Non-photosynthetic gorgonians

[Greg Hiller]

I picked up a Really beautiful blue....yes, I said blue, polyped gorgonian at a local shop last weekend. The tissue is a pretty pale color, and I believe the gorgonian is non-photosynthetic. I mounted it with putty epoxy to a rock and put it in my softy dominated 54 corner, kind of in the corner of the tank where there is not a lot of light.

The colony seemed very healthy in the store, and even had it's polyps extended in the bag, but since that time I've had trouble getting it to open, and I'm worried because I know it needs to eat to survive.

Anybody out there having success with non-photosynthetic gorgonians, and in particular, the blue polyped variety? By success I mean growth or at least survival with no regression for 6+ months. What's your technique?

[Bidadari]

Greg, there's a thread in RC about non-photo gorg. The guy in Germany developed a "new" food & was showing good growth on his gorg. using this food.
Aquarium Obsessed is the dealer here in the US. Good luck with yours. If you try it, please post here on what your finding is with this food. I'm curious.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=971170

[CaptainAndy]

I have three non-phothsynthetics in my seahorse tank. I have a fair amount of current directed towards them. Also, I usually see the polps when the lights go on in the morning. I feed phyto 3-4 times a week.

Purchased them at Atlantis several months ago and though they thrive, I haven't seen much growth. Current and feeds were recommended by Atlantis

[JeremyR]

You don't need the special fauna marin gorgonian food.. there are a number of powdered products that you can use that are more readily available, as well as things like cyclopeeze & live or frozen baby brine, frozen rotifers, etc. The key is open polyps.. if you aren't seeing daytime polyping, they will often polyp at night. Feeding them during open times at night will get them used to the food, and then you can usually get a daytime feeding response by putting some of that food in the water. Do it at the same time every day, and you can train them to open much faster, or stay open.

I've been using the powdered elos plankton supplement. I've also used a krill powder from the distributors of cyclopeeze that worked well. The fauna marin food was ok as well, but distribution is sketchy and quasi-legal. Some things will also do ok on the spray dried phyto type products, but I think the zooplankton based ones are better.

[Greg Hiller]

Funny thing is this gorgonian never seems to have polyps open during the night.

Yesterday the polyps were at least partially open at about 7 PM (about 4 hours before the end of the light cycle). I tried live brine shrimp, and small pieces of grated squid (significantly larger than the brine shrimp). None of the food seems to 'stick' to the polyps. These polyps are fairly large, I'd say larger than the polyps on thin photosynthetic gorgonians, and about the same size as on thin branching gorgonians.

>I have three non-phothsynthetics in my seahorse tank. I have a fair amount of current directed towards them. Also, I usually see the polps when the lights go on in the morning. I feed phyto 3-4 times a week.<

It's great that they are at least surviving for you. I would be surprised if they actually consumed phytoplankton though. Maybe I should move mine to my seahorse tank. A lot of cyano in my seahorse tank though, and I'm sure that would be a problem.

[Bidadari]

I have good luck with using Golden Pearl to feed my purple rod & green lace gorg. I've seen the polyps are grabbing & closing when they catch the food. I would think cyclopeeze would be a good for them as well. Those gorg. have pretty good polyp size from what I've seen.

[Greg Hiller]

I'll try Cyclopeeze and golden pearls tonight.

[scavdog]

Todd Gardener of Atlantis Marine World has extensive experience with non-photosynthetic critters. I know that he feeds very aggressively in order to make them thrive.

[Greg Hiller]

Tried Cyclopeeze, tried frozen cyclops (brown not red), tried golden pearls. Nothing was really consumed (almost nothing 'stuck'). I did notice one red Cyclopeeze went into a polyp, but there was a lot flying around that did not seem to be taken up.

[reefinghabit]

i have fed cyclopeeze in the store to deep water yellow and red gorgs. i have seen the big white polyps grap and consume the small red cycplops. i also feed them phytoplankton.

[Greg Hiller]

Polyps are opening more now, but I still don't really see the polyps catching anything. FWIW, some tissue has actually regrown over the putty epoxy I used to mount it with.

