Anyone here have Gorgonians in their tank

[tkimmons85]

I was wanting to see if anyone here has had good success with any type of gorgonian. I killed a beautiful blueberry gorgonian back when I had my 55 gallon and I have wanted one ever since. Now I have a well established tank with lots of healthy sps Im thinking about another one. But if anyone here has any tips or advice or pros/cons. I would love to hear from you.

I have been drooling over this one

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+601+1514&pcatid=1514

 

[mhades]

I have a small one that I got for free with a purchase of a bunch of ricordia. I've had it for close to 4 months now and it's looking great. don't grow much though. although I have no idea what kind it is. don't know anything about it. I just keep it in my 20L secondary tank.

 

[rcmike]

I would stay away from the ones like you have linked. They eat plankton and will slowly waste away over time. Sometimes they will hold on for a long time but eventually they will die. I have had good luck with photosynthetic gorgonians though. I used to have several that grew very well. Of course the brownish sea rods do well. Some of the purple ones are photosynthetic and do well. Most of the brightly colored ones are non-photosynthetic though and have to have a constant supply of plankton.

BTW, I have been wanting one of these and got an email this morning that they were in stock but I just checked and they are out again.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/...ref=4620&subref=AA&cmpid=E-_-LAN-_-Stock-_-P1

I have the yellow version of it and it is doing very well. It is still small but is growing.

 

[tkimmons85]

very cool thanks

 

[Jennifier615]

I had a yellow one once like the one you linked. I bought it from a lfs that it had been knocked down and a branch had kinda withered away....I got it for like 75% off and I thought I would try and nurse it back to health.....or keep what was left alive and wait for it to grow back.

Here was my experience....
1. They are covered with flesh which when touched(while trying to place it or anything....) strips off and is damaged.
2. Snails and Hermit Crabs LOVE trying to climb them, or tear them out of the rockwork(which see step one again...)
3. They require something like Marine Snow daily and high/medium flow(and they are spindly) so when something heavy like your cuc wants to play on them they break or fall down (see step one again....)

Result:
Mine died..........

Afterthought?

I would like to try again one day maybe IF I get a healthy one that I am able to touch the bottom bare area of it without touching the flesh and placing it in a smaller tank with a limited or bare clean up crew.

 

[mhades]

the one i have is a brown or dark tan. At first I thought it was ugly junk and considered trashing it. but since I had it there was no harm in keeping it. I've actually grown fond of it though. Even though it is just an ugly brown, it actually looks nice when the polyps are extended. As far as the non photosynthetic types, I think I would rather just stick with some type of branching leather. I'd hate to have to feed coral every day.

 

[rcmike]

Well, the problem is the even if you do feed them every day they still end up dying.

 

[tkimmons85]

Well filter feeding is not an issue for me. I make my own coral/fish food cubes I feed the tank once a day. But like rcmike said if its gonna die anyway whats the point of trying.

 

[AdrianBryce]

You can get photosynthetic gorgs. They are easy to keep and fast growing.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Feeding

Feeding

Well filter feeding is not an issue for me. I make my own coral/fish food cubes I feed the tank once a day. But like rcmike said if its gonna die anyway whats the point of trying.

Even feeding multiple times a day will not keep them alive as It's the Food we feed that is the Problem not the amount. Not sure it is possible to keep them long term and IMO are better left in the Wild. JMO
Bill

 

[AdrianBryce]

You can keep them just like any more difficult NPS. You might want to look into automatic refrigerated feeding systems if you are serious about it though.