DD Reef Gen Julian's Golden Gorgonia (Isis hippuris)

[HPark]

Hi all,

Recently purchased an Isis hippuris (Julian's Golden Gorgonia) frag from DD. Will be delivered tomorrow. Care seems pretty straight forward. Mod-high flow, mod-high flow. Anyone have any special tips?

Will post pictures when it arrives.

 

[HPark]

Pretty terrible pictures but I'll try to snap some more later this week.

Gorg


Lemon Tree Coral (stereonepthia)


Taylor's Purple Tree Coral (Nepthia)

 

[Softplan]

Extremely interested on how they turn out. I'm looking to buy a lemon tree coral and that gorgonia as well.

 

[HPark]

Well, I can't say much about the gorgonia -- it's developed a film of cyno on parts of it and no matter how much flow I direct towards it, I haven't been able to get polyp extension and the cyno continues to come back. Odd, as I don't have any cyno anywhere else in the tank or even really any algae problems. The tank is currently fallow so nutrients are fairly low.

Here's a slightly better picture of the lemon stereonepthia -- standing tall, can't wait for this to grow.

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I have a much larger Purple variant that I purchased from DD several months ago. (top down - under LEDs)


First week I received the purple stereo. This was taken under power compacts -- notice the mini brittle star? It was covered in them when I received it from DD.

 

[HPark]

Funny...I just noticed in the first pic of the lemon stereo....right in front of the bubble algae in the background, there's the little base of the first lemon coral I bought. Like I said, the stalk wouldn't attach to any rubble and eventually disappeared but the base has been slowly growing.

 

[velvetelvis]

I've kept Isis hippuris before. IME, they're hardy and easy to keep, though they take a little while to settle in (this has been my experience with gorgonians in general). They're beautiful--one of my favorite species.

If you're looking for a colorful PS gorgonian and don't care about mixing Caribbean and Indo-Pacific species, the purple Plexaura flexuosa that have been showing up on DD lately are beautiful. Deep purple with cream polyps. Put them in steady, laminar flow (without battering them) and good light, and they'll open right up.

 

[HPark]

Thanks for the suggestion - I've seen some sloughing tissue on the Isis so I've put it in a higher flow area and will frag the dead portions tomorrow.

Did your Isis prefer high/low light, high/low flow?

Thanks for the help.

 

[velvetelvis]

They definitely enjoyed light. I had one under MH, and another under LED lighting. Both responded well. They seemed to "like" enough current to make the branch move slightly, but not blasting.

A friend of mine also grew hers under natural sunlight in a greenhouse, with very gentle current. They seem pretty adaptable.

 

[HPark]

Here's an updated shot of my lemon stereonepthia



And another leather i picked up a few weeks ago...japanese toadstool