Rotifers and Gorgonian Care

[Shoreliner11]

I am setting up a species specific gorgonian tank. I have been reading for some time on the care of specific gorgonians and I will opt for ones whom are symbiotic but further down the road I plan to have some aposymbiotic sp. as well. The tank is small 10gal, with a 3.5 gallon refugium and other than that water changes are going to be the main source of filtration. Not sure whether small size will be a negative in gorgonian care.
Now to the questions. I know that rotifers are key to many of gorgonian survival but is live rotifers necessary or if I can find a frozen source will this be adequate? I have also been reading that some none photosynthetic corals like Dendronephthya might be able to extract proteins attached to bubbles caught by their polyps. Might this be a feasible means to supplement the diet of the gorgonians or are they able feed at all? Thank you for the help.
Aaron

 

[Anthony Calfo]

its an enormous group of cnidarians with very different needs. Some principally eat phyto... some zooplankton (not so many)... most other forms of nanoplankton, we believe (bacteria, floc, etc.)

They also require such very different/other physical parametrs: eg - sea fans with laminar flow only, other gorgs favoring surge flow, etc..

Its just not possible/fair to say "gorgonian" tank any more then "Acroporid tank". Members of either group run the gamut of needs for food, flow and light (as with Montipore versus Acropora among Acroporids).

I applaud your efforts to specialize with this tank, very much. Do follow through and focus on species with similar needs. Exact species.

It is unlikely you will be able to keep zooxanthellate and azooxanthellate species equally well long term inthe same display. Please do reconsider this.

 

[cutndrag2]

Hey Aaron
I am partial to gorgonians and non photosynthetic soft corals myself. I have a 55 gallon softy/gorgonian tank with 5 different species of gorgonian- 3 photosynthetic(pelxaura spp., pseudopterogorgia spp., peterogorgia spp.) 2 nonphotosynthetic (diodogorgia nodulifera, and another one that i was unable to exactly identify yet it is purple with bright yellow polyps). For feeding i give them DT's phytoplankton and DT's Natural Reef Diet which is oyster eggs. I also stir my 4 inch deep sand bed once a week. I have seen growth in all my gorgonians from 1/4" to an inch in some over the last year. I have 11 watts per gallon on my tank and my photosynthetic gorgonians are doing great and have had the most growth. As for the Denronephthya good luck, i have a similar species, scleronephthya, very demanding, but well worth the effort. It takes very well to certain foods DT's oyster eggs (loves it) , and stirring the sand bed. Actually seeing a new colony forming.Hope it helps, keep us posted with your progress.

 

[wrightme43]

Hey Cutndrag2 Welcome to reef frontiers. Glad your here. If you dont mind, I would love to see some photos of your tank, if you will a thread on keeping the gorgos would be super cool. I have always liked them but just have no experince with them. I have one small yellow diodogorgia nodulifera (colorful sea rod) that came with a cleaner shrimp I ordered, it was just in the bag. I dont know why. It is tiny. I have got a small amount of growth from it and it has been alive for I guess 8 months now. Do you have any experince with them?

 

[Shoreliner11]

Thanks for the help. Although I have been researching for some time, I am not finding a wealth of info on gorgonian care. Could you recommend a site or book that would help. Also,over thank is two T5 bulbs so there is not an enourmous amount of light. So, would most photosynthetic gorgonians get enough light from this. I know once again thats its sp. specific but basically I'm just trying to figure out what exact route to take with this. Well. Off to more researching.
Aaron

 

[Anthony Calfo]

there are no books on Gorgonian husbandry in part because we don't even know what most of them eat. For most of those that we do... it cannot be replicated (bacteria, eg)

You really have your work cut out for you here.

And if you are going to make a noble and respectable effort in keeping/studying these creatures... buy yourself a super high quality loupe and/or a mesoscope to inspect polyps for feeding. You'll also want/need a PAR meter for zooxanthellate species.

For info... use the academic search tool:

http://scholar.google.com

best of luck,

Anthony

 

[cutndrag2]

Hey Aaron check out garf.org and go to all about corals not much but its something also The Reef Aquarium volume two should help. Its great you are doing so much researching but don't just read about it try it the best research i have found is waching the gorgonian. Thanks Wrightme43 would love to post pic's of the tank but there all on my girlfriends phone but i will see her tomorrow and get them on here might need some help never posted pics before. That's a great deal buy a shrimp get a gorg free let me know where you got it.What i have found very important with non photosynthetic gorg's is water flow and feeding regulary not well i feed them 5day's ago stay faithful with it i feed my gorg's 4times a week a variety of food helps try DT's Natural Reef Diet (oyster eggs)works best for me. Target feeding works really well fill a pipet or small medicine dropper with the food so you can target there polyps very well best done at night no pesky fish.

 

[Shoreliner11]

Thanks for the google link. I didn't know it existed. I would like to do this as scientific and unbiased as possible, while also keeping the cost low. Being a marine bio student at UW doesn't leave you a lot of money to play around with . Anyhow, I'll keep you posted on how things go.
Cutndrag, I have read the garf.org study on gorgonians it does have some pretty good info. I have read about the DT's oyster eggs but haven't tried them with any corals yet. I'll be sure to look into it. thanks for the info.

 

[osterman]

Anybody know if any of the LFS in the Seattle area carry the DT's oyster eggs?

 

[plack]

If you have acess to one digital cameras often zoom in so well you won't need an eyeloupe

 

[Shoreliner11]

I'm unaware of any fish store carrying it. I was just going to buy them offline. I do have some frozen rotifers though. I have only seen the oyster eggs online which is where I plan to get them. I do have a farely good camera but a loupe might be a little easier. They are pretty cheap though. Not sure how a really good one is though.