Orange Gorgonian help, not opening

gerardsreef · Jul 26, 2013

Went to Space Coast Reef conference this past weekend, bought a orange gorg. it opened up first day and has been closed ever since. I have tried a couple of methods like soda bottle over it, did not work, its on the bottom off the sand and in high flow area.

Reefing Madness · Jul 29, 2013

:bump2:

-Logzor · Jul 29, 2013

Do you know if it's photosynthetic or non-photosynthetic? My phtosynthetic one closes up for several days every couple of months. Not sure why it does this. On one occasion it closed up for a week and a bit of algae started to grow on the branches, it had to brush it off with my hand. A day or two later it opened up and looked great. I've had the coral for 4+ years now. If it's non-phytosynthetic you might have a really hard time keeping it alive, unless your dosing phyto or some other specialized food. The non-photos sometimes close up and just wither away, unfortunately.

shred5 · Jul 29, 2013

Orange gorgonia would be non photosynthetic so they require food... Most likely the Atlantic Octocoral orange sea fan (swiftia exserta)? Is that correct?

It may just be closed for a few days to adjust. But they like a more shady area with moderate to strong current..

They need to be fed allot or they die. Cyclopeeze is a good food as well as baby brine shrimp. They really need to be in a NPS tank to do well.

There are other orange sea fans like Adelogorgia phyllosclera but they are all deeper water and just as hard or harder to keep.