blueberry gorgonian??

[Caviness81]

I was sold a blueberry gorgonian today. To my fault I did no research on this coral. To my LFS fault, I told them everything about my tank. High light output with sps corals. They didnt say anything about direct feeding this coral. Any one has previous experience? From what I read they are impossible.

 

[bill4t]

Yes they are very impossible to keep! They need fed a couple times a day and don't seem to like alot of light! If u know someone with a nps dominant tank I would suggest u give it to them. They are very beautiful animals and i believe they should not even be in a home aquarium just because there death rate is somewhere around 90 percent in the hobby

 

[hypostatic]

SO yeah, it's not IMPOSSIBLE to keep, but probably unlikely in your current setup.

First off, they need pretty constant feeding. Like, daily at least. And they eat pretty small foods like baby brine shrimp. The more successful stories I've heard regarding this species involves automatic feeding setups.

Also, they like it a bi colder than regular tropical reef tanks. I think they like it around 70F?, whereas our tanks are more around 80F. Not a HUGE difference in temp, but from what I've read, it's thought that the increase in temp also increases their metabolism, which increases their need for food, so you'd have to feed more often.

With all this feeding, on of the most common downfalls is that people are more likely to get algae outbreaks, which can kill the gorg.

Lastly, these guys need it relatively dark. Unlike sun corals that don't really need to be in the dark, and will often open up frequently in intense lighting, these guys won't. They actually need it darker or shady to expand properly and grow.

 

[bill4t]

Lol people kill me!

 

[noy]

OP, this is definitely one of the - if not the most challenging corals out there.

There are quite a few threads on RC of success stories, here is a recent one:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2352740

The difficulty is trying to find foods that the Bluberry gorg will respond to. You definitely have to target feed it. There just isn't all that much scientific data and most of the information is from empirical reports from people who have had success.

I have one and it was doing great in the display but its not particularly happy now in the new gorg tank - it hardly opens up anymore. The main display was 77F and was very well lit - the current environment is kept at 72F and has much more subdued lighting - go figure.

 

[GhostCon1]

OP, this is definitely one of the - if not the most challenging corals out there.

There are quite a few threads on RC of success stories, here is a recent one:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2352740

The difficulty is trying to find foods that the Bluberry gorg will respond to. You definitely have to target feed it. There just isn't all that much scientific data and most of the information is from empirical reports from people who have had success.

I have one and it was doing great in the display but its not particularly happy now in the new gorg tank - it hardly opens up anymore. The main display was 77F and was very well lit - the current environment is kept at 72F and has much more subdued lighting - go figure.

I would not call these success stories.

 

[gone fishin]

Certainly very challenging, IMO in your situation I would try to return it and maybe try again when your more prepared if you would still like to try.

Lol people kill me!

:lmao:

 

[Diamandi]

This coral is not "challenging" it is impossible to keep. All those success stories have the same sad ending, it just takes more time to fade in some cases and I think it is only affected by how healthy the coral was when it was purchased.