Mystery frag...

[silver97]

Hi all!
Ive just recently started my tank, its only about 2 months old now, and when i first went to get fish i got a frag of what i thought was some xenia coral. Within the past week, and after studying various other types of corals id like to have, i realized mine doesn't look like a xenia as much as i thought it did. My mistake entirely, i didnt really do much research and it was a semi-impulse buy, only because i heard they were hardy and spread quickly but also because i liked how beautiful they were
Anyway, Id like to find out what this type of coral is so i can care for it properly, recently i bought the coral food known as 'Coral Frenzy' and started feeding it to my tank (at time of writing i have literally only used it once), so no noticeable changes but i have also started dosing calcium inn my tank and it seems to have grown a bit from when i got it. Not entirely sure what it is again, one of the moderators here thought it looked like a kenya tree coral, not sure so any and all ID help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

[silver97]

Im an idiot, forgot to post the picture
here it is with and without polyps closed

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

seeing the 1st pic now... ^ I don't think it's a kenya tree - is it a hard coral?

sure some member will be able to help with an id...

 

[silver97]

yes, when i handled it very briefly for positioning in my tank it had a hard skeleton to it, which is why i started to think it was some kind of acropora

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

if he is a acropora

you should be able to find him here... if others don't id him 1st

http://www.coralsee.org/#

 

[Oxylebius]

Looks like a gorgonian to me. Octocoral. Some are photosynthetic and some are not. The ones that aren't photosynthetic are going to need to eat stuff like Coral Frenzy. What color are those polyps, you show it with blue light, which doesn't let me know what color they are.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I can see that ^

here one example

 

[silver97]

sorry oxy, my laptop is slow and wasnt working with me last night. I wass only able to upload the pic with blue light, here is one now with no blue light:
they are tannnish, kind of mixed with the brown color of cardboard. And i got it like this, so im not positive if it is sick and its brownish because of that or if this is its real color, just when i got it i knew some corals could be brown and i thought that was the case here

 

[Oxylebius]

Give it time to color up. Watch it. Until you can determine if it is photosynthetic or not, feed it. Is that isn't working for you then move it a little higher in the tank. Once it grows a little more (~6 months) you should be able to better determine what type of gorgonian it is b/c the shape that it forms helps with identification.

 

[silver97]

Ok, great advice thank you!
In the month and a half or so that ive owned it, it's definitely grown a bit. The polyps themselves have grown bigger and extend a little more, plus i have seen entirely new ones grow.
If you look in the 1st picture, with the polyps closed, you can see its sort of a V or Y shaped frag. On the right side of it there is the part where it juts out to the left, and there is another part starting like that just to the left of it. When i got it, the first one was about the size of the 2nd one, so it has definitely grown. From far back the whole frag looks a bit like its turning a pinkish red, so maybe its gaining more color? I dont know, but i will keep updating as time goes on if anything changes

 

[Oxylebius]

Here's a years growth on mine. In about 6 months you should really know what it is.

 

[silver97]

Oh wow that looks so cool, and very similar to mine! Even more convinced its a gorgonian now

 

[Oxylebius]

Mine is a purple gorgonian (purple frilly) from the Caribbean region. Propagated in another reefers tank, in which I got a frag.

Now yours - in trying to ID it look to the knobby-ness of it, it may be one of the knobby sea rods of the Eunicea species. The arrangement of the polyps (in rows, alternating bands, randomly scattered, ect.) is often helpful in the identification process.

Some additional quick notes on gorgonians:

Before anything else, you must learn as much as possible about the species you have, photosynthetic and non-photosythetic species will require different needs. Those that photosynthesize usually like brightly lit tanks and best placed in the upper areas of the tank. Non-zooxanthellate species, on the other hand, can easily succumb to algal overgrowth when exposed to too much light, they typically need much more moderate illumination (lower levels in tanks). You often will see some gorgonians in tanks on the sand and in other tanks high on the rocks. It is b/c the different species have different needs.

Give your Gorgonian plenty of buffer space and water flow. Don't allow other corals to grow into it. I continuously have to cut back my monti caps and birds nest so that they don't crowd out my gorgonian. As you can see from my photo above, the birds nest is causing the polyps on the gorgonian retract, you can clearly see the purple stem w/o extended polyps. Some gorgonians can extend sweeper tentacles to defend themselves, others don't. Apparently, mine doesn't have sweeper tentacles and was being crowded. Not sure what yours will have.

