NPS Gorgonians

[Sharkey18]

So what is the status of keeping these? A lot of the info I find on line is at least 3 years old. I have a blueberry gorgonian that I am feeding heavily with a lot of different foods. Live phyto, live bbs, etc.

Would love to hear from anyone who has kept any alive and growing for at least a year, or is that not possible yet?

 

[Avengerx77]

Following this thread.

 

[Sharkey18]

Not much to follow!

I am assuming that means that no one is really keeping them successfully. That is really unfortunate for me. Was hoping for some tips. I'm going to keep doing whatever I can.

This morning fed live photo, arctic-pods and frozen cyclops. I should have a new batch of BBS by Friday.

 

[Harald Waltrop]

Hello

I think you mean a Anthogorgia?

I do not know who these gorgonie had long as a half year.

 

[Sharkey18]

Yeah, I think it's Acalycigorgia.

 

[samstersam]

Yeah, I think it's Acalycigorgia.

I'm with you on that.I recently acuired 2 blueberries. one was in bad condition and i fragged healthy branches, and the other was in perfect health with big fat light blue polyps

i will post pictures soon of the frags on a new thread i am documenting. i feed live baby brine shrimp twice a day and reef roids. sometimes more.

the frags have grown more polyps and has started healing damaged tips.
i have pics of the blueberry skin growing over tke skeleton gorgonia.

the healthy specimen has kept its fat polyps. and i see it "pooping" all the time. i see it ingest live baby brineshrimp. i believe you must feed bbs daily, or some alternative meaty food around that micron size range, such as copepods.

Sam

 

[samstersam]

Check out my blog I keep mrbloobloo.blogspot.com

 

[samstersam]

oops. the address is wrong. its actually mrblooboo.blogspot.com

 

[MarineSniper]

The best method for keeping these types alive, long term, is with a constant feeder and live baby brine, as mentioned. I took an old kalk reactor and am repurposing it to "dose" food every 30 minutes. The gorgs are positioned near the returns, with the reactor dosing into the return section of the sump. This way the food will pump directly to them, along with any pods from the fuge that are carried into the returns

They are definitely the most challenging to keep, imo. I have hundreds of terrazoanthids that are also considered "expert only" and they are a cake walk by comparison! Good luck with yours, they are unmatched in their beauty

 

[hypostatic]

@samstersam:

Is your blue gorg still alive?? how is it doing?

 

[miketbh]

I accidentally bought this beauty two weeks ago. After some struggle the best I am getting now isthat it keeps opening and closing repeatedly every 3-4 hours day or night.

May I know the normal the opening and closing cycle of Blueberry Fan? Is it suppose to undergoes 12 hrs cycle ( it isn't reactive to light ) Or is it always open never close? Or should be unpredictable. I hope to get a good reference .

 

[miketbh]

My novice view during my very short 2 week encounter with Blueberry fan.

I notice it is only when its branch 'bark' start to peel off overnight and then the related polyp immediately become inactive. Else before that they look good . I would think if the issue is wrong feeding all the polyps will turn small weak or rot or drop first not like tentacle closing to catch food .

When I purchase mine it was in top condition ie just by looking at it. Only 3 branch at the end branch having lost bark and these were nip away at the start. After two week another 2 unrelated branch bark start to peel off. This tells me the problem is already present before it was added into our tank .

The other day there was a dirt hang on a main stem on my Blueberry Fan . I use my feeding syringe to lightly shoot some water on the dirt to get it off. Immediately the bark below fly off. I did the same to other thick stems where there wasn't any dirt and a few barks fly out too . All the main stemlooks thick ,strong and super healthy . This is telling that although we see tiny outer braches start to rot first but actually every single branch in the entire fan is undergoing the same eroding every minute.. The weaker outer branch due to size just show it first .

Need to grow BlueBerry fan in isolation with live food to try out . All those dead food is too dirty .

 

[AnnasReef]

Even if it sheds it can heal. I have some polyps that I thought I lost that reopened. Are you feeding it multiple times a day? I have a blueberry gorgonian and I am target feeding it twice a day. I would feed it more but my tank won't support the bioload and I get cyno with additional feedings. You can try and see what your tank can support.

Also try to coax it open with food if it isn't opening. Put some food in the water and do it again in 5-10 min and the polyps should start to open. If you feed at the same time it will be open when you come to feed. Mine likes its schedule.

Do you have good water flow?

