food for red finger gorgonian

[mrbill70]

Just picked up a red finger gorgonian as my first filter feeder. All my other corals are photosynthetic. What do I feed this beast? Knop filter feeder food? Marine Snow? I'm going to place an order for some misc items and am going to pick up some food in the process. What do you all recommend?

 

[sambo123]

I would feed a mix of phytoplankton and cyclopeeze (marine snow and any other filter feeder food will be an ok substitute for the live phyto) also remember to give it strong flow and low light, these are pretty hard to keep

 

[mrbill70]

I think this one may be in rough shape to begin with. It is a burnt orange color but lacks the white tentacles that I see in pictures. Oh well.

 

[dendro982]

Post a picture, please. Same kind of gorgonian can be yellow, orange and red. As far as I know, color of polyps can differs, but the care is same.

Mine was the healthiest coral I had ever seen, have it since Aug:

Food: dried Cyclop-Eeze (listed 800 micron size, in the can are much smaller too):

Eating ZoPlan (~50-250 mk particles size) and the water from thawing mysis, the second change:

You can use any small sized food available, like Golden Pearls, Oyster eggs, small particles from the frozen cubes.

Keep it in a high flow, when part of Diodogorgia nodulifera is out of stream - polyps on these branches close (IMHE). Mine is under 150 gph in 6g tank, may be 6-8" from the nozzle.
Food is given when filtration is off, several times a day to the concentration of snowfall in the tank. This when the small tanks are handy
Fine filtration and, if you have it, skimming will help with water quality.

Keep us posted.

 

[sambo123]

those are some great photos, u must have a nice camera

 

[mrbill70]

I picked up some frozen cyclopeeze and DTs phyto from the lfs this afternoon. When I got home, it was a bit more "hairy". I mixed the cyclopeeze in a bit of ro water and squirted it near the gorgonian till the entire tank looked like a light snowfall. I went ahead and took a couple pics even though the lights are out for the evening.

 

[dendro982]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9290090#post9290090 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sambo123
those are some great photos, u must have a nice camera

More a lucky find: I was told, that this is point-and-shoot camera (with macromode, of course). It remembers settings, has no dead zone, just use 2 buttons to operate - love it! It's old, Pentax Optio 30, 3 Mpix.
The other factor - excellent (for photography) glass of Nano-Cube 6, the objects are close to the glass, sun light is from right back, so it's easy to work:


mrbill70:
Can you make the shots with the lights on - weekend, may be. Now is hard to see - it seems, that gorgonian was fragged - left branch looks sharp-ended. It has nice long polyps, just feed it.

Mine when eating (all coral), cyclop-eeze and mysis water, respectively:


On the last picture you can see how polluted tank is: back wall is not black anymore, the LR is coated with green film, and I had to remove sand - was impossible to clean under the rock.

Before starting feeding gorgonian intensively, tanks was still relatively clean after 4 months of use:

But I have bad filtration, working on it.

You, probably, already know that - Photobucket is also free and allows insert full-size pictures in the post, imagesnack and webshots - thumbnails. Just in case.

 

[mrbill70]

updated pics

Thanks for the tip on photobucket. It is alot nicer than imageshack.

 

[dendro982]

I had never seen like this before - here in the stores were only like mine, yellow and orangish.

Could it be Mediterranean shipment? It looks like Corallium rubrum (photo is here and through the Google image search ). From what I had read, it tolerates colder temperatures, like 76F, and has calcium skelton, instead of gorgonin, and is unflexible (link) .
Please, inform us about progress and how it will looks like, when open.

 

[Jamokie01]

Actually that looks like a relative of the stylaster, which I believe are non photosynthetic relatives of the fire coral. I could be wrong, I think I saw it in Eric Bornemans book "Aquarium Corals". Again, not sure just giving you a place to start, but its definitly not a red gorgonian.

 

[mrbill70]

I think you are right (not a red gorgonian). The LFS told me that is what it was, but I know how that goes. I've been feeding it cyclopeeze for the past few days. Hopefully that will sustain it while I try to find an ID.

 

[sambo123]

yeh thats not a gorgonian, definite fire coral, be carful they sting!
you can feed it exactly what you would have fed the gorgonian.

 

[dendro982]

Sorry, what is the fire coral - what is interesting about it? Tell, please. Know nothing about it.

 

[mrbill70]

Is it photosynthetic? This link seems to think so.

http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/fact_sheets.cfm?id=93

 

[Jamokie01]

Its not a fire coral, its a non photosynthetic relative with a much more mild sting that doesnt tend to bother humans.

 

[sambo123]

fire coral are hydrozoans and have fine hair like tentecles, and no its not nonphotosynthetic

 

[Jamokie01]

Fire coral is a common name for the hydrozoan of the suborder milleporina. These corals are photosynthetic and rely on a medium lighting, and you will never see one more colorful than a brownish yellow or green. This coral appears to be a hydrozoan of the suborder stylasterina, which are cryptic, meaning they recieve little to no light, relying on marine snow and plankton for its diet.

General rule of thumb here, if you see a "coral" or gorgonian with that bright red/purple/orange/pink color, 99% of the time, its nonphotosynthetic.

 

[Jamokie01]

Fire coral is a common name for the hydrozoan of the suborder milleporina. These corals are photosynthetic and rely on a medium lighting, and you will never see one more colorful than a brownish yellow or green. This coral appears to be a hydrozoan of the suborder stylasterina, which are cryptic, meaning they recieve little to no light, relying on marine snow and plankton for its diet.

General rule of thumb here, if you see a "coral" or gorgonian with that bright red/purple/orange/pink color, 99% of the time, its nonphotosynthetic.

 

[Jamokie01]

Fire coral is a common name for the hydrozoan of the suborder milleporina. These corals are photosynthetic and rely on a medium lighting, and you will never see one more colorful than a brownish yellow or green. This coral appears to be a hydrozoan of the suborder stylasterina, which are cryptic, meaning they recieve little to no light, relying on marine snow and plankton for its diet.

General rule of thumb here, if you see a "coral" or gorgonian with that bright red/purple/orange/pink color, 99% of the time, its nonphotosynthetic.

 

[Jamokie01]

sorry