Blue berry gorg

[TwentyfiveCents]

Got a blueberry gorg and would like to know how often other people feed them....at the moment I blend up mysis shrimp and add reef snow food with that about once a day...should I be feeding it more often?

 

[zooman72]

Well, you are probably not going to like my response, but your chances of keeping that gorgonian alive for very long are slim to none. They have an extremely poor track record with even experienced aquarists. Like many other non-photosynthetic organisms, we hobbyists tend to underestimate their intake needs, as they filter feed 24/7, so once a day is not going to cut it.

Take a look at some of the few successful non-photosynthetic reefs out there and what their owners did to ensure the organisms within obtained sufficient nutrients long-term...

 

[TwentyfiveCents]

Ok so I Basicly have to broadcast feed throughout the day from what Iv read....I'm running the triton system and I might have to buy a stronger fuge light so phos and nitrate don't go crazy with that amount of feeding but for now I upped the amount I feed to 4x a day target feeding

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Feeding often enough isn't the issue with blue berry gorgs, its more so that we don't really know what they eat despite it often looking like they are feeding. I have not heard of any successes with this species and they always slowly wither and starve to death. These gorgonians are truly best left in the ocean.

 

[JVU]

Bummer to hear they don’t do well since I was also interested in one, but not too unexpected I guess.

I often feel like when sites list coral as “expert only” they are saying “this will not survive in a tank but we can sell it to you anyway”

 

[TwentyfiveCents]

Well its not impossible to keep but def not easy and seems like people don't know exactly what they consume so they give em a cocktail of different things with success.....mine is still alive i might be crazy but it looks like its growing new branches at the moment. I target feed it twice a day with mysis shrimp and silver sides that I puree in a blender and also dump reef snow in there I'm also using the triton method. keeping the blueberry in the strongest flow area of my tank as Well

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Well its not impossible to keep but def not easy and seems like people don't know exactly what they consume so they give em a cocktail of different things with success.....mine is still alive i might be crazy but it looks like its growing new branches at the moment. I target feed it twice a day with mysis shrimp and silver sides that I puree in a blender and also dump reef snow in there I'm also using the triton method. keeping the blueberry in the strongest flow area of my tank as Well

How long have you had it? Considering there are essentially no reports of anyone ever keeping one beyond about a year, we can say with confidence that they are, so far, impossible to keep alive long term. I have followed the topic extensively over the years and there is a lack of reports documenting survival beyond about one year, which is about how long it seems to take for them to starve. Many people see new growth on these things, but they still end up dying. It's similar to crinoids and seems to be left over growth from energy reserves gained while in the wild. Many people claim "œsuccess" with this species, but there is a lack of documentation and evidence to support the claims.

 

[Reefiez]

but blueberry sesafans are so purdy!

my first one got covered in algae (new tank, new reefer, overfeed) and just melted away.

i'm on a second one, currently surviving for 2 months with no visible reduction in polyps. I target feed by mixing 1 cap of BW reefsnow + 1 cap of BW zooplanktos-L 3 times a week, and 3 days of red sea reef energy (broadcast feed), and 1 day of indirect feeding (from feeding my LPS)