gorgonian question

scuba guy ron

scuba guy ron

New member
On saturday I went diving offshore in clearwater, fl (Tampa Bay area). floating in the middle of the water column about 5ft above the reef was a 12" by 5" piece of a kind of purple gorgonian so i grabbed it, put it in the live well and placed it in my tank. It is purple with 4 thin rounded fingers pointing upward. It does not look like the flat kind nor like the ones that grow in a feather pattern. It has 4 rods growing up from about 3" from the base and extends its brite white polyps off and on all day. It is also a type that sheds as some parts have shed as they are known to do 2-3 times per month to rid of algae. The question I have is I believe it to be a photosynthetic type(hopefully) but does anyone know exactly which. Any assistance will be appreciated with regard to its ID as It seems to be very happy in its current conditions. I feed the tank flake and about an hour later all polyps are extended so I've been feeding a tsp of oyster eggs 2x per week.

Thx!
 
Sounds like a purple sea rod. Very common in Florida and they do well in an aquarium. I have a couple of purples, silver abd I am not sure what color sea rods, All are doing well. I also believe they are phtosythetic but they like to eat also.
 
Is it common for some of the polyps to extend off and on all day? One hour it seems the whole thing is in bloom then only part then the whole thing off and on all day. I do see them almost everytime I dive. You are rite, they are very common. Do the polyps need to be extended for the photocynthesis to occur?
 
The gorgonian I have in question grows just like Pterogorgia citrina but has rounded rods like Pseudopterygorgia bipinnata. I have searched far and wide for any helpful info on keeping this sea rod to no avail. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Can you post a photo of the gorg in question? White polyps often, but not always, mean non-phytosynthetic. Borneman's book has a decent amount of info on gorgs, and reference to another book for additional info, but in general there isn't that much written on them.
 
PICT0005-1.jpg
 
This is some of the info from Borneman (this info starts on p. 154):
those containing zooxanthellae typically have brownish-colored polyps while those w/out typically have white or brightly colored polyps; seem to respond most strongly to light from 350-500 nm; although many are noted to capture and ingest baby brine shrimp they are frequently not digested in several species and are later expelled. It is fairly well established that gorgonians feed heavily on particulate matter. In general, they are less tolerant than stony corals to high temps and elevated salinity. Many shed a waxy surface layer.

Out of the pages of references in Borneman's book, I have two marked more than others, and the one, Fossa & Nilsen's The modern Coral Reef Aquarium, volume 2 (1998) is the one that I believed was one of the references for the gorgonian section (I'm not sure why anymore.)

I think your gorg could very well be photosynthetic.
 
the funny thing is that the article sttd they are less tolerant to high temps as well as elevated salinity since the water temp here gets over 90 and the salinity in the gulf of mexico is off the charts where I collected it from. I have seen this same species while diving in the caribbean where conditions more closely match the home reef. Here is a closeup of the polyps.
 
doesnt bipinnata grow in a feather like pattern? If it does then this is not it. This gorg grows in individual rods as you can see in the first pic i posted.
 
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