Blue polyped gorgonian

[Delphinus]

I'm not sure of the ID of this one. Picked it up yesterday, has some crazy polyp extension on it.

It didn't look nearly as blue at the store. I thought it might have been a photosynthetic one, but looking at it now, I'm not so sure. Guess we'll see. I feed my other gorgs (which ARE photosynthetic) from time to time already so I hope that will be good enough. Time will tell!

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/softeys/bluegorg1.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/softeys/bluegorg2.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/softeys/bluegorg_closeup.jpg

[andresont]

It didn't look nearly as blue at the store. I thought it might have been a photosynthetic one, but looking at it now, I'm not so sure. Guess we'll see. I feed my other gorgs (which ARE photosynthetic) from time to time already so I hope that will be good enough. Time will tell!
***************

tell us pls, what kind of light (K color and watts) do you have and what do you feed your gorgonias?

[Delphinus]

Lighting on this tank is 2x250W XM 10000K, and 2x110W actinics.

Mostly I just feed the gorgs some Reefroids and Cyclopeeze. Some of the gorgs don't seem to care for the Cyclopeeze, seems too large for the polyps. But the Reefroids is absolutely tiny so I hope it's good.

[Delphinus]

The middle picture is probably the closest to the real colour. The first one and the closeup are underexposed and the blue looks much darker than it is for real. Looks cool though!

[Keana]

Hi, Your Gorgonian is beautiful! I have a gorgonian that has a pink stock and yellow polyps, non photosynthetic. Once it is ready to frag I would love to trade if you are in to it. It will be a while.......

Bye, Keana

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Stunning!

[Funky_Fish14]

Tony, you didnt just pick that up yesterday, you scored one beautiful piece of... coral! Haha!

Even if the middle shot is the closest to real color, it still looks unreal! I've seen some with more lame-coloured stalks, but slightly more purply polyps, but this one is a slightly different shape, and it has a nice stalk!

Great snag!

Chris

[Chaloupa]

WOW! really really nice coral! Would love to happen upon one of those!

[Snappy]

nice piece Tony.

[christyf5]

Looks fantastic Tony! Good score!:biggrin:

[Willito]

That's a beaut Tony, Let's see your other photosynthetic ones for comparision.

[Delphinus]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm really surprised it hadn't sold by the time I saw it. It did have a more plain look to it at the store, it just looked like it had a hint of blue. When I got it home on Monday I was amazed to see it open like that after 30 minutes in the tank. Usually corals sulk on me for a few days. I hope this is a good sign for longevity.

Here are some recent pics of the others.

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/misc/75gleftside.jpg

Closeup of the purple plume on the right:
http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/softeys/gorg_closeup.jpg

I didn't get the colour quite right. The flesh is a delicate purple that doesn't show up well in pictures.

I also have a few others but no pics online yet. I'll try to change that tonight (need an excuse to exercise the camera anyhow).

[adidas]

wow

[Murminator]

That blue is crazy :mrgreen:

[Delphinus]

Turned off the current tonight altogether for a few minutes to feed it. I fed it a mixture of ReefRoids, Cyclopseeze and some Marine Frenzy flake I just crushed to a powder with my fingers. Most of the flake powder was too large but the polyps attempted to eat most of the stuff offered.

Here's another pic of one of the photosynthetic gorgs I've got. I have no idea the species ID on this one. The polyps are super tiny, in this picture they're not out. I haven't seen it take any food including Reefroids. This started off as a 1" frag about a year and a half ago.

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/softeys/yellow_gorg.jpg

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Tony,

Your beautiful collection of gorgonians helped convince me to get another one.:biggrin: Purple with purple polyps. Hope it's at least partially photosynthetic but it may not be. Looks like a sea rod though.

Would love to find more photosynthetic gorgonians. Have corky finger but would love to find colourful ones.

Anthony

[Delphinus]

Thanks Anthony! Your purple gorg is AMAZING and it's in perfect condition.

I hope we can trade frags one day :)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yeah, it opened up with full polyps in less than an hour after going into my tank.

[rusty]

I think its time to come to Calgary agian... Its tank raiding time!!! :razz:

[danny zubot]

I haven't seen the new one in person yet but the others are much nicer in person, as most corals usually are.

Its funny Tony, gorgonians are the exact thing I seem to be missing from my tank.:mrgreen: Hmmm, time for a trade?

[Delphinus]

Unfortunately I've given it away. It looked great for about a week and then started a very quick decline. Wouldn't open, wouldn't feed, spots of recession. I'm not sure if it's too late to save it anyhow, time will tell, but I'm convinced that keeping it would have meant it was toast for sure.

Its twin (ie. same type of coral that came in on the same shipment) was still at the store last time I looked (a couple days ago) and that one was doing considerably better, so it's just something about my tank that it didn't like. :(

I kinda broke a rule I had made for myself by buying a non-photosynthetic gorgonian anyhow and sorta feel like I got the smack down as a result. There are a few species that I know to be photosynthetic that I'm always on the lookout for, but they just don't seem to come in to the stores out this way. So when a gorg of any kind shows up at a store I get excited and this one, well I thought it had a chance of being photosynthetic but I realized quickly when I got it home that it likely wasn't. (Telling apart photosynthetic versus non-photosynthetic is supposeldy fairly simple - zooxanthellae is brown, so the polyps are brown. At the store these looked kinda dull in colour so I thought that counted as brown. At home under my 10k's plus actinics the polyps just glowed.)

[danny zubot]

Thats too bad Tony.

This confused me a bit.
(Telling apart photosynthetic versus non-photosynthetic is supposeldy fairly simple - zooxanthellae is brown, so the polyps are brown

Photo is brown, so if the gorg. polyps are brown it should be photo? And if they are say blue it is non-photo? Is that what you meant?

[Delphinus]

Yeah, basically. On a photosynthetic gorgonian, the polyps themselves will be tan or brown (although the flesh in between polyps may be a different colour). So if the polyps are white or brightly coloured, then it's probably a filter-feeder and not photosynthetic.

But some people seem to do OK at the non-photosynthetic ones ... I'm hoping to try again some day but just not in this tank.