Blueberry Gorgonian (Acalycigorgia) care?

[NeveSSL]

Hi all!

Exactly what care and how much care do these corals need? They are astoundingly beautiful and I'm considering trying to find one, but I don't want to kill one. :)

Any help is much appreciated!

Brandon

[PSam]

As far as I know, they usually slowly waste away. I'm not sure anyone knows exactly what they need. I've been trying to keep one, feeding a whole slew of fauna marin products, Reed's rotifers & phyto, oyster eggs, mulm from reactor, it just doesn't appear to accept anything and looks like it won't be long before it's gone. I definitely will not buy another one for at least a couple years, if at all. Hopefully more info / success with them by then. Here's a thread, hope it helps.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1335522&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[NeveSSL]

Thats what I was afraid of. :(

Thanks for the reply, PSam!

Brandon

[spike78]

There may be some good information forthcoming on their proper care. It looks like Dr. Ron Shimek is running a study of Gorgonia.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic84886-11-1.aspx
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic84678-11-1.aspx

[ffrancica]

I have one thats about 8" wide by 10" tall. It is doing pretty good. I got it in later januray. Its flowers usually open in the early moring and sometimes at later night. I can't be sure but I think it maybe spreading under the substrate. I have been seeing 2 flowers that are about 1.5-2" away from the main branch coming up and opening. I feed my rotifers and mysis shrimp.

[liquidfunk]

my understanding is blueberry gorgonian is actually a gorgonian with an infection that makes the polyps appear blue. Thus they waste away because the infection/parasite consumes the polyps.

HTH.

[gh0st]

I've never heard that before, liquidfunk, where did you hear/read that?

As far as I know, they are just a difficult to feed gorgonian. They just need LOTS (as in several feedings a day) of Oyster Eggs and Cyclops. Some Phyto and Zooplankton wouldn't hurt matters either.

[GSMguy]

no they are perfectly able to be kept in our tanks but mine liked live rotifers and fresh hatched live baby Brine shrimp Daily IME

this coral was very healthy for a long time in my tank until a 3 week vacation starved it and once it was in bad shape there was no saving it.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q45/GSMguy/blueberry.jpg

[liquidfunk]

I heard it from a wholesaler. A company that pretty much runs the indonesian import business.

[rcypert]

That sounds like something somebody made up. You would be surprised at how much people who are "in the business" don't know.

[NeveSSL]

An infection seems a bit extreme, but possible that the color is caused by something that may be similar to an infection. Who knows?

Anyway, that looks awesome, GSMguy. Did you grow your own rotifers? Got any advice? This may be my next project. :)

Brandon

[MCsaxmaster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12530803#post12530803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
no they are perfectly able to be kept in our tanks but mine liked live rotifers and fresh hatched live baby Brine shrimp Daily IME

this coral was very healthy for a long time in my tank until a 3 week vacation starved it and once it was in bad shape there was no saving it.


How long is "a long time"? If it is any less than ~2 yrs, I'd have to respectfully disagree ;)

Also, the blue has nothing to do with an infection. At best, someone was just passing along misinformation. At worst, someone was inventing and excuse for why these corals keep dying, to shift the blame from our inadequate care (the real culprit).

I'm not sure of anyone that has had any sort of longterm success with these corals. After we find foods they will accept and a current speed that allows them to catch their food (one without the other is useless) it would probably be a matter of constant feeding to try to maintain them. The food available in nature is available for at least many hours per day and at a moderate concentration. Target feeding may not work because they can only eat so much at a time, and they may simply not get enough nutrition that way.

I'd avoid them, at least at this point.

[oceanparadise1]

they are awsome looking to bad they die so fast lol

[GSMguy]

long time = 6- months or so, it would have continued to thrive if i could have kept feeding it, it was growing well.

[GSMguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12542856#post12542856 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeveSSL
An infection seems a bit extreme, but possible that the color is caused by something that may be similar to an infection. Who knows?

Anyway, that looks awesome, GSMguy. Did you grow your own rotifers? Got any advice? This may be my next project. :)

Brandon


i Hatched live baby brine shrimp almost daily and i used DTS phyto and frozen cyclopeze.

