Creepy Bugs 2

Ok now the gorgonian's polyps are out but its shedding purple stuff and i know they can be toxic when they die but idk whats happeneing. it did this once before but cleared up in a day or 2 in a QT but i dont have one available at the moment. I used a little eyedropper and gently blew water at it to get the stuff that it was shedding off and it seemed to perk up after i did that. But im wondering if i could do the same thing in my main tank and if the stuff its shedding would be harmful to have laying around. Anyone have this happen before? I dont know if its due to the bugs or what

If polyps are lacerated or squished, they will often release poison. Is the tank in awesome condition? They could be spawning. Or, they could be attacking the infestion, perhaps? I know, that if i press to hard on my encrusting coral when I pick it up, it will ooze a menacing liquid. But the polyps seem fine later.

-Lynden

Gorgonians are very susceptible to getting Algae or cyanoe growing on them. People often mistake this for layers of skin or flesh. It might just be a layer of algae/cyano that you have removed and thus the polyps are free to open now. I used to gently brush my red gorgonian every week to keep it clean.

Well, i dont think its algae because besides the fact that it has a powerhead devoted to just it, the stuff coming off was the same dark purple as the gorgonian. Now it is a little less dark purple and looks more like ones ive seen pictures of than what it used to, a very dark purple like maybe it has shed off its outer layer. This happened once before and it was after it had been bumped around quite a bit trying to get it out of a rock at the lfs before i decided to just buy the $80 rock. I thought it was dying because of stress, so i moved it to a QT, used an eyedropper to push the water at it and get the stuff off, which it seemed to like. I also fed it twice a day. I just dont know if that stuff is poisonous because there is now a little of it in my main tank and i dont know if my crabs should be eating it.

My purple gorg, now dead, used to slough a purple layer periodically and somewhere I read that this his normal. I have never read that they are toxic when they die....any links to this comment? SH

are its polyps white?

I dont know where i read that gorgs are poisonous but i told the fish store that and they said that thats what they had been informed as well, but they had lost a few of the less hardy gorgonians and said that they never had problems with losing any other corals to the apparent poison. I was wondering if maybe they just shedded periodically or something, do you know where you read that SH? I would enjoy a nice article about them.

The polyps are white, not snow white but pretty white.{if that makes a difference}

If they are white then the gorgonian is not one that requires light to survive. White polyped gorgonians get all the nutrition from the food they catch in the water. This means they are incredibly hard to keep for long periods of time due to tier voracious appetite. I would feed the gorgonian on a daily basis and monitor its progress.
I had one of these and it surived for aout 12 months but alas i simply could not keep up the feeding routine without upsetiing the water perameters.

They also require high flow but they dont like being placed directly in the path of powerheads (which is why tunze units are simply so amazing ) ) as the highly focused flow across it will stress out its polyps. Its better to place the coral out of the flow directly but somewhere where water will pass over it quickly, enough to make all its polyps sway should be enough.

Here is a photo of my old gorgonia.

Ok ill fix the way its set up with the powerhead. What are all the foods they will except? Just zooplankton, phytoplankton maybe? Thats all ive been feeding it. This is probably a dumb question but do they accept actual pieces of food my fish would eat? Ive heard baby brine shrimp but I dont know where to get any. Would it be live or packaged most likely?

Phytoplankton is relatively useless for feeding corals as 99% are carnivorous and pyhtoplankton is an algae based food. However, it will feed any natural zoon plannkton in the water and this will benefit the tank as a whole. Zooplankton is better for corals, marine snow and microplex. This should help all corals in the tank. If the bits of food you have for the fish is small enough to become trapped in the polyps then its possible it will be eaten.

Ok thats y ive heard about baby brine shrimp.