feeding Gorgonians

[Guest Ominojacu]

I have golden rod gorgonians, everything I read before getting them suggested that their primary food source is rotifers. and that they don't capture prey large then a newly born brine shrimp. Well, I scarcely notice them eating rotifers sprayed at them, and they actively capture and eat frozen brine shrimp. I Would suspect that in the wild they don't often come accross small dead shrimp, but I imagine in the Aquaria, a single fortified frozen brine shrimp has got to be worth a hundred or so rotifers. Granted Rotties are more nutritious ounce for ounce, but given that gorgonians have a tendancy to starve to death, its seems reasonable to me to feed them frozen food which they catch easily is better then rotifers which they don't.

Any opinions on this from people more experienced with them?

[madmax7774]

I also have two, and I found out through experience that they are prone to have a layer of algae form on them, which causes the polyps not to come out, and hence they starve. I took mine and gently scrubbed them with a toothbrush to get the layer off, and now mine are doing surprisingly well. The polyps come out like crazy, and they seem to be thriving. I placed both of mine in high flow areas to prevent any algae from reforming, and I feed mine daily shots of DT phytoplankton. THey seem to be doing well now. I am going to try the brine shrimp and see how they fare.

John

 

[Guest Ominojacu]

I also have two, and I found out through experience that they are prone to have a layer of algae form on them, which causes the polyps not to come out, and hence they starve. I took mine and gently scrubbed them with a toothbrush to get the layer off, and now mine are doing surprisingly well. The polyps come out like crazy, and they seem to be thriving. I placed both of mine in high flow areas to prevent any algae from reforming, and I feed mine daily shots of DT phytoplankton. THey seem to be doing well now. I am going to try the brine shrimp and see how they fare.

John

 

 

Thanks, I will remember that trick if I see any algae growth.