Samala
New member
Hi all, glad to see the new soft coral forum up and running. I'm hoping there is enough combined experience pooled here to really give a thorough breakdown for gorgonian husbandry.
To start with, I know there are photo and non-photo types. I'm interested in the photosynthetic species, particularly the Caribbean ones such as those I see referred to commonly as purple fringe or purple stick. If someone would like to school me in gorgonian proper ID and genus names, I welcome the info.
Light?
I have a 20 gallon (long, with lights suspended 11" from the substrate) seagrass tank that creates a lot of zooplankton and some phytoplankton that I'd like to try the gorgs out in. Currently it has 130w of 6700K lighting.. is that going to be enough to support gorgonians? Natural food supplies are likely to help out, but I'm of course willing to target feed.
Feeding?
Do gorgonians, as a group, eat both phyto and zooplankton? Or just zooplankton? Would target feeding cyclopeeze be a good food? What about MarineSnow or other powdered/liquid concoctions?
Placement?
I see many many references to gorgonians becoming cyano magnets, and need strong water movement to discourage this in most tanks. Is this still the general consensus? Also, I'm interested in non-encrusting gorgs, the more free flowing ones.. can they be placed practically anywhere? (I dont have other coral, and dont plan on them.) If the frags are sent loose, attachment with typical frag glue is okay, yes?
Finally.. I got started on this a few weeks back and discovered the aforementioned 'purple stick gorg' collected from the Keys today in a LFS. It had a light coating of cyano, and definitely some tissue necrosis and loss at the tops of the 'branches'. Probably a 1/2 - 1" worth of loss actually. A decent 4" with various branches was still intact, but no polyps were extended. What are the chances for a gorg in such a state? Is it simply a matter of shearing off bad tissue and providing proper conditions (particularly flow) to help the remaining parts to heal?
Any help greatly appreciated.. if there are old threads I should see, or perhaps an article feel free to post some links. Love to hear the softy forum experts weigh in.
Thanks!
>Sarah
To start with, I know there are photo and non-photo types. I'm interested in the photosynthetic species, particularly the Caribbean ones such as those I see referred to commonly as purple fringe or purple stick. If someone would like to school me in gorgonian proper ID and genus names, I welcome the info.
Light?
I have a 20 gallon (long, with lights suspended 11" from the substrate) seagrass tank that creates a lot of zooplankton and some phytoplankton that I'd like to try the gorgs out in. Currently it has 130w of 6700K lighting.. is that going to be enough to support gorgonians? Natural food supplies are likely to help out, but I'm of course willing to target feed.
Feeding?
Do gorgonians, as a group, eat both phyto and zooplankton? Or just zooplankton? Would target feeding cyclopeeze be a good food? What about MarineSnow or other powdered/liquid concoctions?
Placement?
I see many many references to gorgonians becoming cyano magnets, and need strong water movement to discourage this in most tanks. Is this still the general consensus? Also, I'm interested in non-encrusting gorgs, the more free flowing ones.. can they be placed practically anywhere? (I dont have other coral, and dont plan on them.) If the frags are sent loose, attachment with typical frag glue is okay, yes?
Finally.. I got started on this a few weeks back and discovered the aforementioned 'purple stick gorg' collected from the Keys today in a LFS. It had a light coating of cyano, and definitely some tissue necrosis and loss at the tops of the 'branches'. Probably a 1/2 - 1" worth of loss actually. A decent 4" with various branches was still intact, but no polyps were extended. What are the chances for a gorg in such a state? Is it simply a matter of shearing off bad tissue and providing proper conditions (particularly flow) to help the remaining parts to heal?
Any help greatly appreciated.. if there are old threads I should see, or perhaps an article feel free to post some links. Love to hear the softy forum experts weigh in.
Thanks!
>Sarah