What's up with this coral???

D

dynomonkey

Membership Expired
What's up with my coral!! Can you guys id and let me know what you think. I thought about propagating the top part in hopes to save it. Or is this normal?

I think it is a purple gorgonian.
 
It was located in the back of my tank for about 4 months and seem to be doing ok. I just moved it to the front about 3 week ago. In addition, I just had the ballast go out on my nano. So I've been at low light for about 5 days. I'll test the water tonight and let you know. I keep my tank temp at 77. I don't have any zoos in my tank yet. But I do think its photosynthetic.
 
hehe, I think its photosynthetic. It only recently started looking this bad. I'm going to move it back to the back of the tank. I think it gets more flow in the back of the tank.
 
That looks like the common purple gorgonian that is photosynthetic.

If it is purple and extends brown fuzzy polyps when feeding that is likely what it is.

When you see it recede like that, the listed possibilities are dead on, one of those four things would be the problem.

You can try to stabilize/fix the conditions and you might also snip a piece that still has the flesh on it just below where you see the branchy underneath...(you'll glue where there is no flesh) and make a frag just in case.

Mine like this seems happy sometimes and not at other times but I've not had the tissue recession like that. I keep it in relatively but not direct high flow and I supplement my tank quite a bit with zooplankton (Marine Snow), pods and phyto as well as feed cyclops/mysis/oyster eggs.

These photosynthetic gorgonians can be pretty darn hardy and it wouldn't surprise me if you can save it.

I have a non-photosynthetic blueberry gorgonian I've been pampering of late, much more difficult to sustain and I'm tracking it pretty scientifically to see if I can get it growing (the true sign of health.)

Hope that helps.

-Bill
 
Can you pull your camera away from the gorgonian and take another picture? It looks like the white stuff is on the outside of the skin and not the skeleton itself which I think is a dark brown color.

Is the white stuff the skin and the brown the skeleton?

You really need to get that light back on for this guy.
If so it may be loosing it's zooxanthellate which will happen without the light.

Worst case get a light with the highest lumen (the little curly energy bulbs are good) and put that over your nano for about 12 hours a day.
Good luck.
 
If you decide to frag it, cut it above the dead skeleton and then peel back some of the "flesh" then you can glue, or epoxy it on a rock. If you dont peel back the "flesh" the part that you epoxy or glue in the rock will rot and kill the frag.
 
From what I can tell it looks like a non-photosynthetic species. If it is, it probably is starving. They do not do well in aquariums. And the time frame is about right for it to go downhill. It takes them awhile before they use up the energy they have stored.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top