Need Help IDing this Gorgonian
- Thread starter edsimmons
- Start date
I think I might need some shades to see it again.
Justin74
New member
Im just messin with you ed, its all in fun 
I think your gonna have to do alot of diggin to find out which specie that is though. I was searchin through google with a few combinations and could NOT find one just like yours at all. The purple ones that are typically in the hobby are are a lavenderish purple with tan to brown polyps, as with most photosynthetic corals you can usually tell by the grey,tan or brown polyps. While non-photo's will be very colorfull or lack thereof, like reds, whites, and apparently a deep purple 
From what Ive gathered you'd be better off cleaning the dead ends off that have a slight algae film, the algae makes it mcuh more difficult to encrust over. I think you'll have a much better chance than the typical hobbyist who isnt running a fuge though, especially how nice of a size yours is, I think you'd be able to support it. Typically though, its a pretty bleak success rate, I know Ive gone through a couple a couple years ago before I convinced myself not to try again, but I have yet to have seen one as vivid purple as yours, quite uncommon in my opinion.
-Justin
I think your gonna have to do alot of diggin to find out which specie that is though. I was searchin through google with a few combinations and could NOT find one just like yours at all. The purple ones that are typically in the hobby are are a lavenderish purple with tan to brown polyps, as with most photosynthetic corals you can usually tell by the grey,tan or brown polyps. While non-photo's will be very colorfull or lack thereof, like reds, whites, and apparently a deep purple From what Ive gathered you'd be better off cleaning the dead ends off that have a slight algae film, the algae makes it mcuh more difficult to encrust over. I think you'll have a much better chance than the typical hobbyist who isnt running a fuge though, especially how nice of a size yours is, I think you'd be able to support it. Typically though, its a pretty bleak success rate, I know Ive gone through a couple a couple years ago before I convinced myself not to try again, but I have yet to have seen one as vivid purple as yours, quite uncommon in my opinion.
-Justin
matttaylor
Jeeper in my free time
you're kinda "happy" about that purple coloring huh Ed. Maybe it's a way to express your inner feelings?
rich_tilbury
Premium Member
Hi Ed
I had one just like that! No name though
Not a good experience sadly, the skeleton is sat on my desk to remind me to think before I buy in future!
I fed it twice daily with a mix of cyclopeze, oyster eggs, phyto and mashed shrimp heads. All seemed to be taken and it was in an area of good flow. Over time the skeleton became bare and eroded until it was all dead. It was in the light, but as has been said above, it is almost definately non-photosynthetic.
Dr Ron Shimek is testing Gorgonia feeding in a laminar flow set up at the moment. He was hypothesizing that gorgonia may spit food out undigested if it is the "wrong type of food" and was going to test this with measured and stainded food samples in and out - that experiment is still ongoing.
Most of the gorgonia live in areas that bring them a lot of zooplankton, so we may be fighting a losing battle since I believe the estimates for available food on a reef are far higher than we can ever provide!
A sad thought, since I find gorgonia more interesting than SPS!
I had one just like that! No name though
Not a good experience sadly, the skeleton is sat on my desk to remind me to think before I buy in future!
I fed it twice daily with a mix of cyclopeze, oyster eggs, phyto and mashed shrimp heads. All seemed to be taken and it was in an area of good flow. Over time the skeleton became bare and eroded until it was all dead. It was in the light, but as has been said above, it is almost definately non-photosynthetic.
Dr Ron Shimek is testing Gorgonia feeding in a laminar flow set up at the moment. He was hypothesizing that gorgonia may spit food out undigested if it is the "wrong type of food" and was going to test this with measured and stainded food samples in and out - that experiment is still ongoing.
Most of the gorgonia live in areas that bring them a lot of zooplankton, so we may be fighting a losing battle since I believe the estimates for available food on a reef are far higher than we can ever provide!
A sad thought, since I find gorgonia more interesting than SPS!
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