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FAQs about Sea Fan Compatibility
Related Articles: Sea Fans,
Related FAQs: Sea Fans 1, Sea
Fans 2, Sea Fan Identification,
Sea Fan Behavior, Sea Fan Selection,
Sea Fan Systems, Sea Fan Feeding,
Sea Fan Disease, Sea Fan
Reproduction, | 
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Ophiuroids/Brittlestars? | No problema |
James Briareum, contr. 2/29/08
Bob,
<James>
Wanted to
send you a pic of this Briareum I've had for a little over a year.
It was about the size of a golf ball when purchased, now it spans
about 10" across. Compare to Watchman Goby at very bottom. It is now
spreading to other rock and I believe in time may very well take
over the center area of the tank. Would you keep it as a show piece
or get the scissors out?
<Both... I'd sell part... keep the other
isolated where you want it to be, spacing other rock out of its
short/er term reach. BobF>
Regards,
James | 
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Menella Sea Fan with Ophiuroid/s... no prob. 5/8/07
Hi
<Hello Mich with you.>
I have brought a Menella sea fan
gorgonian, I have had it a few days, when I looked at it last night I
noticed about seven tiny black and white bristle <brittle> stars on it,
will these harm the fan as it is not opening today,
<No, the brittle
stars should not bother the gorgonian.>
I have looked on your site
but found nothing about this. Should I leave them on it
<Yes.>
or try and get them off
<No.>
as they are very tiny.
<Gorgonians and brittle stars are often found in association in the
wild. It is not an unnatural situation. Please allow the brittle stars
to remain. -Mich>
Help with Gorgonian and anemone
3/29/07
Hello,
<Hi there>
It was suggested I contact
"Fenner or Borneman"
<Mmmm, EricB is elsewhere>
In reference to
what seems to be an anemone that came with a "blueberry" gorgonian that
I got. The gorgonian has changed colors and I thought it was dead, but
it appears to be growing at the tips, so I don't know if it is dead or
some dormant state or shed its tissue or what.
<Mmm, these and many
other octocorals can/do change color from lighting, feeding, water
quality circumstances...>
The other question is did the anemone
injure or kill the gorgonian?
<Maybe>
I'm told it is a wrapping
gorgonian anemone. Here is the thread where there has been some
discussion:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=
<http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1082557>
&threadid=1082557
Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick
<Please read here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/index.htm
Scroll down to
the tray on Anemones, the articles and FAQs toward the bottom there on
Aiptasia, Anemonia, Other Pest Anemones. Bob Fenner> Emp. Angel
not eating -dying fish from a fan?- - 5/7/2006
Hello,
<Mike>
First I admittedly made a terrible mistake in
collecting from my local beach (San Diego) a small gorgonian fan and
added it to my established
(2yrs) fish only tank with the following:
125 Gallons with Live Rock and Live Sand.
1) Russell's Lion (8in)
1) Clown Trigger (6in)
1) Fiji Puffer (3in)
1) Cow Fish (5in)
1) Zebra Moray (20 in)
1) Yellow Tang (deceased)
1) Christmas
Tree Wrasse (deceased)
<Too many fish for this system>
1 month
after introducing the fan to my tank the yellow tang went on a hunger
strike and passed away. Shortly after, I acquired a 4 inch Emperor
Angel. 3 Weeks ago the wrasse also would not eat and passed away last
week. While the other fish still appear to have appetites, the Angel
has now stopped eating.
<I do NOT believe this is from the fan you
added to the tank, while it may have had contaminants and or pollutants
on it, Your stocking list of fish seems to be the culprit here. You
have one of the most nasty tempered triggers maybe even the nastiest
fish period (the clown trigger) in with a cowfish, one of the few fish
in the world that not only carries tetrodotoxin (the most potent toxin
on the planet) but the cowfish can release that poison as a deterrent to
predators or due to stress. In a home system such as yours, it can kill
everything.>
Could the fan, now back in the Pacific, have been the
culprit? Bacteria, internal parasites? The angel has gone a little over
a week without
eating. He still appears to be active, color is
good, no noticeable rubbing on the sand or rocks, no visible signs of
disease (As with the
tang and wrasse). I have tried Angel formula 1
and 2, frozen krill, flakes and brown algae.
<My hunch is that the
clown trigger is either harassing the angel, or harassing the cowfish
and has made the cowfish release enough poison to seriously injure the
other fish. I would pull the clown trigger immediately and re-home it
to another tank, and do the same with the cowfish. If you do not want
to re-home them, setup a tank for the clown trigger by itself, and one
for the cowfish by itself as well. If you decide not to move the
cowfish, you will still need a 240 gallon or bigger tank to handle the
puffer (gets 12-15") the lionfish (18"+ without fins and is very
venomous) the 15+" angel and the 8-10" cowfish. The clown trigger will
hit 2 -15" or more as well and will become a holy terror to tankmates as
it ages.>
My water parameters are .22 SPG, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0,
Nitrates b/n 20 - 40 ppm. I maintain a strict regiment in conducting
12% water changes
every other week. Is there anything that I can do
to help this little guy? I started with a 30% water change yesterday
and gave the angel a fresh water dip for 4 min.s. Please advise.