I think the key may also be if you have a larger sump than your display tank to support auto feeding throughout the day. I am also going to try and feed a little less on each feeding and feed more times. What are your tank parameters? You need to have everything spot on to try to give it a chance.

I am a little past 11 weeks. I lost a few polyps at week 9 and had some shedding that happened a couple of times in the last couple of weeks but it appears to be healing. Last week I lost a few more polyps, but I had been cultivating live phyto and was able to feed it. I don't know if the healing is from the live phyto or a coincidence but I am hopeful. I have found that I can't feed very much of the live food because it causes algae in the tank.

When you see it open target feed it a little. I have a 58g dt with a 20g sump and skimmer running gfo and carbon. I have a mixed tank and 5 fish. I am able to feed 1/4 tsp of reef nutrition phyto and oyster feast twice a day. I mix it with about 2oz of tank water and target feed. Depending on your tank would determine how much you can feed without unbalancing everything. If you have another tank you can isolate it in that would probably be easier but isn't always possible depending on what you have.

There is lots of information out there if you google for it.

More information on this thread scroll down Marcus Nitzsche, he kept one alive 2.5 years

From what I have read it may be more typical for them not to last more than 3 months and there are a few who have kept them alive for 6 months. If I would have known this when I got mine, I would have left it at the fish store and it saddens me that they bring them in knowing they have very low chances of survival.

Hope this helps

 

[miketbh]

Seems like the bark eroding on thick stem I mentioned earlier is getting better after 3 days. If you notice some blue coating over the damage part you are right , indeed there are some blue stuff appearing .

The bark peel damage of small branch are bad .

May lord bless my BB fan ! :uzi:

 

[miketbh]

The bark erosion at the main stem has completely repaired itself. Even thickness is same now.

For the small branch bark loss, both end of eroding branch are ring over by the blue substance. There is still 12 polyps hanging at the end. I am target feeding those 12 polyps massively they are catching food too. I have other similar cases. Its inner branch have turn to light brown from white from transparent. But currently the eroded branch remains as thin like at the start of bark loss.

Seem like BB fans are also trying their best to survive in captivity too.

I compare the picture taken 2.5 week ago. There are estimated 3% polyps loss out of 2000 polyps. Actual degrade should be lower as I had 'shoot' some of the bark off with syringe. There is no growth spotted which is a big problem. If based on 3% loss, after one year only 600 polyp will remain. :debi:

 

[miketbh]

Hi, thanks for all the views. I have read up a lot of opinions on BB fan on the net in the past 2 week.

I feed them with cyclopee ( reefer's most recommended pick). BB fan are smarter then it looks. Yesterday when i reacged home only 5% polys was open. After i start feed my fish the BB fan start to open and are almost fully up opens up in 40 min. ie waiting. A week ago when feeding pattern anew and not synch it was opening and closing day and night sometime repeatedly sometime incoherently .

I see 24 hrs continuous feed as superior but i personally think not needed. Else lots of dedicated reefers will be successful by now. We are still clueless why BB fans finally wintered away and die. I hope to see this myself which is only a short 6 months .
The current guess is the rate of decay is greater then the rate of growth plus rate of recovery .

I like to if anyone ever saw new polyps regrow back on recovered branch. It would be another setback if it cant. This is am waiting to see.

 

[miketbh]

Attached is pic showing the shrinking and finally disappearing of BB polyps at 0 ,2.5 ,3.5 weeks.



It is happening to about 15% polys. This is not the shrinking of all polyps. Notice in the picture shrinking does not apply to below 3 polyps. I also used to have 3 extra body long polyps, now i have around 8 extra long polyps.

I personally don't think it's about the feeding regime. But guess it's like shedding of branch tissue, it is 'regrowing ' itself in a new captive environment which may take 6 month to a year which it have never won before.

For those who got a it new. The secret to see a healthy 1st month is to do perform lots of feeding within the first two day. Don't allow the polyps to close. They may not have eaten for weeks are always closing to conserve energy. Actively and aggressively wake the BB fan by changing of wave/current around it . 15 minute is all it need to see them starting to react . Hammer them with lots of tiny food . Once few feeding is done they automatically become reactive to food just like other animals. Finally, do let us know if you discovered the magic to enhance growth.

The end .

 

[SantaMonica]

Interesting concept, about this or any NPS not following a 24 hour cycle because they don't see the sun. Maybe there is a hidden cycle that they respond to.