Reviving a Yellow Gorgonia

[herring_fish]

I have had a yellow gorgonia with white polyps for several months. When I got it the polyps were out of course but I was doing very heavy feeding so in a couple of weeks, they really blossomed.

Then I abruptly stopped feeding the tank and the polyps stopped coming out. After about 4 or 5 months, I restarted the feeding but have only had a feeding response a couple of times and it was only three or four really short extensions of polyps.

I understand that the coral may be too close to death to respond but what can I do to coax those polyps out?

 

[owlbassboy]

what foods are you using?

 

[herring_fish]

I have been using several custom powders and one liquid that were put together for me. All that I can say is that they work quite will while I was using them so that the polyps extended like the best picture that you see in successful non-photosynthetic tanks. Over a few weeks, they got far getter than when it first came in.

I am not limited to what I have. I can buy more standard stuff but I just want to get it feeding again.

 

[uhuru]

Do you know the name of the gorgonian? Can you show us a pic? If it is Diodogorgia nodulifera (yellow finger gorgonian) you can try by putting it in VERY strong flow and blowing frozen cyclopeeze mixed with PE Mysis juice by it. It might help to initially turn off all pumps and just make a cloud of cyclopeeze/mysis juice (the same way you would try to get starving tubastrea to open). Then a few minutes later turn on circulation pumps only. Finally turn your return pump back on when you are ready to filter out the food. You might have to do this a few times a day for several days or even weeks. Be sure to keep up with water quality during this time and keep the tissue free of algae and detritus. Until the tissue is sloughed off down to the skeleton there is still hope IMO. Best of luck.

 

[herring_fish]

This is not a picture to my gorgonia but it is the kind that I have.


My Yellow Gorgonia is responding to the feeding very slowly. It is sending out particular polyps but only a few more per week. The ones that do come out are fully extended.

There is a side of the branches that are covered with something that is grey and dusty. I think that it is detritus. It's not algae. The other side gets cleaned by the smaller snails.

Should I gently wipe of the branches that are covered?

 

[uhuru]

That is how it is when they shut down. You have to be patient sounds like you are on the right track. The branches should be cleaned. I get as much as I can by blowing a turkey baster at it. The stubborn spots I just use my fingers to gently loosen it and then blow at it again with the baster. I find that if the flow is strong enough they almost never need cleaning, but it is very difficult to achieve that amount of flow throughout the tank without irritating other corals or blowing sand around. These are definitely very high flow loving corals though.

 

[herring_fish]

I have it at the top of the rock and in the back of the tank. This allows my Yellow and Blue Barry to get a strong flow without disturbing the other corals and fish.

I put the flow almost directly on it but didn't want it to be too strong. Should the flow buffet and bend the branches. I really don't know the right balance.

Does anyone know of any video that show how much flow this thing should optimally get?

uluru You may remember the thread that I started that dealt with flow. I got some great information including from you but I would like to see what I should be doing.

 

[uhuru]

I have 4 of these gorgs (2 of them are the red variety), and 1 is within an inch from a vortech. This one stays the cleanest and polyps stay open the most. The flow is stronger than most corals would be able to tolerate, including SPS. The other 3 need to be cleaned every 1 - 2 weeks. All of my gorgs go through periods of closing up for days to weeks. During this time they do a lot of shedding. The one that is in the most direct flow closes up the least often, and when it does, tends to stay closed for the shortest amount of time.

Here is a video to show you how much flow is optimal. Look at the yellow gorg closest to the vortech. You can also see one of the red ones that is completely closed up. It had been closed for about 2 weeks and has just started opening up again, a few polyps at a time. It never worries me anymore because I've seen them all do it and bounce back just fine. Normally these guys stay open almost 24/7 in my tank.

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[Western_reefer]

Wow, that is some pretty crazy flow!!

 

[uhuru]

It's on long pulse mode, so it is strong for 1 minute, then gentle for 1 minute, and so on...

 

[Western_reefer]

It's on long pulse mode, so it is strong for 1 minute, then gentle for 1 minute, and so on...

Oh, ok.

 

[herring_fish]

Youtube is blocked here at work. I will have to hang on until I get home to see it but thanks. I can hardly wait!

 

[uhuru]

its pretty poor quality because I don't have a real video camera or dslr capable of capturing video

 

[herring_fish]

Assume I had no idea that I should be using that much water motion. Thanks
How big do those dendros get?

 

[thebanker]

Wow. After seeing this, i'm going to put my gorg in a higher flow area. It gets all hairy with algae and cyano where it is now.

 

[uhuru]

Assume I had no idea that I should be using that much water motion. Thanks
How big do those dendros get?

You mean the rhizos? They are extremely slow growers. I imagine they get huge but not anytime soon. Dendrophyllia grow much faster but they don't get as big (usually - I'm sure there are exceptions). They usually sprout new heads so the colony gets bigger more than the individual polyp. Rhizos on the other hand are solitary.

 

[herring_fish]

Ok Rhizos. So there are Dendrophyllia and Rhizotrochus? How are they different cosmetically, color, shape, etc? They look very similar on google.

I have no feeling for their size because most pictures are close-ups. Are they all the size of sun coral polyps or do they come bigger? What are the biggest ones that you have seen in someone's tank or at the store?

I used to only know about Dendronephthya, a whole n'other animal.

 

[uhuru]

Rhizos tend to have different colors than dendros, and their outer skeleton doesn't get covered with tissue like you see with dendros. My rhizos skeletons are covered in sponges, small feather dusters and what appear to be tiny hydrocorals. Rhizos can get big enough to engulf whole silversides and other fishes of similar size. It would be very dangerous to keep them with seahorses for example. I can only explain the difference based on my observations in tanks. I'm sure someone else could give a more detailed description of the differences.

OT: I find the hydrocorals to be extremely delicate and just moving the rhizo or exposing it to more light kills most of them off.

 

[herring_fish]

So about 4"?

 

[uhuru]

Yes some of them can definitely be 4". Some can be 8". Depends how old they are. Not sure if there is a limit but we probably haven't seen it in captivity. You want one now don't you? I think phishy business got some in you might wanna give them a call and I think austin (stunreefer) had some really fat and happy ones for sale at one point.