Sea fan

[SDguy]

I have a couple observations to add. First, are you sure it was the tissue that sloughed off? Gorgonians sometimes "shed" a layer of tissue/mucus, especially if there is something irritating them (water parameters, algae growth). I have yet to see it happen with this species, but some of my other gorgs, especially my purple ribbon (Pterogorgia sp) do it quite noticably.

Second, if in fact you did have some tissue die off, IME, gorgonians reclaim skeleton EXTREMELY quickly with living tissue, much faster than actual new growth. Again, I've personally seen a gorg reclaim many inches of exposed skeleton in a matter of days/weeks.

Hope this info helps.

BTW, mine is doing great. It has grown two new mini fans on the right in that empty area you see in the pic.

 

[RobTheReefer]

SDguy,

It may have been just mucus, but the skeleton looked completely different afterwards. Who knows.

If you ever get a chance to snap a new pic, I'd love to see the new baby seafans.

 

[SDguy]

Here's a pic I snapped this morning:

 

[RobTheReefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10331675#post10331675 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Here's a pic I snapped this morning:

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing.

I still don't think mine is going to make it. One day it looks perfectly fine and the next day it looks like it's going to expire any minute. Oh well.

 

[SDguy]

Hmm, that's too bad. Do you have any other gorgs? How are they? I've always heard these fan types are a bit more tricky. I was pretty hesitant to order this one even, but I figured an aquacultured one would be my best bet, so I tried it.

Hey, I just noticed between my two pics...those acros are going nuts

 

[Old Yeller Tang]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9752164#post9752164 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dfs/la2
The photosynthetic Gorgonians require moderate to high light and will benefit from the addition of iodine, calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water. They also should be fed a few times a week with a filter feeding food. Provide a varied diet of live or frozen baby brine shrimp, Marine Snow, PhytoPlan and other suitable micro foods. These Gorgonians are classified as semi-aggressive.


Pat S.
LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

Curious as to why they would be considered semi-aggressive? TIA

 

[dfs/la2]

Old Yeller Tang,

Thank you for your inquiry. There are some Gorgonians that have both structural (calcitic sclerites) and chemical defenses (secondary metabolites, acidity). Certain Gorgonians are labeled as semi-aggressive due to these defenses.

Gwen S.
LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

 

[SDguy]

I have a couple questions about my seafan. It is doing very well.

1. How do these grow, with respect to physical shape? I know it is a cultured specimen. Do you have pictures of the original, larger colonies? Mine seems to be sprouting and growing on multuiple parallel planes, not just more of the same original flat colony.

2. Mine has grown a bright purple encusting mat over the entire plug. Now I'm seeing polyps popping up out of the purple mat. Will these also grow into new flat colonies?

Basically, I was expecting more of a seafan, not a seabush, as it were

Thanks for any insight/pics/info you can provide.

 

[dfs/la2]

SDguy,

Thank you for your great questions. We are currently checking into your inquiries and will get back to you as soon as we have answers available. Thank you very much for your patience.

Chris C.
Live Aquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

 

[SDguy]

No problem. Thanks

 

[dfs/la2]

SDguy,

Thank you for your patience. We apologize as we do not have photos of our original colony available. At our facility here in Rhinelander, we are repropogating the sea fans into multiple generation frags , thus we no longer have broodstock . The frags we grow in house encrust similar to a Acropora, they then begin to grow finger like appendages from the main part of the flat fan. The polyps emerging from the encrusting mat develop branchlets as well as joining with the main fan as it continues to grow.

Sea Fans that grow in the wild actually grow into a large flat fan, due to strong ocean currents. Fans kept with less than a strong water current, may begin to show a more bushy appearance. We hope you find this information helpful.


Barb T
LiveAquaria
Drs Foster and Smith

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10791074#post10791074 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dfs/la2
At our facility here in Rhinelander, we are repropogating the sea fans into multiple generation frags , thus we no longer have broodstock .

Hi Barb, thanks for the info. Could you elaborate on the above statement. I'm not sure I know exactly what that means

Last question...doi you know the species name of this particular seafan?

Thanks.

 

[dfs/la2]

SDguy,

The species name of this Sea Fan is Gorgonia Ventalina. What we mean by repropogating the Sea Fans is that we are fragmenting our frags, creating multiple generations.


Barb T
LiveAquaria
Drs Foster and Smith

 

[SDguy]

Thanks Barb!

 

[seafanreeefer]

I purchased a frag of this species from liveaquaria roughly a year ago. It has tripled in size since mounting it in my tank. I have it mounted roughly 2 feet in front of Tunze Wavebox where it literally gets battered by waves. I never directly feed any of my corals, but when feeding the fish I do so directly in front of the wavebox so quite a bit of food is pushed throughout the tank and especially my sea fan.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10916188#post10916188 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seafanreeefer
I purchased a frag of this species from liveaquaria roughly a year ago. It has tripled in size since mounting it in my tank. I have it mounted roughly 2 feet in front of Tunze Wavebox where it literally gets battered by waves. I never directly feed any of my corals, but when feeding the fish I do so directly in front of the wavebox so quite a bit of food is pushed throughout the tank and especially my sea fan.

Has yours grown in one single flat plane?

 

[seafanreeefer]

Yes, a single flat plane. But again it is mounted directly in front of the wavebox so it gets nailed by a back and forth wave motion 24/7. It is really just about as close as you can get to it's natural environment.

 

[KUDA]

seafanreefer, do you have any pictures?

 

[seafanreeefer]

Yeah, having problems posting. Need to compress files.

 

[SDguy]

Thought I would update. While the seafan is growing well (tripled in size at least by now) it has continued to grow in random planes, not just one. Oh well, still very neat!