<Try setting up another tank for the angel to live stress free for now,
and remove the aggressors as above to ensure it is not harassed.>
Thank you,
Mike Ferrante
<Please re-home and remove fish, as
this mix will result in death for more if not all of your fish.>
<Justin (Jager)> Seahorse Compatibility
Hello
I've
got 90g cube tank, and I want to put in only seahorses and gorgonians.
Will they live together?
Best regards, Darek
<Well, Darek- it is
certainly possible to put these animals together. The seahorses will
probably hitch on to the gorgonians at some point, which may irritate
them, so do keep an eye on things. I'd also make sure that the
gorgonians that you are contemplating keeping are species with a good
track record in captivity. Good luck! Regards, Scott F.>
Gorgonian in aquaria - 2/10/05
Greetings Bob & Crew!
<Greetings from sunny N. Cali>
I have a question on coral
compatibility.....rather is a coral compatible with my system.
<OK>
My girlfriend bought me a coral for my birthday. Luckily she had it held
at the LFS until I am able to get the QT tank setup.
<Well.....encouraging to hear>
Anyway, she bought me a yellow Finger
Gorgonian (Diodogorgia nodulifera??). I have a 55-gal reef that is
thriving. It has a large space near the back with no corals, inverts, or
anything staking out territory (except for my yellowtail damsel who
thinks she owns the tank). It is a relatively high current area, which
is why no corals are there. All other areas are occupied by corals or my
anemone (hasn't moved in a year) so this location would be good from the
standpoint of not coming near any other corals.
<Well, let's look at
the needs of the coral first The finger coral comes in two colors,
bright orange yellow with red calyces and white polyps and the other is
red with darker red calyces and white polyps. Finger corals are rather
brittle and will break. They usually only grow to about 25 cm (10
inches). They are not photosynthetic.>
Lighting - Water flow:
These corals are usually found in water deeper than 25 meters (75 feet)
on hard-bottom in the Caribbean. They are attached to the bottom in
strong current.
Difficulty of Care:
They need shade or
indirect lighting with a strong current. They need to be fed at least
once a week or they will starve. There is a lot of information on this
coral on the web and in books. Usually can be kept successfully in
captive aquaria.>
My concern is lighting. This area is almost
directly under one of my 175w, 20,000K MH pendants. From what I have
researched, these corals are not photosynthetic.
<Correct>
I
have read conflicting info regarding where they can live. Some say
intense lighting is of no concern, others say that they cannot live
under MH.
<I would be more worried about feeding and flow. Do some
research (GARF.org seems to propagate these corals regularly and seem to
have great success with keeping them>
I do have one other area that
could fit this coral (with room to grow) in a back corner. The problem
is that this spot has a relatively low current flow. <Be more concerned
with flow and feeding rather than lighting. Maybe you can place
something above it to diffuse the light. Maybe a green Nephthea frag or
something.>
Can I house this coral in my system?
<I don't see why
you couldn't. Flow and feeding are the most important aspects to be
concerned with (which I have stated several times here already....I
know)>
Do you have any advice on doing so/not doing so?
<I would
go for it>
Sorry, I guess this was not as quick of a question as I
thought. Thanks for your help.
<Thanks for being part of it all
~Paul>
Briareum
Robert,
I acquired a piece of Briareum several
months ago, the piece same to be doing fine. Then suddenly a brown
dandelion looking creature started taking over. If I pull it off the
rocks it will die back temporally. I can not identify the brown
stuff nor can any of the local shops. The water chemistry is OK, I
use only RO-DI water in my tanks. I am sending a jpeg photo in hopes
that you can identify this monster and tell me what action to take,
to fight it.
With Best Regards,
Shawn McCleery
<Neat...
this looks to be another encrusting gorgonian (Scleraxonia,
Antholedidae...) of the genus Erythropodium (you can find pix of
this on the Net, in marine aquarium reference books, even (why not?)
on WWM: http://www.WetWebMedia.com/seafans.htm
Control,
eradication? Mmm, you might try manipulating your lighting, aspects
of water quality to see if you can favor the Briareum, other life
over the deemed-pest form. Bob Fenner> |
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Beautiful but Bad Gorgonian
Bob,
<Anthony Calfo in your
service>
Thank you so much for your help in the past.
<you are
certainly welcome to all>
I have recently added a yellow finger
gorgonian (Diodogorgia) to my reef. I must say that it is a very
beautiful specimen.
