What type of coral

[Washburn82]

hey everyone. New to the site, great site btw. New to the hobby as well had my tank for about 4 months now. Just curious if anyone knew the name of this coral. LFS said it was a very easy one to take care of but i forgot the name. thanks

 

[little_fish]

That is a gorgonian, which normally is a very easy coral to keep. Have you seen it put its polyps out?

 

[Washburn82]

Thanks little_fish i have seen it put its little white polyps out. Thanks very much for the name it will help with my care for it. :)

 

[NanoReefer]

they are filter feeders i believe, good for you if it opens up

 

[little_fish]

If it has white polyps that come out at night, you might be in trouble. It might not be a photosynthetic variety. The non-photosynthetic gorgs can be extremely hard to keep because they need to be feed 2-3 times per week at night when the polyps come out, and the majority of the polyps need to get some food. In small, young tanks, it can wreak havoc on your water quality trying to keep up with it.

The photosynthetic variety, on the other hand, is very easy to keep, but often times LFS will sell this coral with little disregard to what variety it is.

 

[Washburn82]

Ive only seen the little white polyps come out when the light is on. Never all of them at once but quite a few. At night they are all closed every time ive looked. Maybe i lucked out.

 

[little_fish]

ya, it concerns me that they are white though, all the non-photosynthetic varieties i have ever seen have white polyps.

 

[Washburn82]

uh-oh. What colour are the photosynthetic polyps?

 

[Washburn82]

on closer inspection. (my tank is in night mode atm) there are a few polyps open right now. They do appear to be white. I have blue leds that come on at night.

 

[little_fish]

generally, they are the same color as the rest of the coral, so the polyps are normally a light brown.

I would try feeding the polyps very tiny chunks of some frozen food, like chopped mysid

 

[Washburn82]

thanks for the advice. I actually have some frozen mysid. I will try tomorrow morning. I dont wanna disturb the tank atm. Im assuming a syringe or turkey baister would be best for target feeding. Although it is in the main current. Alot of the mysid and flakes i put it fly right by it. Hopefully it has grabbed some along the way. I read they sometimes tend to eat flake food as well.

 

[bjohanson1234]

you can always turn off the pumps while you feed to give it a better chance of catching food.

 

[little_fish]

ya, i would try to target feed with a turkey baster. They cant take up large pieces so keep that in mind when trying to feed it.

 

[Washburn82]

Will do. I'll let you know how it goes in the a.m. :) p.s like your quote. i dig nofx

 

[Washburn82]

So i target fed my red finger gorgonian and devils hand with some chopped mysid and brine and flake all mixed up in a tastey slurry. I turned off the pump to reduce flow. It spread around and more polyps came out nothing seemed to stick to the polyps that i could visually see. For fear of polluting my water i laid off. Ill try again in a bit after my pump runs for awhile. On the other hand my devil's hand immediatley became all bumpy (not sure what it is actually called) when i fed it. Im assuming thats a good sign. My fish and shrimp and crabs looked like they were all over the remainder.

 

[little_fish]

But is is a good sign that you got a feeding response

 

[Washburn82]

As the day progressed on more and more polyps emerged. Will target feed again soon. Thanks for your help little_fish.

 

[Washburn82]

Polyps everywhere while feeding.

 

[Dashtrash400]

Here is a picture of mine. Ive had it for about a month and it has pretty much looked like the picture since I put it in except for a couple times a day when it polyps are retracted. I feed it maybe a few times a week but for the most part rely on my tank to feed it or leftovers from frozen I feed my fish. Sorry for the quality it was taken with a cell phone.

Mike

 

[Washburn82]

Wow thats pretty sweet. Makes mine look like a twig. Thanks for the feeding info i noticed its polyps are out even when its not feeding time so i guess they do feed off of leftovers. I hear they are super easy to frag as well. Kind of like cloning a plant.