These guys come from deeper water and live in overhangs and in very low light conditions. This is why I hate common names. They need almost constant food. This pays a huge toll on your skimmer and such. If you want to learn to care for these amazing animals koodos to you. Check out the many nps threads. For a quick guide read below.
Low light conditions such as overhangs or caves is best for placement. They will need lots of flow. They will get shocked by our aquarium lights. They do not require it for survival as they are non-photosynthetic. They have no zooxanthellea in their tissues.
Feeding will require you to cut flow and put sps to lps size food particles around them up to 10 times per day. If you are running lights, you will have more luck at night feedings. Then turn flow on so they can eat. So food may be roe, rotifers, many phytoplankton and zooplankton. I use an auto feeder to feed 12 times per day mostly evening hours for mine.
Skimming will be required and nutrients will build up fast in a contained or smaller system. Overfeeding is required to keep these guys even stable, let alone thriving.
I am sorry the lfs may not know these corals well. Not everyone can know everything about each coral. Too many and too much info out there. He would be going by the standard for the family, but not these specific corals. I happen to be working with gorgonias and nps currently, so do know a bit more about these corals.
My suggestion is take them back. However, if you are determined, please read the threads on nps and find anyone successful with these guys. There are not many that keep them over a year.
Low light conditions such as overhangs or caves is best for placement. They will need lots of flow. They will get shocked by our aquarium lights. They do not require it for survival as they are non-photosynthetic. They have no zooxanthellea in their tissues.
Feeding will require you to cut flow and put sps to lps size food particles around them up to 10 times per day. If you are running lights, you will have more luck at night feedings. Then turn flow on so they can eat. So food may be roe, rotifers, many phytoplankton and zooplankton. I use an auto feeder to feed 12 times per day mostly evening hours for mine.
Skimming will be required and nutrients will build up fast in a contained or smaller system. Overfeeding is required to keep these guys even stable, let alone thriving.
I am sorry the lfs may not know these corals well. Not everyone can know everything about each coral. Too many and too much info out there. He would be going by the standard for the family, but not these specific corals. I happen to be working with gorgonias and nps currently, so do know a bit more about these corals.
My suggestion is take them back. However, if you are determined, please read the threads on nps and find anyone successful with these guys. There are not many that keep them over a year.
