Coral Of The Week : Gorgonians

[lewiss]

Coral of the week

Gorgonians!

Who will be first to share their

photos and experiences

I've seen a few of these around lately, most probably due to Sorgans constant pushing to turn to the Dark Side!! so let's see them!!

I know Weez, and Chris_C have some! ​

 

[sorgan]

I will Do a write up as soon as I get in.

 

[Chris_C]

I have only encountered the one Gorgonian in my short time in marine but have found my gorg to be very easy to keep. It is a Eunicea Succinea and is of the photosynthetic variety. I have just left it alone to feed off my light which isn't much (2 x 39w t5's) seems to be growing well and is happy in a decent flow.

 

[sorgan]

righty gorgonians....
the gorgonian is is an order of sessile colonial cnidarian found in most of the worlds oceans, they are of the class Anthozoa and sub class Octocorallia (also known as octocorals due to the eight petals on each polyp, much like many SPS) of the order Gorgonacea.
gorgonians come in 3 (mostly) supporting natures, gorgonin based (suborder Holaxonia), those that are supported by calcareous spicules (suborder Scleraxonia) and encrusting. most of the free standing (holaxonia and scleraxonia) species do not attack themselves firmly to a reef but rather get anchored to the reefs substrate.

all gorgonians can and will filter feed on planktonic foods but the photosynthetic ones also produce energy using sunlight.

this is very basic infomation as each species is very different and to say gorgonian coral is like saying SPS or LPS, it is a type then a species.

here are a few of mine.

muricea

menella

another menella

the top one is the only photosynthetic one.

 

[MrLiam]

I saw one of those in TP it looked like a blue stick

 

[sorgan]

Liam if you want some gorgonian loving I can chop a frag off my photosynthetic one. It's nice and easy and won't require feeding, it's no problem as I can just arrange to meet you at TP

 

[MrLiam]

Maybe for the next time I go up ill let you know before hand

 

[lewiss]

Wicked interesting read Sorgan! You have loads man ! liking the blue one!

 

[jameshughes1989]

Loving yours Sorgan. The non photosynthetic ones are well nice but dont think I could trust myself with one of them yet. I am trying to find a photosynthetic one atm to have a go.

 

[lewiss]

Sorgan - I saw the BEST gorgan i've ever seen in my LFS yesterday - i forget to tell you! It was reddy purple blue and looked like velvet! its polyps werent open but it looked sooooo good - £40 though, bit of a rip off! otherwise i'd have bought it!

 

[sorgan]

£40 is a bit steep for a gorg that is hard to keep, i have seen some that i really want to get. unfortantly i dont think they import them.
Muricella paraplectana as it may have a very intresting hitchiker called Hippocampus bargibanti

 

[weezawoo]

Haha my pic isn't too great in my journal but these are a couple I have in photobucket:

They are pretty rubbish, its only a tiny frag of Muricea Gorg and is one of the photosynthetic ones Was told it needed good flow hence why it looks like its being blown away!
When Im home again tomorrow I can try for a better pic!

 

[lewiss]

Thats well cool Sorg! That thing is wierd, is it a sea horse??? I think sometimes its best Gorgs dont get imported!

I thought it was a bit steep! I really really want it though!! BUT no space for it! Other wise im quite sure i would have!!

 

[sorgan]

aye lewis the gorg and the seahorse have evolved with each other but i probably wont ever get one, nice to dream tho

 

[crazycatfish]

I recently got a gorgonian. I was a bit sceptical as i was told they could be hard to keep. But this one has done really well.

Apologies for the photo quality, it was taken on my phone.

Gorgonian