Another reason to create a buffer zone is that it allows water flow right at the gorgonian, making it sway and keeping it clean of waste and detritus. The current will help to bring food particles, as well as slough away the waxy secretion they sometimes create. If you see some clear mucus floating around the water column, it is most likely sloughing from the gorgonian. Your overflow and protein skimmer will eventually take it out of the water column.

Daily feeding of small foods like coral frenzy, Artemia nauplii, rotifers, and Cyclop-eeze will help the gorgonian thrive. Even photosynthetic gorgonians will take in food. But, be careful with your nutrient levels in the tank. You will need to find a balance of making sure the gorgonian gets enough to eat and water quality. A little bit can go a long way with feeding, 0.5 ml a day is enough with a small frag, particularly if you are target feeding.

Best to try to target feed w/pumps off at first. A pipette of some sort helps with feeding, the longer the easier it is to reach down in the tank to it. After that, if you have pumps in the tank not connected to the overflow, best to let them run for a good 10mins to allow the food to circle around the tank and feed your gorgonian (and other corals) before you kick on the pumps to the overflow. Some fish foods have small bits that the gorgonian can eat as well, so this does help feed it daily. Any foods which dissolve into fine particulate matter in the water column will work. I feed marine snow and phytoplankton once a week. And the fish food I feed has very fine particles that the gorgonian picks up daily. Plus I soak algae in selcon a couple times a week and I believe that the gorgonian can also take in the fatty bits from the selcon as well. The polyps are big enough you can see them close on food when eating. I also find that blowing off the rocks or stirring up debris from the sump feeds it also, the polyps open and close feeding on this stuff.

The only other thing I know is that gorgonians are known for allelopathy, so running some sort of carbon in the tank will help with that.

Here is an example of a gorgonian feeding:

 

[silver97]

Ok, a few questions
If my gorgonian needs less light, would i be fine just attaching it to another rock and sticking it somewhere on my sandbed?
I have an adequate amount of space between it and my zoas, which are the only other thing that are growing in the tank. I have multiple throughout and they arent spreading much anyway so i dont think they will be a problem. Flow is good on it too, I can see its polyps swaying softly sometimes
Now with feeding, i do not target feed because i dont have a tool to do so, what i do is just mix 1/8 tsp. of coral frenzy with aquarium water and pour it back over my powerhead to get it all over my tank to feed the gorgonian and my zoas. i see its polyps retract a bit when this happens, so i think its getting food. But i will be looking into getting something to help target feed.
With the excess nutrients, do you think I could get some kind of macro algae and that would help? I was already thinking of buying some red or green caulerpa to add a little color to my tank.
And i do run carbon in my filter, so thats taken care of.
I see its polyps out all the time, so i guess thats a good sign of im doing SOMETHING right?

 

[Oxylebius]

The Kent Marine Sea Squirt Feeder works well for me.

Right now, I'd leave your gorgonian where it is and see how it does. Let it continue to acclimate to its new tank. Sounds like it will be happy with the flow where it is.

If you ID it as a photosynthetic gorgonian, then you may want to move it a little higher on the rocks. If you want to put it on a rock that you can move around the tank, you can do that as well. I'd probably leave it at this point and watch it.

Many people add food in front of a power head. IMHO I find that this can add to uneaten food that then decays and causes excess nutrients and thus excess algae growth. I recommend all pumps off and target feed fish and corals. This allows less food to go uneaten. Then start a circulation pump, which will allow any uneaten food to start to move about in which the fish and corals can pick up. By using a circulation pump in the tank only allows the food to be eaten verses exported from the tank via protein skimmer or accumulation on the bottom of the sump. Then you can get the rest of your tank system going. I don't have much issue with algae and believe it is b/c I try to not have any uneaten food in the tank sitting around in the rocks or sump. But, as I said many just dump food into the tank and let the pumps circulate it.

If you buy macro algae make sure you do a lot of research on it. Some are can be great additions to tanks while others become invasive and take over. Once these take hold sometimes they become your worst nightmare to get rid of. Make sure you pick up an algae that won't take over.