especially if it is so similar to something so much cheaper. I would ask if you can put an order in or request that they (your lfs) add sun coral to their order for next week. I bet theyd do it for you! i requested a Christmas tree worm rock from mine...they let me see their whole order form so i could see what was available. If not, go to another store and ask. I payed $35 for my sun coral, has lots of polyps. It's into opening really late at night though, so i never get to see it. Im going to try and change its schedule.