[reefinghabit]

i have had great sucess keeping and growing purple frilly gorgs, they are great. blasting light and they grow right on to anything

[CaptainAndy]

Just try the phytoplankton. I don't know whether the polyps consume it directly or if it starts up the food chain and the polyps eat the zoaplankton. At night, I have a cloud of plankton in my seahorse tank and the gorgos have their polyps extended.

[Greg Hiller]

>purple frilly gorgs<

I believe these are photosynthetic.

[grendel]

i have fed cyclopeeze in the store to deep water yellow and red gorgs. i have seen the big white polyps grap and consume the small red cycplops. i also feed them phytoplankton.
Are these photosynthetic?

Disregard, got my own answer:

thoughts on

http://www.aquariumobsessed.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AO&Category_Code=FM-FOOD

?

[reefinghabit]

yes yellow and red gorgs are deep water. filter feeders. i was mentioning above about purple frilly gorgs i know this topic was about deep water filter feeders. but i just had to add my comment about purple frilly gorgs. they are so easy to grow and love blasting light, and yes greg your right they are photosynthetic.

[AngeloM]

I'm not sure what type of flow you have your gorg in... but they like really strong flow. I've had a yellow gorg before.... FWIW my experience with this yellow gorg... it didn't like to much light. I had placed it on the sand bed and was partially covered by an overhang. I use to spot feed it Cyclop-eeze and it loved it! You could see the polyps retract once the food hit them.

[dlberlin]

I'm having good luck so far (4 months) with a beautiful bright yellow non-photosynthetic gorgonian
I bought every size of golden pearls and mixed them together, and mix it with dried copepods, dried rotifers, Naturose powder, Cyclop-eeze, and Selcon, and feed it using a Kent Sea Squirt with the hole opened up a bit.
Debbie

[skyedolphan]

not trying to hyjack but
Greg if you ever decide to frag I would love a piece to see how well/bad it thrives in my system

[Greg Hiller]

When I mounted it I took a small frag and put it in a separate tank. I'll give it to you at the next meeting if you like (and if it's still alive).

[skyedolphan]

very good thank you :)

[Billybob18]

Greg, currently at seaworld we have a full actinc light (marcs idea) on our deep water gorgonian tank, and ever since we put that bulb on there the polyps are constantly out. You may want to try to put that gorgonian under a more blueish bulb. Just a suggestion....

[agent6473]

Any updates on this? I'm interested to hear more about that blue bulb and it's response.

Do you think a similar technique could be used on the blue lollipop tunicate which never seems to live more than a couple months in captivity?

[Greg Hiller]

Mine slowly died despite being quite healthy to start. I tried many different food items. I'll not try again....way too much work.

[bbjohngm]

I've had my red one for almost a year now...although I'll admit not much growth is evident but it has not died and it's polyps are out all night till the lights come on.....it is sitting under an overhang with high current.....I feed frozen red Cyclopese after the lights go out about 2 or 3 times a week..... so far it's ok...although I would like to see some growth, mine has yet to crust over the epoxy so i do fear that it may die someday in the near future.....if it does, I will wait until more is known about these beautiful creatures....

[reefkeeper2]

I also have a blueberry gorgonian and what I have noticed is that it seems to be light sensitive. The area that was exposed (slightly) to the halide lighting has died, where the shaded areas have not. It is certainly not growing, so I can't claim success with it yet. If it completely dies, I will not try another.

[Aquaman_68]

I also have a blueberry gorgonian and what I have noticed is that it seems to be light sensitive. The area that was exposed (slightly) to the halide lighting has died, where the shaded areas have not. It is certainly not growing, so I can't claim success with it yet. If it completely dies, I will not try another.
I saw that peice in your tank it was georgeous...(but I thought to myself....I wonder how long he's had it.......) I didn't ask cause there was too much going on with all the guests questions.....They are very very hard to keep from the "slow death" Keep us posted..

[reefkeeper2]

I will. I'm not too hopeful though. It eats fine and I feed it every day, but I think there may be other factors that are causing it to decline. I noticed that the cleaner shrimp are always all over it, trying to get the food out of the polyps. I think they are damaging it. I might move it to the sump for a while.

[Aquaman_68]

That is always an option!! Those shrimp sometimes!!!!!:mad: