Gorgonians

[Tru2nr]

ok so i was at the LFS today buyn' my ro/di unit and of course i look around while he's on the phone(i swear he does that just so i can buy more stuff) and what do u know i find this little peice of yellow gorgonian for only 9.99

so of course i have to buy it oh and of course my gf had to love the look of the firefish so i bought that to...then im lookn' around some more and found this peice of red gorgonian

god i hate and love that store went in to spend $150 come out spendin $235 they get ya every time!

[Paul B]

IMO that small piece of yellow gorgonian was very overpriced.
IN NY anyway they would have given me that piece if I bought the firefish for about $15.00
I have kept many gorgonians but I never could keep those yellow ones for more than a few months. Maybe it's just me.
Good luck.
Paul

[Jason25]

Tru it looks like you have the red one in the sand in your tank if you do you should get it out of the sand and attach it to a piece of LR, other wise the buried portion will die and then so will the rest of the coral. An experienced member told me this when I first got mine.

[lcstorc]

IME they are difficult to keep long term. I had a large one and it slowly died piece by piece over several months. I never could figure out what made it unhappy but I know it wasvery picky about water changes. As water change day approaced it would open less and less. It also seemed to like my seahorse tank better than the reef. I assumed it was the lower lighting and/or the lower flow.

[mempho reefer]

Most gorgonians are found at lower depths in their natural habitat. So they are subject to lower light and less flow. The MH and T-5 lighting along with the constant flow found in most of our tanks is really not the ideal situation for gorgonians. Most end up slowly dying in our tanks. It's been my experience that they last longer in a tank with compact florescent lighting.

[Witfull]

the 2 that you have as correctly said are non-photosynthetic gorgs. they rely on each polyp being fed. difficult, but not impossible. if you like gorgs look for one called Purple Brush. its a photosynthetic gorg that suppliments with feedings.

[Tru2nr]

yeah well itsa very hard to find a decent salt store here in cleveland trust me im lookn' and its the only place that sells the gorgonians and the red and the yellow one are both actually attached to a peice of LR that is then burried in the sand...it was the suggestion i was offered from a fellow reefer who did have sucess taken' care of them...and its the kind that i do want in my tank as seeing how i only have roughly 2wpg of PC lightning it, both have almost already fully opened up and actually do better with having a quite a bit of flow which suprised me.
and i do feed them cyclopeze..question is how often should they be fed?

[Jason25]

When the polyps are out they are hungry. I feed mine twice a week and they appear happy. They like a moderate flow because they are filter feeders and the current is how they get their food. When you feed them feed them up current so the food drifts to them on the current. I feed mine cyclopeze and phytoplankton.

[Witfull]

cyclopeeze time

[SaltwaterGeek]

Originally Posted by Witfull

the 2 that you have as correctly said are non-photosynthetic gorgs. they rely on each polyp being fed. difficult, but not impossible. if you like gorgs look for one called Purple Brush. its a photosynthetic gorg that suppliments with feedings.

I just bought a huge piece of "purple brush" today. Very healthy with an overwhelming number of polyps. From what I have heard, they need med / high flow, and definitely need some sort of feeding since they are not photosynthetic . They give their hardiness only a 3 out of 10. I think they will do fine in my 12g along with all the feedings I do in there for my sun corals. I'll keep you posted on my end.

Chris

[lcstorc]

Are you sure it isn;t photosynthetic? Witty said it was.
I have a similar looking one that is photosynthetic. It is also my water quality indicator. If it doesn't open when lights come on I need a water change. I forget what the name of mine is. HMA told me and it is somewhere in my chronicle.

OK so I made myself look it up. Mine is Muricea elongata or Muricea atlantica

[Witfull]

Originally Posted by LivingTheDream

need some sort of feeding since they are not photosynthetic .

contradiction of terms. either require or supplimental. ive had PB for over 5 yrs and hardly feed it. they are Photosynthetic. oh wait,,LFS said,,,,my bad~

[panmanmatt]

Easy way to tell photo from non-photo gorgs is the colour of their polyps. Non-phot gorgs have white polyps and photosynthetic ones have brown polyps. The brown is from the symbiotic algae in the polyps.

[lcstorc]

Good to know Matt. Now I don't have to ask the LFS or look each one up.

[Witfull]

5 yrs old and fragged to many times. woody has/had it in her tank as well as several others....high cross flow, strong light.,,,,,but im not lighting a marlboro~