Help! what is eating my yellow gorgonian

[izumi5188]

Hello,
Every couple of days I notices a decent chunk of my the yellow on my gorgonian is nothing more then the red stick. The white polyps are still opening .

I'm assuming something is eating it right? I lost a chunk of Star Polyps, that I no longer wanted, as well.

Fish include:
2 clowns
1 yellow assessor
1 salfin blennie

an emerald crab, scarlet crab and blue footed crab.

And a collection of various snails. Turbos, bubble bees, nassarius(?)

Open to suggestions and thoughts.

 

[mgraf]

I'd say it is slowly dying. Just my .02. You have to be able to supply them with enough food without putting your tank.

 

[laga77]

They should be spot fed almost every day.

 

[noy]

Hello,
Every couple of days I notices a decent chunk of my the yellow on my gorgonian is nothing more then the red stick. The white polyps are still opening .

I'm assuming something is eating it right? I lost a chunk of Star Polyps, that I no longer wanted, as well.

Fish include:
2 clowns
1 yellow assessor
1 salfin blennie

an emerald crab, scarlet crab and blue footed crab.

And a collection of various snails. Turbos, bubble bees, nassarius(?)

Open to suggestions and thoughts.

Not sure which sailfin blenny you have (black/Atrosalarias fuscus or lawnmower/Salarias fasciatus). I find the salarias will bite at gorgs to get at the algae that may have grown on it. They have fairly sharp teeth so it may damage your gorg. Can't really help it- that's what they do. You can minimize it by occasionally running your fingers through the gorg to remove any algae that's grown over. Try to do this when the polyps are retracted.

Generally if your coral is malnourished you will see lack of polyp extension, the branches will get thinner and you will see tissue death/necrosis - looks like a dried out branch.

Post some pix to be sure.

 

[noy]

They should be spot fed almost every day.

if its diodogorgia - feed it 3x a day minimum.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

if its diodogorgia - feed it 3x a day minimum.

First, I have learned so much from you, and I always appreciate your replies, but I will say that you can have success keeping diodogorgia alive and growing with 1x a day feedings, even occasionally skipping a day. I did have a couple of inches of growth in my 9 gallon with that regime before I have a very invasive sponge growth and the tank suffered dramatically.

However, I would feed once a day at BARE minimum