Gorgonian exposed to air

[daudelus]

Is there any problem with exposing a gorgonian to air?

 

[PSam]

Yes, avoid it if at all possible.

 

[daudelus]

Should I avoid long term exposure or just any exposure period. I ask because I am having no luck attaching my gorgonian to a rock with putty and I feel like I need to bring it out and superglue it. I've tried burying the base in the sand, and it inevitably rolls over due to flow or an urchin picking it up and carrying off..

 

[stunreefer]

Grab it by the base, hold it upside-down in your tank, just barely bringing the base out of the water, apply epoxy/super-glue, attach rock, then place back in the tank.

You should only have to bring out the base a half-inch at most :thumbsup:

 

[daudelus]

Thanks a lot! I had never thought of doing it that way at all!

 

[seafansar]

Why couldn't a gorgonia be kept out of the water? Are non-photosynthetic ones that much different then photosynthetic ones? I ask cause I found a corky finger gorgonia on the beach that looked like it had been out of the water for a number of hours (washed ashore during high tide and it was low tide at that point), and it was just fine. Still have it today healthy as can be. Are sea whips and sea fans different?

 

[ReneX]

I too am not too sure why this is. I've exposed several species of gorgonians to air for quite a while with no problems. Has anyone had a problem with a gorgonian after exposing it to air? I wonder if gorgonians and sponges didn't get confused somewhere along the way.

 

[seafansar]

Yeah I was thinking maybe there was a mixup between them and sponges too.

 

[dendro982]

Also no problem with exposing gorgonians to the air.
More of this, I got few diodogorgias on sale because they were exposed to air during shipping, but were not dry. Fragging gorgonians is done outside the water.

 

[daudelus]

Well, I know a sponge from a gorgonian, but for some reason my first instinct was to not let it be exposed to air. I think more because deep water species would not be exposed to air naturally...
I appreciate everyone's input! Thanks!

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

When I transport gorgs (zoo and azoox)from one tank to another, even all through town, I just dump them in a bag without water, never had any issues as long as they don't dry out. I just wouldn't let them sit dry right below a MH.