Red finger gorgonian issues

[jmowbray]

I recently purchased a RFG on December 26th. It was in a moderately flow tank with some sun corals and other NPS. I currently have a sun coral that has around 8-9 heads and I have no issues with it growing.I see it was open with white polyps when purchased so I know it's alive. Since I have had it in my tank it has never opened or shown polyp extension at all. It is placed in a location that gets moderate flow coming right down out of the HOB filter and UV sterilizer. It's kind of in the light but in the most dimly lit part of the tank. I know I really have to work on getting the sun coral to come out. Is there anything I can to to coax it open?I really have never had them but I figured it would be fine as I have my sun as well as a couple yellow sponges that were on some LR and are showing increased size. I see that it in shrinking down to the internal skeleton at the base end

 

[teemee]

I would try moving it, first of all, and see if you get a response somewhere else in the tank.
Are you broadcast feeding at all?

 

[jmowbray]

I actually have one that had two sticks. Each are in a different location, neither are open. I use reef chilli in the whole tank every three days.

 

[skidoctor]

It sounds more like a parameter issue- either fluctuations in chemistry or temperature. My gorg did the same thing when these were bouncing around. It has grown back over the skeleton and grown significantly since everything has stabilized.

 

[jmowbray]

I really don't have that many fluctuations. Water is topped off automatically so no salinity fluctuations. Ca, Mg and alk all stay pretty steady as the corals I have hardly suck anything up. and Temp is fairly constant. I looked in there a hour ago and one individual polyp was open, that's it. I wetted up some reef chilli and targetted it. It has since already closed. Do they close up when they are done eating or should they remain open all the time?

 

[skidoctor]

Mine do open and close throughout the day. And I definitely overfeed on a daily basis via broadcast. I would try moving it to a lower flow area for a while to see if it recovers. I've never dipped anything, that might be an option but I'd get more opinions. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[teemee]

imho gorgonians need to be fed more often than once every 3 days. I feed mine 2-3 times a day. If you're worried about bioload, pick up a julian's thingy to spot feed.

 

[jmowbray]

So apparently all I have to do is open a topic and post on here and it fixes itself. Today I dosed live BBS freshly hatched. In which case I would say about 6 polyps on each stick opened fully. I know it's not the whole thing but it's a start.

 

[nicewicz]

The one I have will close up maybe once every month or two for more than a few days. Then it will suddenly open back up, sometimes just a few polyps at a time. When you do see those polyps open, feed, feed, feed! When it's in a persistently closed state like that and just a few polyps open, I come back every 15-30 min to see if more have opened and feed those. Eventually doing that will cause them all to open up.

I feed mine a mix of cyclopeeze, ultra sea fan, ultra min F and reef pearls 3x per day by spot feeding. It stays open pretty much 24/7 unless a critter like a crab grabs onto it.

 

[jmowbray]

Here is a shot of it. Today there were more open and I feed them again.



Are newly hatched brine shrimp to large for them?

 

[skidoctor]

Getting there. same thing happened to me with my clowns and nem. They'd never go near it, until I posted. Now they won't leave. Congrats, and keep feeding them.

 

[Epicreefer]

I've got a tank with yellow and red non photo gorgonians in it for about a year. The tank is broadcast fed twice daily with gell foods, two cubes mysis and two cyclopeeze for the fish, shouldn't be enough for the coral to survive in a 400g tank. But both are fully extended and happy, I think its the biopellets on the tank, constantly releasing bacteria into the water column that has some impact on their survival. Bbs should be small enough.

 

[jmowbray]

Ok I currently feed freshly hatched but frozen bbs. I also put a small chunk of cyclops in a motor and grind fine into a powder with the bbs. Then add a little water to liquefy the mixture. Suck into the turkey baster and put in the general area of the two. All the polyps close am open and close again. I'm guessing that they are feeding well.

 

[jmowbray]

So everything is going great. And I can officially say that it is eating for 100% certainty. The polyps are indeed white but the stalk is actually clear. I feed bbs in the morning and a ground powder of cyclops at night. You can actually see the stalk fill over time with the orange cyclops powder.

 

[noy]

i find you will get a very good response with frozen cyclopeez. if you use the dried stuff i don't think you need to grind it up BUT - the dried cyclopeez floats to the top and doesn't stay suspended very well in water.

I'm not sure if fresh hatch brine nauplii is the best idea. Keep an eye on it because while the polyps will do the initial capture - they will wiggle free quite often.

I have an old thread of feeding responses to various food by Diodogorgia nodulifera.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2305738