Rusty Gorognia

[shinosuke]

Hello,
Last week I received some free "Nano Rusty Gorgonia" in an order from sealifeinc.net. It's a reddish/brown color, with little "hands" all over it that close up when the lights go out. I have them in a 12gDX nanocube with 72W of PC light. I have been told they're shallow water photosynthetic corals, but that's about all I know. They seem to be doing alright in my tank. Can anyone give me any more info on them? I can include some fuzzy photos for ID if need be.
They're pretty cool little things.. I added some fish today that stirred up the sand a bit, and when any floating bits of sand hit one of the little "hands", it would clench up tight for a moment and then unclench. Pretty cool stuff.
Thanks,
~Adam D.

[bertoni]

[ericsbook]

That book has some information on gorgonians. If it's got zooxanthellae, it might do pretty well. It'd appreciate some small-sized food at night, maybe Cyclop-Eeze or similar sized items.

[xian]

My gorgonians seem to prefer rotifers to cyclopeeze

[Frick-n-Frags]

my corky fingers eats everything it can catch, even flakes

[benjonesn]

I think I got all of my gorgonias from sealifeinc.net too, if I remember correctly. Good shop. My rusty grows fast with weekly feedings of rotifers and phytoplankton. I use reef-nutrition: http://www.reed-store.com/?category=47 All my gorgis seem to love that stuff.

[shinosuke]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!
I came back from out of town, and the person topping off my tank had added a whole bunch of extra top off water. The salinity is down to about 1.021 from 1.023, but everyone seems to be ok in the tank.. I'll just let evaporation do its job and not top off for a few days!
As of right now I have not fed the corals at all, and they seem to be doing just fine.. It probably won't hurt to feed them a little bit, though =)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but in order of physical size (of frozen food) it goes.
Brine > Mysis > Rotifers > Cyclopeeze
Is that right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have a pair of jawfish, @ 2-3 inches in size. I want to get some food that both they and the corals can eat.. would rotifers be the right thing to get?
Thanks again for the advice!

[mikekman]

If your gorg is photosynthetic, it may not even be necessary to feed it.

Now if you had a non photosynthetic gorg, I would really worry about what to feed it.

Definitely get that book that someone above showed. Its REALLY informative.

[xian]

[i]=)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but in order of physical size (of frozen food) it goes.
Brine > Mysis > Rotifers > Cyclopeeze
Is that right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have a pair of jawfish, @ 2-3 inches in size. I want to get some food that both they and the corals can eat.. would rotifers be the right thing to get?
Thanks again for the advice! [/B]

Live rotifers would be refrigerated (check out reef nutrition) not frozen

size is:

Mysis>Brine>Cyclopeeze>Rotifers

I have three gorgonians all are photosynthetic but appreciate being fed, as all corals do. A blend of phytoplankton and zooplankton is best. Going completely out on a limb I'm going to guess that your rusty gorgonian is realted to my purple plume sea whip. I'm too lazy to research that right now, but last time I saw that trade name it was a pretty close approximation.

I feed my corals live rotifers/phytoplankton/oyster eggs

All of the above are too small to interest most fish plus most corals don't actually eat phytoplankton although some (goniopora) do at least in part.

My fish eat mysis, arctic pods, krill, squid, omega one veggi flakes and nori. All too big to interest the corals with small polyps. FWIW my corky finger doesn't seem to respond to large food even though the polyps are noticeably larger than any other gorgonian that I own.