Blueberry gorgonian keepers unite!

[phishlet]

Curious if anybody else on this board keeps the gorgonian commonly known as the "blueberry". Here's a pic of mine.



I watched it carefully for a month or so at the LFS to be sure it didn't appear to be dieing and then I bit the bullet and added it to my reef.

I've been direct target feeding it a minimum of 3 times a day; often times as many as 6 times. Twice a day minimum I feed a mixture of my own grown phytoplankton (3 different strains) and cyclopeeze. And then at least once a day I feed a mixture of DT's oyster eggs and Roti-feast.

The polyps seem large enough that I believe my blueberry is also capturing small pieces of frozen food that I feed my fish.

So for anybody else keeping a "blueberry" what are you feeding? How long have you had it?

[wds21921]

WOW, no I've never even seen them. That one is gorgeous too!!!!
I see your fungia hiding in the back though , that I do have .

[Zoos]

From what I understand they are better left in the wild and do not survive in captivity, how long have you had it for? hope it fairs well.
Thanks
Felix

[evil_monkey]

my LFS just got some in, stunning.

but I have to save for the trip to MACNA.

[Gary Majchrzak]

phishlet- how's the Gorg doing?

[Frick-n-Frags]

that is sweet. kudos.

[phishlet]

It's not doing as well these days though it is alive. Problems were triggered when it and the rock it was mounted on fell during a small collapse of the rock structure in my tank. This collapse sent the gorgonian right on top of a wellsophylia coral. Appatently the wellsophylia was able to inflict damage. And unfortunately the wellsophylia was damaged by the rock so it is experiencing some decent tissue recession.

I will say that the blueberry gorgonians require a whole lot of feedings every day. I increased my feedings to abou 6 times a day (if I can).

[Zoos]

Wow I am actually surprised that is has lasted this long. sorry to hear about the collapse.

[erendon]

I have one that is about half the size of yours.
I too feed it cyclopeeze soaked in vitamins about every other day. I think that I will start to feed it everyday. It does capture small particles if the fish food when I feed them.
I have had it about two months now and I always check on it to make sure it's not going down in health.

[dendro982]

Is it non-photosynthetic gorgonian? Any specific information on it, other than poor record of survival in captivity, please? What amount of food are you feeding, is the flow on during the feeding and filtration off? Size of the tank - anything that you willing donate to the community knowledge.

I have another kind of non-photosynthetic gorgonian, red finger Diodogorgia. It seems, that bluberry gorgonian has the smaller polyps, right?

[rekn]

ive been looking for one for awhile now with no luck

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by rekn
ive been looking for one for awhile now with no luck

Maybe you're lucky. I don't know of anyone keeping a blueberry Gorgonian alive for very long.

[SDguy]

I'm still seeing these guys for sale....And wow! So many threads from a search in this forum....I can't believe how many people have tried one!


I was going to start a new thread..thought I'd rehash an old one first. Has ayone kept one of these alive? Anyone?

[AndyB4784]

I've never heard of any long term success with one. It's like a dendronepthia let it die in the store so it won't be reordered.

[agoutihead]

what about the common yellowish/organeish ones with the spots and the white polyps?

How hardy are those? Do you have to spot feed them also?

I'm not going to be running a skimmer, so I will have additonal "goodies" in the water column at all times.

Would one of these fair well in my tank?

[SDguy]

Originally posted by agoutihead
what about the common yellowish/organeish ones with the spots and the white polyps?

How hardy are those? Do you have to spot feed them also?

I'm not going to be running a skimmer, so I will have additonal "goodies" in the water column at all times.

Would one of these fair well in my tank?

The red and yellow ones with the big white polyps are some of the easier non photosynthetic gorgs. GARF.com frags and grows them. They eat meaty foods, and their large polyps makes it pretty easy.

Obviously these blueberry guys require something special, since their polyps should be large enough to easily accept tiny meaty foods...

