coral of the week { pterogorgia sp. } sea whip

[shred5]

Week #19 coral of the week {pterogorgia sp. } common name sea whip. This coral is pictured on page 204 of the book the Corals a quick reference guide by Julian Sprung or you can find it on page 172 of aquarium corals by Eric Borneman.

Every week I will post a new coral and I want you to post everything you know about this particular coral. Everything from common names, how hardy they are, water temp, water flow, lighting, water parameters, fraging, spawning, related corals, scientific names, feeding, best ways to ship, etc. Post your pictures for identification. Please tell us about your system so others can duplicate your success. Also email me for request on which corals you would like to see in this section.

Dave

[shred5]

I am bring this one back up. Some one has to have one of these. They are branching with flat branches that have polyps along the ridges. They are ussually purple but brown and grey ones do exist. They like strong current and illumination. Propagation is easy see my gorgonian propagation page here.
http://www.reefcentral.com/library/coral_prop/gorg/Default.htm
or at

http://www.wisconsinreefsociety.org


Dave Polzin

[Edited by shred5 on 04-18-2001 at 09:44 PM]

[marinelife]

hey I have one of those, well two now that I broke it in half. At first had it under PCs bulbs in the sand but since the upgrade to 400Watt MHs the Sea Whips are getting bigger. These are one of the few corals that I have that are doing better since the change over to new lights. I use B-Ionic and also add Reef Solutions and DTS phytoplankton. I would say the corals have medium water flow. You can frag it easy. Some of my tangs have done it for me, I have many branches off on there own that are starting to grow great.

I have it as a Purple Sea Fan on my website, which is what they sold it as, but after looking I found that it is a Sea Whip, I just have not changed it on my website.

http://www.marinelifeweb.com/images/coral/purpleseafan.jpg
http://www.marinelifeweb.com/images/coral/purpleseafan2.jpg
http://www.marinelifeweb.com/images/coral/purpleseafan3.jpg

[dnjan]

I have seen pterogorgia called a Sea Blade (not sea whip). I think this picture fits your description:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1545844&a=12065149&p=45105196&Sequence=0&res=high
I like mine a lot. It is located at the intersection of the flow lines from two powerheads (on a WavemasterPro) that are about 24" away. So it shows some nice random waving around. Adds motion, but is thin enough so that you can see behind it as well.
I am amazed how flexible they are. An emerald crab bent mine completely into a U - when he let go it came back up with no damage.
I feed DT's at half the recommended tank dosage about twice a week (will probably start feeding a bit more now that an LFS is carrying it and I don't have to mailorder). The top of mine is about 12" below (water depth) a 175wMH as well as a mix of actinic and 50-50 VHO's.
Mine seems to slough-off about every week or two. The film is much heavier than that of a typical leather coral.
Overall, I am very happy with the pterogorgia, especially because of the motion dimension it adds to the tank.