[Kreeger1]

GSM guy you've got to switch from dt's to shell fish diet, it will last you 10 times as long plus its just that much better.
Erik

[dtaylor123]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12564818#post12564818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
long time = 6- months or so, it would have continued to thrive if i could have kept feeding it, it was growing well.

I applaud your efforts, you tried to keep it alive by being proactive. But 6 months is not long term. Long term would start at the two year mark and then if it was thriving and more importantly growing, then I would say you are having some success.

I kept one alive and it appeared to be thriving (but not growing) for 11 months. I had thought, man I did it, but alas not to be (sorry about sounding Shakespearean) it perished.

Some of the other methods used here by some in this forum, is I believe the direction we need to go and that is feeding 24/7 by a syringe pump, keeping the food in suspension, the next trick is finding how to get it to the corals, how much flow and what kind is very important. Possibly mixing different NPC's in the same tank may not work. Keeping a specific tank for that one species of coral may also be the only way we are able to keep them. Meaning, what one coral needs may not work for another. I do feel some hobbyist here are making head way, I wish I had the coin to be able to do real trials, but I don't, so I will keep reading here on other folks trails.

Dan

[Jk5]

Marcus Nitzsche from Germany is keeping an Acalycigorgia since 2.5 years ago



The actual tank you can see in following tread:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=278200
second post.

It is from June of this year, Claude made this pics at my home. Until today I have some new animals. My oldest one is a "red sea finger" and a yellow "Menella sp." that are nearly 4 years old.

Some pics from my old tank you can see here:

http://matuta.com/include.php?path=forum/showthread.php&threadid=2314&PHPKITSID=3c8d06c6d67a40c0a99e60b84d8de8f4

Some branche of the blue Acalycigorgia are still alive after 2,5 years.

I feed 90% Fauna Marin products but I do not follow the general trend to produce a mash of food with amino and so on.

Ok - I'll write a summary on weekend
Best regards
Marcus



Active threads in this moment:

Azoo Cube (Marcus Nitzsche)
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=278582

Acalycigorgia-Anthogorgia
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=219084&page=2

[dendro982]

Hi, Marcus! Glad to see you here again.
Can you share here details, observations and what is critical, in your opinion, for keeping particular species?
Appreciate this.

[NeveSSL]

I would also love to hear the details, Marcus. :)

Brandon

[Gfsrepairs]

I've had mine for about 3 months, i may have got lucky but I haven't target feed it once and it's grown about 1/4 in. I'm not calling it sucess, from what I read today it's luck I guess. What I have done is put a crap load of various sized pods in my tank. For my dragonnet, I think I remember using rotifiers once , but I don't think it's been since I got the blue one. I might of had my purple one already and that one has been the same, I might of target feed it once but it hasn't been on a regular bases.

I made coves for both where the water flow it pretty low, dig both it the sand and they get direct light, which I think I just found out is point less. The purple one hasn't grown but is always open the blue one has started to fill gaps where it was missing a section.

I'm gonna do research and these, since I have been lucky I guess. but there's my two cents. Marucs those are nice tanks.

[Jk5]

latest information and updates based on Marcus Nitzsche from Germany...


Ok, I want to write some reply to all the questions:

General:
- for me the water values for NO3 and PO4 are not so important because I never could realize that the gorgonians showed “bad reaction” with high values (NO3 up to 100 mg/L and PO4 up to 2 mg/l) and this for more than 1 year (in my old tank) – please notice that these comments are for gorgonians only, not for Dendronepthea (I have no experience with it)
- important is only to reduce the “yellow water” – I use ozone continuous and every week 1 big cup charcoal
- I change every week 10% of water with Red Sea Coral pro (some time also Reef Crystal salt)
- flow is for me most important, I would say more than food (especially Acalyc.-gorgia), at the moment I run the system with appr. 100 times tank circulation per our hour but my feeling is: It could be more! So I bought already one more bigger pump that I can increase to 120 times circulation per hour
- A “wild” gobie also helps to keep some dust/food in the water column.
- Less light is also helpful because some gorgonians tent to get covered with algae very easy, I use 4x24W in my tank.