[AndyB4784]

They have a slightly better track record (but not much). Should be able to catch prey easier than the blueberry gorgs. It will require VERY heavy feeding and in general be a major PITA. Why not just get one of the photosynthetic purple gorgs? Something proven to be sustainable in your tank?

[SDguy]

Originally posted by AndyB4784
They have a slightly better track record (but not much). Should be able to catch prey easier than the blueberry gorgs. It will require VERY heavy feeding and in general be a major PITA. Why not just get one of the photosynthetic purple gorgs? Something proven to be sustainable in your tank?

Actually, if target fed, they do quite well, and grow. Blueberrys all die. That's significantly better, IMO

Check out the GRAF site for more info on these and the hardier (agreed ) photosynthetic gorgs...

[agoutihead]

i tried that garf.com and nothing really came up but some mumbo jumbo, are you sure thats the name of the site?

The purple ones really don't do it for me that much. the blueberry one is ridiculous and the yellow and red one is pretty sweet.

I don't mind target feeding things in my tank every 1-3 days, but I don't want the red and yellow gorg if you have to target feed it 1+ times a day.

[SDguy]

Ooops...

garf.org

[dendro982]

Any chances to have the questions answered (smile)? Or a small talk only thread (wink) ?

Still interested in the shared experience: amount of the food, given each time, is it target feeding, did you see it actually capturing food, what filtration the tank has, any particularities, like temperature, salinity and light, sensitivity?

Have now the blueberry gorgonian too for two months, bought with several branches dead and it didn't recover - still alive, bun on the sure way to the death, unless I'll find out pretty soon, what it needs for survival, beside vast amount of food and flow.
Swiftia, Guaiagorgia, scleronephthya and Christmas tree worms, together with sps and LPS are doing good in the same tank.


At arrival:

Started rapidly lose the tissue, in a very few days:

This is not starvation - too soon.
Started to recover after treatment:

Then slip down again.
All this was at the peak of the summer heat - the tank temperature was sometimes 82F. Are blueberry gorgonians require the lower temperature, like 76F, not more?

I had never seen the blueberry catching food - either dried cyclop eeze, ZoPlan, frozen baby brine, rotifers or cyclops, or homemage fine coral food, the usual.
The red finger gorgonian catches food and you can see it at once:
Before feeding:

After:

[SDguy]

Originally posted by dendro982

Great pic!

[dendro982]

Thanks!
Anybody is welcomed to do the same with their non-photosynthetic corals eating and share it

How to:
- Point and shoot basic camera, Pentax Optio 30, 3.2 Mpix,
- Settings (EXIF data quote):

YCbCrPositioning - Co-Sited
ExifOffset - 462
ExposureTime - 1/15 seconds
FNumber - 2.90
ISOSpeedRatings - 100
ComponentsConfiguration - YCbCr
CompressedBitsPerPixel - 5 (bits/pixel)
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MaxApertureValue - F 2.93
MeteringMode - Multi-segment
Flash - Not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 5.80 mm
FlashPixVersion - 0100
ColorSpace - sRGB
ExifImageWidth - 2048
ExifImageHeight - 1536
InteroperabilityOffset - 1006
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
DigitalZoomRatio - 1.39 x
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 38 mm
SceneCaptureType - Standard
Contrast - Soft
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Normal
SubjectDistanceRange - Macro

Mode - Manual
Quality - Best
ISO - 100
White Balance - Auto

In short: luminescent light, small spot working area, manual mode, soft contrast, everything else - auto or normal.

What I like - how it works after making setting: 4 buttons, camera On, Macro mode, zoom, shoot (two step, half-pressed button to see preview, then full press to shoot).

The object was in the Nano Cube 6g, within 2" (5 cm) from the glass , 18W PC combo light (actinics give bluish hint), light is coming from behind the polyps. Flow still on, no tripod, only pinkie finger to the glass for stability.

Works with Fuji camera 6.7 Mpix, eventually better shots, but painful process with big wastage and no guaranty of results
Point and shoot is easier.

Come one, show the feeding of your gorgonians!