Why is my gorgonian exposing its spine

[LeahAnn]

I have a purple gorgonian frag, i purchased a couple months ago. Its been growing sending out new branches, polyps opening, but the tips of 2 smaller branches have retacted to expose the spine, about 1/2in. All tissue is healthy. I added a black blennie with tiny blue marking on his face and 2 baby yellow tip damselfish. I feed reef roids 1x /wk and phyto 1x / week since i got them. The blue crabs ignore it. Any suggestions?. Should i frag these 2 tips, i snipped back the spine only for it to continue retracting. I have 2 other reef tanks i could move it to. I have a red, yellow w purple and purple. Ribbon also in there, all are separated and are frags po4 running about.06, ph 8.19, ca 560, mg 1500, trates 0, trites 0, . Run led 6 hrs /day. 20 gallon tall tank. Run a polar 265 gph canister filter, and wave maker bouncing from glass to create indirect flow on them . Everyone else is growing witjout any probs. Just started using kalkwasser to help stabilse ph, alk. Calcium stays around 500 constitantly. Any ideas?

 

[Tired]

Blue crabs? Like the kind people eat? Those get large and very aggressive, and eat fish. You should take them out before they get dangerous.

Nitrates should never be 0. Most tanks shouldn't go below 5ppm. Photosynthetic organisms need that to eat.

Pics of the damage?

 

[LeahAnn]

These are the tiny blue crabs, trates are actually.5, mis spoke.

 

[mtfish]

These are the tiny blue crabs, trates are actually.5, mis spoke.

Are you talking about blue legged hermit crabs? Did you purchase these or are they wild caught? No signs of any algae growing on the the gorgs? Once you trimmed back the dead parts did it stop the tissue from further receding? Good luck.

 

[LeahAnn]

Here are a couple pics of the gorgonian

 

[LeahAnn]

Are you talking about blue legged hermit crabs? Did you purchase these or are they wild caught? No signs of any algae growing on the the gorgs? Once you trimmed back the dead parts did it stop the tissue from further receding? Good luck.

Yes blue legged crabs, bought them online, no algae on them, after i trimmed spine back it retracted further, tissue all looks healthy. Posted pics on here, thankyou

 

[Uncle99]

Bright light, big flow, iodide in the 0.03-0.06 range.

 

[Casket_Case]

You probably got algae growth just keep up with water changes and it should grow back most of my gorgonians do that at first then grow over it

 

[Tired]

0.5 nitrate is still too low, you should try to get that up.

Ah, blue legged hermits are different. Usually fine.

If it's growing and the polyps are opening, it sounds healthy enough. I'd leave it alone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

These are the tiny blue crabs, trates are actually.5, mis spoke.

.5 is not low and I actually try to be around .03 running 3 tanks that flourish. They are not sensitive to nitrate unless sky high. As requested, pic will help. Gorgonians as I have very large ones require good light and good water flow, as they are a member of the cnidarian coral familiy that grow in colonies and whose skeletons are comprised of calcareous substances and a protein called gorgonin giving it its' name. They are a large group of corals with a wide variety of photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic species which produce zooxanthellae for food source as well as needing aminos.
They do best placed at upper half of the tank and should be fed Brine shrimp, micro-plankton, and rotifers with pumps off for a few minutes while they take in foods. Reef snow is excellent for them and they can absorb anything microscopic. The stem you see is likely lack of either food or aminos

Temp 77-79
salinity 1.025
ph 8.2 -8.3

 

[LeahAnn]

You probably got algae growth just keep up with water changes and it should grow back most of my gorgonians do that at first then grow over it

Thankyou will do

 

[Casket_Case]

Thankyou will do

No problem, I’ve also never had a hermit crab bother a gorgonian like ever... they’re extremely docile creatures. Especially with Gorgonians. I actually recommend getting a few more crabs or snails as they’ll help keep the Gorgonian clean so that it can regrow. Once the gorgonin (that’s what the skeleton is called) is exposed it’s very hard to get algae off. Algae can be manually removed with a brand new soft toothbrush. But I prefer getting snails or crabs to do it just because they do a better job. If you have a sump or AIO I suggest running a light 24/7 in a refugium compartment to centralize algae growth there and away from your gorgonians. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[dennis romano]

The yellow and red gorgonians appear to be Caribbean non-photosynthetic gorgonians. They must be fed tiny food like rotifers or baby brine shrimp. Watch for any algae growth on them. Algae will slowly kill them. As Frigus stated, clean the algae off with a soft toothbrush. Good luck.

 

[Uncle99]

The two on the left, yellow and orange look like NPS Gorgonians. If so, they need multiple feedings daily as it’s their only source of energy.

 

[LeahAnn]

No problem, I’ve also never had a hermit crab bother a gorgonian like ever... they’re extremely docile creatures. Especially with Gorgonians. I actually recommend getting a few more crabs or snails as they’ll help keep the Gorgonian clean so that it can regrow. Once the gorgonin (that’s what the skeleton is called) is exposed it’s very hard to get algae off. Algae can be manually removed with a brand new soft toothbrush. But I prefer getting snails or crabs to do it just because they do a better job. If you have a sump or AIO I suggest running a light 24/7 in a refugium compartment to centralize algae growth there and away from your gorgonians. Good luck and keep us updated!

Ok thankyou