[daisy]

Hey - question for y'all who have kept gorgonians -- is there any rhyme or reason to when polyp extension happens? I have seen my new gorgonian all closed at night and all closed during day, as well as extended at night and partially extended during the day - what's normal for these guys?

thanks!

[NYreefNoob]

mine opened both as well also like high and low flow and high and low light, i had a red, a yellow and a blueberry one

[daisy]

as in every gorgonian likes all those things? so what did you do, move them around your tank all the time? sounds so funny....

[reefman]

gorgonians r mainly divided into 2 groups i am concern with. photosytheic n non phot...
the ones that r photo.. extends polpys all day. the ones non-photo usually just extends at nite.
rule of thumb: all brownish n greenish color r photo..the rest r not(which needs feeding).

[LeslieS]

Daisy,

I think you have the non photo synthetic gorgonian.

Coral magazine did a great issue on gorgonians this summer. Basically they will polyp whenever they feel like it unless they are starving. In that case they will conserve energy and only polyp in optimal feeding conditions.

Food size is important, but I cannot remember how small it should be.

Also, flow needs to be enough that algae does not build up, but not so much that food whizes by and the polyps are blowing around too much to catch the food.

Hope that is at least a little helpful.
LeslieS

[daisy]

Leslie - it's very helpful! thanks!!! Jim had said it's non photosynthetic - it's an orange-red color with white polyps. it's in a medium flow area - nothing directly on it, but the water moves the polyps around, but doesn't whip them around.

I feed mysis (too large) and cyclopeeze (should be just right, i hope!)

[LeslieS]

Oh, yeah. The article also said that a long feeding time is required. I guess they are kind of slow eaters. The sea horses of the gorgonian world.

[NYreefNoob]

the one jim had is a filter feeder, i would put it in a low flow area. the blueberry i had was photo, the red and yellow body i had were filter feeder. actually i think leslie got a piece of the yellow i had at one of the swap's

[Domboski]

I would feed freshly hatched baby brine shrimp sometimes too. Cyclopeeze is good as well. I have several Gorgs and most of them are extended at all times. Even photosynthetic gorgs filter feed. I started using marine snow made by Two Little Fishes. Since then, all of my gorgs have grown much more rapidly.

I know the Gorg you have (I think based on your description) and I would feed cyclopeeze 2-3 times a week. Supplement BBS as much as you can. Marine snow or some other Gorg feed once a month is also a good idea.

Also, your gorg is a low light and high flow (made that judgment on your description but a picture would really help).

Hope this helps!

Dom

[Domboski]

These may help too:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/3/inverts

http://www.garf.org/36/gorgallabout/allaboutgorgs.html