<agreed, but I'm truly sorry that someone sold
it to you, most likely. They are extremely difficult to keep.
Aposymbiotic (non-photosynthetic)... they are entirely dependent on
feeding. It is not clear what they eat to survive and near 100% are dead
within a year if not months... some struggle to live more than one year
before "starving" to death. I have some good experience with reef
invertebrate husbandry and have written a book on coral in aquaria...
and I consider this animal out of my skill set (or interest for the
tedious work trying to feed it). If you aren't already informed on the
topic... begin doing research on phytoplankton reactors for generating
food or buying a phytoplankton substitute (like DT's refrigerated)>
However, ever since I have added it to my reef, my purple tang keeps
nipping at it as if there is some sort of algae on it. There doesn’t
seem to be any. My flame angel is also doing the same thing. These two
fish, which seem to be best friends since I added them at the same time,
have never nipped at corals before. The gorgonian seems to be doing fine
though. Is this something I should be worried about?
<the gorgonian
is safe in this regard... most are highly noxious and inedible to
fish... the fish may simply be browsing for incidental material... or,
if the animal is already beginning to die, they are scavenging. My
apologies, Anthony>
Regards, Keith HELP! Invasive
Coral!
I have what a local store calls "encrusting gorgonian" It
is a pink hairy coral that is taking over my tank! (220 gallon reef).
<yes... Erythropodium sp. Very invasive and beautiful.>
When it get
near my beautiful green star polyps...it takes them over.
<wow... and
Starpolyps are quite aggressive in their own right!>
Suggestions? It
is pretty....but aggressive!
<indeed... in this case, there are no
natural predators that would be safe with your other invertebrates.
Manual extraction by pulling up the stolon mat may be necessary. Else,
keep look rock/rubble at its growing edge and pull away the overgrowth
as necessary>
Thanks, Ron
<best regards, my friend. Anthony>
10 year old Gorgonian... battle with Colt coral
I jinxed it, no
doubt, because now, it has mostly pulled its polyps in, and all I have
is the bare gorgonian branches.
<bare as in denuded of tissue
(rotted away)? Or are you simply referring to the lack of polyp
extension (no biggie here)?>
Other than being bare, the branches look
fine. The other inverts (Tridacna, star polyp, colt coral, shrimp,
brittle star) look fantastic. The water parameters are still great.
However, the gorgonian had been in contact with a colt coral.
<Yikes!!!! Very bad for the gorgonian... Colts are wicked. Will take
some time to recover. Keep up good water changes and strong water flow.
>
Although I can see where that might have caused problems, I am
surprised at the timing, because the two had been touching for several
months, with no apparent effect to either one.
<you are completely
mistaken here my friend... it is precisely the prolonged exposure that
creates a situation like this. Keep in mind that corals must war
chemically and silently. They have no teeth or claws, can't throw a
punch, etc. They just shed noxious chemicals over time to slowly poison
each other (and themselves in some cases)>
I did a water change,
carefully removed the colt's
rock from the tank and equally carefully
removed the coral from the rock and donated it the colt to my LFS.
<actually a fine idea. Colts are beautiful... but they are one of the
most severely noxious corals for aquaria!>
That was yesterday. The
gorgonian tried to send a few polyps out, but overall a fairly
substandard performance.
<no worries... all in good time. Weeks
perhaps>
I seem to remember something like this a few years ago with
it -- I thought at that time it may have "shed" like the colt coral does
from time to time.
<you are correct my friend... a waxy tunic of
metabolites>
Also, where one branch has grown against the front
glass, the polyps don't come out and that small piece of branch looks a
little "smushed"
<yes... it has formed a callus likely>
On the
chance that this area needs some water circulation I am going to rig a
way to keep it from touching the side. Any ideas/advice?
<I'd simply
propagate/prune the branch shorter>
thanks for your help, and happy
holidays to all! Tom
<and to you as well, my friend. Anthony>
Devil's Hand and Sea fan: Cnidarian contact 5/30/03
Howdy!
<Howdy back atcha, Cathy!>
A quick question - can a Devil's hand and
a Sea Fan be close to each other?
<alas no... no stinging animals
(cnidarians- corals, anemones, gorgonians, etc) can touch at all. And
most cannot be allowed to stay within close range (less than 10 inches)
without responding to allelopathy in Tim>
Right now, about 3" away,
but if they grow, they may even touch.
<they are too close even
now... the leather in this case will likely kill the gorgonian after
some months or a year or two>
I can move the Devil's hand, but it is
in a great spot, as is the sea fan, where the circulation is best for
both.
<alas... it is the difficulty in our home aquariums (space).
The leather grows so fast and large in the 3 year picture, that it gets
my vote to be moved>
Thanks!-Cathy in Texas <><
<ciao, babe :)
Antoine>
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