Scleronephthya/Dendronephthya, Red Sea biotope 12/27/10
Hi Crew
Firstly hope you are all well and hope you all had a very Happy Christmas.
I've recently been reading your articles on here about softies, especially the keeping of dendros and sclerons trying to get more of an understanding of the needs and requirements of these delicate corals.
The reason I'm here is to say I have had an orange Scleronephthya in my tank for around 8-10 months now, it is only a very small piece that came in on a piece of LR I brought and opens up to about 2cm in height, can't believe how well it is doing to say how hard to keep these can be, it must be feeding well from when I supplement and feed the SPS in my aquarium.
<And/or some life in the system is producing such food>
I am currently in the process of ordering a new marine set up, and would love to recreate a red sea looking reef with a shoal of Anthias and other fish that are found in this area of waters. I'm tempted to buy more Scleronephthya/Dendronephthya to create the look I'm after with vivid colours of soft corals, also gorgonians and sponges, I'm dubious in buying these though and was wondering if there would be any other corals you could recommend that could fit the bill of what I'm trying to achieve in my new set up.
<Mmm, all sorts. Have been to parts of the Red Sea several times, diving, photographing. And have one section of a book re its habitats, organisms.
Much of this is reproduced here: http://wetwebmedia.com/redseafwgv1.htm
and the linked files above>
Any help and suggestions would be most appreciated.
Take care all and an early happy new year to you all for when it arrives.
Many thanks for all your expertise
Si
<Glad to share! Bob Fenner>
Re: Scleronephthya/Dendronephthya 12/28/10
Hi Bob and the rest of the crew
Thanks for the speedy reply, you gave me good reading from the links and an abundance of useful information as usual, I have also already made book purchases this morning for reference on corals and fish of the red sea.
This is the kind of thing I would love to achieve (see attached picture)
for my perfect biotope, obviously on a much smaller scale.
<Ah yes>
Do you know of any books that would list all/most soft corals found in the red sea?
<Mmm, none that I'm aware of... there are such checklists on various groups of the region... but hard to find. Peter Vine's work is largely incomplete.
Do check out ReefBase:
http://www.reefbase.org/resource_center/publication/pub_12572.aspx
I have already purchased 'coral reef guide - red sea'.
One last thing do you know what the long branches are coming out from the corals?
<Oh yes... whip, wire corals, Antipatharians>
would add nice height in the aquarium if I could find out what these are.
<Perhaps models... or a/the big challenge... harder to keep than many of the difficult soft corals>
Thanks again.
Kind regards
Si
(I'll send pictures of the tank when it is up and running, hopefully get some constructive criticism from the guys and girls on here).
<Thank you for this. I do hope we meet up, above and below water! BobF>