GSP? Briarium? Encrusting gorgonian?

[xthunt]

Since starting the tank, I wanted gsp. Long flowing neon green grass? Fast growing? Keep it isolated? Yes, please!

 

One of the first frags I bought months ago was about an inch square. Had a deep dark purple mat. The polyps had the white centers, neon green 'fingers', but they never got long and flowey. The polyps seemed sort of rigid. In the few months Ive had it, only grew maybe an inch. Was very picky about light, even on the sandbed. If I had the brightness a tad high (for it) it would fully retract, and wouldn't come out until the moonlight came on. Also, if it heard you fart from across the room, it would retract leaving nothing but a shiny bumpy purple mat. 

 

I gave up on that one, and thought maybe I got a bad strain or something. 

 

Saw an ad for gsp locally, and thought I'd try that one out. Guy said it grows very fast. Perfect. Got a 2" square of it. Looked like new growth that he took off the glass.   The top of the mat on this stuff (in daylight) is a light tan with maybe a faintness of purple, very thin like construction paper, and the bottom side where attaches is purple. Even when the polyps are retracted, theres still a 'nub' sticking out. Also, the nubs seem to grow angled in a direction. I attached it to the rock, and the next day this stuff is out like it owns the place. The fingers are long, maybe 1/2-3/4", a darker metalic green edged with black (this may change under my light or as it ages?), and flows very loosely. I walk by and it just tosses its thick hair thats now engulfed the mat hiding it. I crank up the flow, and it tosses its hair even more asking me "is that all you got?"    

 

So I get curious, and look up why the two were so different. What I found is that there's encrusting gorg and briarium that's commonly incorrectly called gsp and sold as gsp, and even vice versa. Of course, information is contradictory on each site. But reading what I could, it seems like what I originally had was, in fact, GSP. What I have now, is either briarium or encrusting gorg. 

 

So when people on forums describe gsp as fast growing, long, loves flow...is that experience because they actually had briarium/gorg? Because the actual GSP I had originally was none of those things. What type do you have?

 

sorry for long post.