gargonia

[printerdown01]

I used to feed my non-photo. gorgonians frozen baby brine... Did someone find out that it is much bettere to feed them rotifers and liquid foods, or what... cause it seems like this is what everyone is doing now... What do you guys think?

[Dave ESPI]

yes.

 

I also feed them a puree of fresh sea foods I freeze in lill cubes ( from the frozen foods ya buy at LFS) and thaw them and feed with a turkey baster.. it works great.

[printerdown01]

So it is better to feed them liquid and rotifers than baby brine? Do you know why, just for curiosity's sake?

[Dave ESPI]

Baby Brine ( though higher in nutrition thatn adults) are a poor source of long term nutrition. there are other esential protiends and minerals and what not that the gorgonians need that brine and the likes can not possibly provide. as with anything.... a varied diet is best.

[printerdown01]

LOL, I would always vary the diet of everything in my tank... I just used to use a mashed up fish food... -Guess nothing has really changed then, sounds like people food of choice has just changed. Thanks for all of the replies, dave!

[flaunt]

i feed my gorgonian freshly hatched baby brine, but just before feeding (an hour or two) i'll put a bit of dt's phytoplankton into the brine shrimp water for them to get in their digestive system. so the gorgonian eats the brine shrimp and the dt's indirectly. of course i think the gorgonian also eats the dt's directly so it might not be a big deal to do this. the baby brine need to be hatched for about 6 hours before feeding them dt's because they live off their yolk sac for that long before filtering food from the water.

[Jefe12234]

If you feed the BBS right after hatching, then the coral gets the added nutrition of the yolk sack. So which is more nutritional, the yolk sack or the DT's?

 

BTW, what non-photosynthetic gorgonians are you guys keeping? I had a Diodogorgia (yellow w/ red calyces and white polyps) for a while. It was doing great and appeared to eagerly grab and consume the blended seafood mix which I fed quite heavily. Then one day it stayed closed even when fed. It never opened again and I had to throw it out when it began to decompose. All other corals in the tank have done fine.

 

-Chris

[printerdown01]

I honestly don't know what type of gorgonia I have, lol. It was a small frag of the bottom of an LFS's tank. It is way to small to identify. It is red, and has white/pink polyps (once they get bigger I will be able to tell what color). It readily accepts food (i just take my fish cubes and swish them around in a cup until it gets cloudy), it also happily accepts DT's. As a thought if your gorgonia closes up, it might not have enough water movement (it needs to shed it's waxy coating...). This can easily be solved: Shake the gorgonia, or hit it with a PH for a few minutes . -This might help next time.

[kimura]

I just got a red gorgonian last week for Jeff's Exotics. I have it in front of a PH the entire time. It looks as if that slime coat is constanly shedding.

[tinyreef]

i'd advise against a constant blast from a PH. i think printer was saying it for more of an occasional maintenance procedure. gorgonians are usually planktonic feeders though so they will require some movement. i think there's a couple of photosynthetics but i also thought there's some dispute as to whether they're gorgonians at all.

 

most corals should be downwind imo. corals shouldn't have to work against the wave or pump flow. acros and other reef crest inhabitants being the exceptions, they being ideally suited for such turbulent areas and water movement.

 

the flow brings food and respiration for the animals. too heavy a flow and excess mucus would need to be produced stressing the animal. there are exceptions where some people blast xenia and such with PH's but most that i have personally seen were intermitent (wave makers).

[kimura]

Thanks Tinyreef, I'll be moving it over today. I have a powersweep on order, so that should help out. I should have order two of them since they're on sale at Drsfostersmith. But thanks.

[kimura]

Well I did get the powersweep and placed the gorgonian far enough from the it to get some current. Now it seems to be pretty happy to where the polyps are always out. Everytime it's out I feel as if it wants to be feed. But don't worry, I feed it 3x a week w/ plankton.