Food:
I don’t use the food mix that Alcoy posted here from another old tread (translation from German forum). I stopped dosing a paste made of food, aminos and so on. I realized that I have better results when I dose the pure food, only from time to time I add some amino/fatty acid to the food. I could see also that if the size of the food becomes too small the gorgonians starve. My mixture consists UltraminF & Clam, Ultra Seafan, Time food 1, Spirulina algae and Cyclop eeze. Ultramin F and Seafan is the biggest part of mixture, Cyclop Eeze (very less) I add only because the fans open faster with this food. Every evening I add one cube of lobster eggs to the tank.
Since one week I add oyster feast and phyto feast to tank but until today I didn’t see any changes so I do not want to comment it at the moment. The “very good” reaction posted from Danny I couldn’t realize until now – but I think it is to early to make a real comment.



Auto Feeder:
I wrote that I use a modified Eheim Twin feeder. I disconnected the internal control unit and connected the motor drive directly to an external time controller with impulse logic. So I can run the feeder for e few seconds only and dose very less food. I dose (I guess) 20 times per day food for 5 seconds. The food I add short before my return pump in the tank sump – so it get mixed very well with the water and the distribution in the tank is good. To avoid blocking of food I use a high technology vibration device! It is a small (4x4 cm) fan (from pc main board) that I clued at the side of the feeder. Than I fixed a small nut at one wing of this fan – therefore it results an imbalance. So if the fan is running a vibration of the feeder can be monitored. Without this device it is not possible to dose that small amount of food (because food doesn’t fall down from screw feeder, it clues at the casing…).

Trace element:
Somebody asked for trace elements or iodine: I add from time to time some trace elements (FM) but not regularly and I add in the morning and evening 2 drops (each) of iodine mix from QFI to the tank.

I hope that’s enough for the moment. It seems to be not very “special” but it works fine for me. As I said already – flow is very important.

Best regards
Marcus

[dendro982]

Thank you, Marcus!
What is daily amount or food for corals before adding water - half of teaspoon? Or in ml.

Eheim twin feeder modification:
Is external time controller with impulse logic readily available in stores, how expensive it is?

What salinity, alkalinity and temperature you are maintaining in your tank?

How many times water passes through the sump per hour (tank volume and return pump L/hr)?

Your skimmer: on what principle is it based - Beckett, ETSS downdraft, venturi with needle wheel pump? Rated for what tank size? (Example: my ASM G-3 is venturi with needle wheel pump, recommended for tanks up to 250g).

Are you using mechanical filtration?

[Jk5]

Happy new year dendro and all.
I´m not Marcus Nitzsche.
dear friend dendro982, I´m Alcoy.

I think it is very important to share information...
I am only doing this information cross Atlantic Ocean very quickly...
Mr Nitzsche is active in the thread I said before at Ultimate Reef (UK).
"Azoo Cube"

[dendro982]

Sorry, Alcoy. I'll make a note for myself.

[FastFish720]

These are medium difficult gorgs, but you want to feed them. I've had success with a combo of phyto, zoo, cyclops, marine snow, etc. I feed daily. The biggest thing is to make sure to acclimate them appropriately. Otherwise you'll wake up the next more with a dead gorg.

Experience: 10+ of the Blueberry, DOA 2 Alive in Maint Sys 3, Sold other 5.

[Kreeger1]

These are far from Medium diffculty, you've got to be out of your mind saying that IMO.

It doesnt get any hard of a animal to keep then these IMO. I would say less then 1% survive longer then 6 months.

This is coming from someone that went all out on nonphoto and basically through in the towel after food costs started to hit over 100 a month.
Erik

[FastFish720]

Do you have any personal experience with these gorgs? ie, when you are feeding do you/did you see yours taking food?

Honestly though, acclimation is huge!! and there are many different ones coming in from different sources. Some are even being AC which is nice.

I've notice some will have full branches of polyps and will appear bushy, whereas some will already look like they are starving.

http://www.discoveryaquatics.com/tc/gorg4.jpg

http://www.discoveryaquatics.com/tc/gorg3.jpg